Can Optane be used to accelerate non-OS HDD?

[ss88]

I've got a i7-8700 system with 250GB SSD (where OS and apps are installed) and 1TB HDD (for data storage). The motherboard has a NVME M.2 slot. I've got a 16GB Optane SSD. Wondering if the Optane stick can be used to cache/accelerate the HDD?

 

[RogueTrip]

Intel rst and optane will only accelerate a boot drive.

You can accelerate the hdd with a ssd or optane using primocache software as a L2 cache. They have a 30 day trial if you want to give it a shot.

I got 2x 16gb optane drives as spanned storage in windows as read L2 cache for my Samsung 970 evo+ 512gb os drive. Mostly just futzing around.

 

[ss88]

Intel rst and optane will only accelerate a boot drive.

Seems Intel RST has changed and now allows acceleration of a non-boot drive:

https://proclockers.com/intel-optane-memory-data-drive-acceleration-review/

Previously, users could only experience the responsiveness benefits of Intel® Optane™ memory with a boot, or primary, drive (the drive where the OS is installed). With a growing number of dual drive (SSD+HDD) configurations in the desktop market, Intel saw the opportunity to offer an additional benefit to users by developing a new feature, with Intel® Optane™ memory, that can increase performance and responsiveness for content stored on a secondary, SATA-based data drive. That is why we added “data drive acceleration” to the latest release of the Intel® Rapid Storage Driver (Intel® RST, version 16.0.2). Users with dual-drive configurations can now experience the performance and responsiveness benefits of Intel® Optane™ memory on their secondary, SATA-based data drive.

 

[daglesj]

The 32GB ones are pretty cheap now. I almost toyed with the idea of putting the 118GB on ein my new Framework laptop for giggles but in the end went with a 1TB WD PCI-e 4 drive.

 

[rhkcommander959]

I'll have to test this out now since my optane drive just sits there gathering dust

 

[westrock2000]

PrimoCache is incredible. Different types of caching mechanisms, and you can use nice big drives. A 500GB or 1TB is excellent with a big spinner.

 

[rhkcommander959]

PrimoCache is incredible. Different types of caching mechanisms, and you can use nice big drives. A 500GB or 1TB is excellent with a big spinner.

Just make sure you have a UPS! Does sound nice though

 

[daglesj]

I tried Primocache...really disappointing. Made next to no difference for me. Tried several setups.

 

[westrock2000]

I tried Primocache...really disappointing. Made next to no difference for me. Tried several setups.

You used it to cache a spinning drive?

The configuration can be a little confusing the first time around. With deferred write turned on, you should definitely see a difference though.

 

[daglesj]

You used it to cache a spinning drive?

The configuration can be a little confusing the first time around. With deferred write turned on, you should definitely see a difference though.

Yep tried a couple of Intel SSDs hooked to 2TB/4TB HDDs and after much messing around...no major benefit. Just put two large HDDs in RAID0 instead.

Maybe Primocache should just have a simple wizard for "Cache your SSD and HDD Steam drive together!" or similar.

 

[ss88]

I tried Primocache...really disappointing. Made next to no difference for me. Tried several setups.

You used it to cache a spinning drive?

The configuration can be a little confusing the first time around. With deferred write turned on, you should definitely see a difference though.

Can Intel RST be used for this? Per post #3, Intel RST has been changed to be able to use optane with a secondary/non-OS HDD.

 

[westrock2000]

Can Intel RST be used for this? Per post #3, Intel RST has been changed to be able to use optane with a secondary/non-OS HDD.

It does appear based on those tests that Intel RST does provide deferred write caching, meaning it writes to the Optane first and then offloads to the HDD later. That has usually been the missing factor with cache systems (like the hard drives that had 8GB of NAND onboard). They only cached "reading" from the HDD. Primocache allows write caching, and was one of the big performance differences. Primocache still has some advantage in that it's not tied to any hardware and you can cache any drive with any other drive, you can even use system memory if you have enough to spare (like if you had 32GB+ and didn't mind sparing several GB for drive caching). But the more practical usage is using something like a 250GB+ SSD which gives lots and lots of caching space. Intel RST is nice because it's built right in and is simple to turn on. And while those Optane drives are small, they have usually been pretty cheap.