SSD or Intel OPTANE

[Alexandre6463]

Hi, 

I'm looking to upgrade my pc, I have one 256gb SSD(windows on it) and one 2 TB HDD. My P3dv4.2 is on the HDD so I want him to load faster and I'm considering buying a 500gb SSD OR Intel optane 32gb with my current 2 tb HHD. I don't know which option is the best if someone can give any advice on this it will be appreciated.

I know that I won't get any better fps but it will load faster and this what I'm looking for. 

My specs

MSI infinite A pre build pc ,I7 7700, 16gb DDR4, GTX 1080 (  Fyi my motherboard is optane ready)

Thanks

[willy647]

I upgraded recently but found the optane option just way too expensive. I went for the Samsung 960 EVO M.2, with PCIe protocol.  These drives are 6 times faster as an ordinary SSD and affordable. You will need an M.2 slot on your motherboard, but all recent boards should have them.

[pmb]

1 hour ago, willy647 said:

 You will need an M.2 slot on your motherboard, but all recent boards should have them.

Indeed. However, mine has only one, which I use for the system M.2-SSD booting the machine lightning quick indeed. At some point I would like to exchange one of my flightsim SSDs by a larger M.2, too.  Is there any option for doing so? (I guess not, but who knows.)

Kind regards, Michael

[swiesma]

The P3D loading times are almost identical when comparing SATA SSD and M.2 SSD.

At least for me this was the case :-)

[vortex681]

11 hours ago, Alexandre6463 said:

My P3dv4.2 is on the HDD so I want him to load faster and I'm considering buying a 500gb SSD OR Intel optane 32gb with my current 2 tb HHD.

Note that (unless things have changed recently) Optane is only supported on Windows 10 64-bit, only with Intel seventh-generation processors and higher and ONLY for the primary/boot volume. It will do nothing for your secondary HDD. See https://www.anandtech.com/show/11227/intel-launches-optane-memory-m2-cache-ssds-for-client-market

[Alexandre6463]

7 hours ago, willy647 said:

I upgraded recently but found the optane option just way too expensive. I went for the Samsung 960 EVO M.2, with PCIe protocol.  These drives are 6 times faster as an ordinary SSD and affordable. You will need an M.2 slot on your motherboard, but all recent boards should have them.

I know about the M.2 but after reading and research the problem with them is the overheat .

 

2 hours ago, vortex681 said:

Note that (unless things have changed recently) Optane is only supported on Windows 10 64-bit, only with Intel seventh-generation processors and higher and ONLY for the primary/boot volume. It will do nothing for your secondary HDD. See https://www.anandtech.com/show/11227/intel-launches-optane-memory-m2-cache-ssds-for-client-market

I didn't know about that I thought that we were able to select the secondary HDD instead. 

[swiesma]

My M.2 never overheated in the last 2 years :-)

[willy647]

6 hours ago, pmb said:

Indeed. However, mine has only one, which I use for the system M.2-SSD booting the machine lightning quick indeed. At some point I would like to exchange one of my flightsim SSDs by a larger M.2, too.  Is there any option for doing so? (I guess not, but who knows.)

Kind regards, Michael

No slots available on the MB ? No problem, there are solutions available like this one

https://www.kingston.com/us/ssd/consumer/SKC1000

 

[pmb]

6 minutes ago, willy647 said:

No slots available on the MB ? No problem, there are solutions available like this one

https://www.kingston.com/us/ssd/consumer/SKC1000

Thanks, good to know.

And, btw., my M.2-SSD didn't overheat either so far (1.5 yrs).

Kind regards, Michael

[blaird22]

I'm not really sure how Optane memory will actually help a flight sim.  I don't think it helps rendering graphics or anything, and the sim doesn't use HDD much once it's loaded.  I just can't really see where the performance gain will be seen with a sim, since it essentially "stores" and combines memory types for faster access.  I don't think there are any bottlenecks with HDD/RAM access in any of the 64 bit sims.  It might be able to store scenery better so it generates quicker, but that would be the only advantage I can see (and even that is hypothetical)

I'd be curious to know if there are any actual advantage from someone in the know, but that's just my take from researching Optane some time ago for a non-sim related upgrade on my sim.  My takeaway was Optane was great for heavy multitasking, but not advantageous for gaming or simming in general.  I could be way off here, but would welcome correction if I am

[Alexandre6463]

1 hour ago, swiesma said:

My M.2 never overheated in the last 2 years :-)

Good to know I might give it a try then!

[willy647]

The Samsung drives come with "Samsung Magician" software to keep an eye on the drive status. Sofar I have not seen any warning re temperature.

Maybe the advantage for simming is not that great, but if you are in the market for an upgrade I think you should pass SSD drives and spent just a liitle more for M.2 technology. I also use photoshop and there I can see a real improvement in loading/saving large pictures.

 

[Alexandre6463]

Thanks for the advice and I'm only looking to my sim to load faster I know that i won't get any better FPS but can't be slower then my normal HDD I guess!!

[vortex681]

17 hours ago, willy647 said:

I think you should pass SSD drives and spent just a liitle more for M.2 technology. I also use photoshop and there I can see a real improvement in loading/saving large pictures.

It's worth noting that there are different types of M.2 SSDs and that the M.2 SATA drives have no performance advantage over standard SATA SSDs. NVMe PCIe M.2 SSDs provide by far the best performance but come with a correspondingly higher price tag. See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/hardware/209266-what-you-need-to-know-before-you-buy-an-ssd.html for more information.

[swiesma]

Exactly. I have a NVMe M.2 SSD, they are directly connected to the PCIe Lanes.

I have reading about 2.3 Gigabyte/s and writing around 1 Gb/s. And still, P3D does not really load faster than from the "normal" SATA SSD...

Yes, the NVMe ones are more expensive... But hey. I would go again for it when building a new machine.