Samsung 860 Evo+Optane or 970 EVO PlUS NVMe + Optane or HDD + Optane

[MBang6]

I have a couple of questions regarding Intel Optane 32gb

• Is it Possible to accelerate a NVMe drive with Intel Optane? ( My NVMe drive is the 970 Evo Plus, which is the main OS). How much performance gain would it be? Would the optane serve as a cache drive?

• For my secondary drive: Is it better to use a SATA SSD (Samsung 860 evo)+ Optane or an HDD + Optane?.

For the Second Question, Intel Frequently Asked Questions Says this.

Will Intel® Optane™ memory also accelerate an SSD? If so how much?

Yes. You can get Intel® Optane™ memory to accelerate any type of SATA-based storage media, including SATA SSDs. However, performance benefits of adding Intel® Optane™ memory are greater on slower storage devices like an HDD, versus a faster storage device like a SATA-SSD.

However is it not better to accelerate a Sata SSD with an optane since SSDs cause less noise and are more reliable in the long run?

Thanks for the help, I know these are many questions.

[LeonWaksman · Accepted solution]

Hi @MBang6​ ,

1. You can't accelerate NVMe drive with Optane memory. Only SATA drives can be accelerated.
2. " For my secondary drive: Is it better to use a SATA SSD (Samsung 860 evo)+ Optane or an HDD + Optane?." If personally will not advice to use Optane to accelerate a secondary drive. The secondary drive, usually is used for data storage, where the speed is less important, however the reliability count more. In case that you are using Optane module and the Optan will fail, you will loose access to all your data. Nobody will like this. If money is not factor for you, use Samsung 860 evo ONLY. It is fast enough. If storage space is important for you and you want save money, use HDD (without Optane).

Leon