Optane Memory M10 16 GB PCIe M.2 80mm

Installed this Intel Optane 16GB module back in 2020, and it completely transformed my PC’s performance. Super-fast boot times, quick file access, and still running flawlessly years later. One of the best upgrades I’ve ever made!

I recently built a new computer for my nephew to run his virtual reality games. I had heard of Optane on the tech channels but never used it. The product acts as a fast, low-latency caching drive that uses a combination of hardware and software to intelligently cache frequently accessed data. In essence, it allows you to run a (much) cheaper HDD but get storage speeds comparable to an SSD. The advantages are 1. price, since Optane + a 1TB HDD is still considerably cheaper than a 1TB SSD, and 2. storage density, since HDD come in sizes way larger than SSD. There are serious limitations you should understand going in. First, it won't work great in all cases, such as when you are working with very large files. Second, you need to match the Optane product to a newer Intel chipset motherboard specifically designed to use Optane. And third, you can only use Optane with your primary HDD; it won't work with drive arrays that I'm aware of. Still, installation wasn't too involved and on the computer I built it reduced boot times to something like 4 seconds; not bad at all in my book. If you are looking to build a basic-ish computer and want a decent amount of storage but have a limited budget, I would seriously consider Optane.

I'm using a pair of these small but fast SSDs as cache drives for my Synology NAS. The Synology OS uses one for write caching and one for read caching. This makes transferring lots of small files much faster than before. While these drives are not on Synology's official compatibility list, I've heard from other Synology users who have also had success with these drives. At their current price, it is worth it! Edit: Upon update to the latest Synology software, one of the cache drives was either unsupported or died. This caused a major issue that required a complete reinstall of the Synology software on my NAS. Fortunately, this did not lose any of my data but did require that I re-install all my packages and re-configure everything. It could have been worse.

Works

I have a 512GB M.2 SSD as my primary drive and a 4TB HDD where I store all my games. I purchased this 16GB Intel Optante cache drive without having any expectations. At the current price (around $30), it was almost an impulse buy. Since I got this drive for gaming I thought 16GB wouldn't be enough to make a noticeable difference, but boy was I wrong. The speed improvement really cannot be overstated. All of my games load much quicker, especially when you die and reload or play the same game over and over. It's much faster than my SSD in fact. In one game in particular (Rising Storm 2), I loaded into the training area, went back to the menus to tweak some settings, and when I went back into the training map, it was nearly instant - I mean like 1 - 2 seconds loading time. Without the cache drive it took 10 - 20 seconds minimum. This is an amazing technology, I'm very pleased with my purchase, of you play games off of a mechanical hard drive, I'd consider this a necessity. The 16GB Intel Optante drive made a huge difference in loading times for me.

I should have done my homework: the Optane Memory is mainly used to accelerate your HDD and make it almost as fast as a SSD. The problem is that my primary drive is already a SSD and I was thinking that I could accelerate my HDD as a secondary drive. No, you can't do this! The Optane Memory Module, on top of all technical requirements (Windows 10 + Optane Ready MOBO + 7th generation 64 bits Processors) also requires that the drive to be accelerated has to be the primary drive in which the Windows is installed. Fine, my fault here, I should have done my homework in reading carefully Intel page about the Optane Memory Module (go to the FAQ). Although it can accelerate a SSD the gain is not high enough to justify its price. If I knew that already, I would have chosen to buy a bigger SSD rather then spend money on the Optane. Nevertheless, despite all the frustration (once again, I think that was 80% my fault), what really makes this a three star review is the installation process: while reading Intel's website and watching their tutorials makes you think it's a "plug & play" process, it is not! Already have your Windows up and running? 99% chance that you'll need to format your PC, so be prepare to back up everything you have. There are several guidelines that you need to follow: your disk should be formates as GPT (MBR is not allowed), you need to have at least 5MB of non-allocated memory in your disk as part of the installation. Oh, and your BIOS should probably be updated and customised with a few tweaks to properly access the Optane Module. And how do you know that? Google + Youtube (users video, the Intel one doesn't give you much information). On top of all that you will need a lot, really, a lot, seriously, a looooot of patience. Bottom of line: seems that Intel came up with a good idea for on budget people who doesn't want to spend a lot of money in bigger SSDs, but rather accelerate their HDD. That's awesome, but still, the lack of clear information of how the memory can be used (go to the FAQ before buying it) and also the misleading "simple installation" idea are frustrating. Once you get pass this obstacles, the equipment does what it should do: accelerate you HDD or your SSD (barely perceptible for the last one).

Best from the rest I paired it with my 250 Samsung evo and believe me my PC is flying. Super fast boot and usage very easy to setup and use. And it was delivered within 2 weeks form the US. Thanks Amazon and Intel

Excelente produto qualidade Intel. Não consegui configurar tive de levar em uma assistência! Mas ficou melhor , mais rápido apesar de que já tenho SSD INSTALADO. RECOMENDO.

Fiquei muito satisfeito com o desempenho do computador após colocar esse módulo Optane. Meio chato de configurar mas ficou excelente.

Intel Optane made my PC lightning fast. I have Windows 10 (64 bit) installed on an SSHD hybrid drive. Because the hybrid drives are faster than ordinary hard drives I didn't expect much improvement with Optane. However, I am truly surprised at how fast Windows 10 now boots, it's almost instant. Also other startup programs now load at boot time almost instantly too. Only down side was that I had a dual boot system with Ubuntu on a second hard drive. After installing Optane, Ubuntu disappeared. To be fair Intel do warn about adverse side effects of installing Optane on a dual boot system. Apart from the dual boot OS factor, Optane is a real performance boost for the whole system, and a lot cheaper than buying an SSD. It's easy to install the Optane card too. Intel have anOptane card video install how-to on their site, which I found the easiest to follow (much easier than wading through the pdf written install how-to). Just make sure your PC meets all the minimum requirements for Optane (also listed on Intel's site), and follow the instructions to the letter. Remember to backup any data on any additional OS you have installed (in a dual boot system) before installing Optane.

Je ne regrette pas de l'avoir acheté (32 euro) en reconditionner à l'époque couplé avec un 2 TO, la vitesse est impressionnante. J'ai mis mes jeux dessus, c'est bête que cette technologie a été abandonné, si vous avez de la chance essayé d'en trouver un à pas cher.