ASUS 200-series Motherboards Receive BIOS Update for Intel Optane Support

[Raevenlord]

ASUS has released BIOS updates for its 200-series motherboards (for the Z270, H270, Q270 and B250 chipsets) that brings full official support and compatibility with Intel's Optane products, such as the recently-released cache SSD.

These first Optane drives use the M.2 form factor, and are designed to be used as ultra-fast caching drives for slower, HDD-class storage - a case of having your cake and eating it too, looking to ally the speed benefits of an SSD with the capacious storage space of traditional plater-based storage. Intel says an Optane-cached 1TB hard disk (at 7,200 rpm) will become twice as responsive when performing daily computing tasks or booting up, and can reduce the time it takes for a game to launch (or level to load) by around the 65% mark. A pure SSD solution will always be faster - and usually more predictable - than the Optane-cached HDD, but Intel's Optane solutions offer a tempting option in terms of a cost-effective speed boost (a 16GB module goes for around $44.)



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[EarthDog]

Thanks!

I will wait for the faster versions, however. Funny how all of these supported optane upon release and now a bios update supports it though.

 

[Hood]

Thanks!

I will wait for the faster versions, however. Funny how all of these supported optane upon release and now a bios update supports it though.

Yes, we knew Intel was just arbitrarily "requiring Kaby Lake and 200 series chipset", since the original demo was on a Z170 board. Bad move, Intel, alienating your loyal customers just to make a quick buck on "upgrades". Many of us will just wait for Crucial's version of xpoint, which I'm betting will work on any recent system (with a BIOS update).