Kaby Lake Pentiums and Celerons won't Support Optane Memory

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

Extremely [H]
Joined
Oct 29, 2000
Messages
38,819
Tech Report has an article up about an interesting aspect of the Optane launch that everyone seems to have missed last week. We have long heard that in order for Intel's Optane disk caching system to work, you need to be running a Kaby Lake CPU. Well, apparently not all Kaby Lake CPU's qualify. The cheapest CPU's in the Kaby Lake line won't get support.

This is particularly puzzling because Intel is targeting the tech at caching traditional spinning hard drives, which is a budget approach compared to the enthusiasts fast m.2/PCIe SSD's, yet the technology doesn't work with Intel's budget CPU's. The guys over at Tech Report do make a good point in this regard, but as always be wary of bias, as their ownership is very close to AMD.

We've gotta say: this is a baffling decision on Intel's part. Assuming ARK is correct, the cheapest CPU one can pair with an Optane Memory device is the Core i3-7100, a $120 part that's $28 more expensive than our budget-favorite Pentium G4620. The Core i3 adds 200 MHz of clock speed and AVX support to the bargain, to be fair. Even so, paying $65 or so in total to get that Core i3 CPU and the 16GB Optane Memory hardware itself seems like a hard sell for the frugal system builder who's already chosen a capacious hard drive.
 
:clown: This is getting a bit silly. So if I am following this correctly (and I probably am not...):

* No Z170 as previously shown/mentioned? (I might be wrong on this)
* Z270 only
* Windows 10 x64 only
* Kaby Lake only
* Non-Celeron/Pentium Kaby Lake only

Can Intel put any more restrictions on this? :confused:

Sorry if I am off/wrong on any of that, please feel free to correct me.
 
It seems more and more transparent that this is a "value-add" to push adoption on their new CPUs. While they can do whatever they want with their new technology, I think they're misreading the market. Competing technology in the space has already been announced, and it's going to be a hard sell to many enthusiasts to get on board with their current strategy. It's still an interesting product for the Enterprise scene, but that's a completely different set of purchasing criterion.
 
I half expected that Pentiums and Celerons are going to get corners cut somewhere. The new pentiums in Kaby Lake are too groundbreaking in value to NOT have any drawbacks.

Maybe 4k DRM would be next.
 
What will be the sales pitch?

Got a PC with a fast, current gen processor?
Want to make it faster...ish?

They need to think outside the box now and engineer something big for a change. A large enough carpet to sweep this whole thing under it.
 
Stupid Intel and their over-predilection to blowing fuses, for no good reason.
 
So let me get this straight. The only CPUs that going to support this are the ones that would benefit the least from it, and who probably already have enough RAM / high speed SSD capacity to don't need it at all?
 
ir0nw0lf said:
:clown: This is getting a bit silly. So if I am following this correctly (and I probably am not...):

* No Z170 as previously shown/mentioned? (I might be wrong on this)
* Z270 only
* Windows 10 x64 only
* Kaby Lake only
* Non-Celeron/Pentium Kaby Lake only

Can Intel put any more restrictions on this? :confused:

Sorry if I am off/wrong on any of that, please feel free to correct me.
Click to expand...

Nope, you are correct, this is how Intel rolls when they dont have competition.

Luckily, Ryzen will just keep getting better.
 
dook43 said:
Would love to see certain posters come in here and try to defend this.
Click to expand...
Me too. Seems like it might give equivalent performance over more expensive solutions. I just haven't seen this demonstrated yet. Will be interesting if someone can show this.
 
(Intel must think) We must be too stupid to remember that Intel already gave SSD + HDD caching on the Z68 chipset (there is a reason many forgot about it, because it went nowhere). This is nothing new but a marketing pitch to give the illusion that there is something to be "had" by buying the 270 chipset since it really offers nothing over the 170. (smoke and mirrors, bait and switch etc...)
 
Last edited:
ir0nw0lf said:
:clown: This is getting a bit silly. So if I am following this correctly (and I probably am not...):

* No Z170 as previously shown/mentioned? (I might be wrong on this)
* Z270 only
* Windows 10 x64 only
* Kaby Lake only
* Non-Celeron/Pentium Kaby Lake only

Can Intel put any more restrictions on this? :confused:

Sorry if I am off/wrong on any of that, please feel free to correct me.
Click to expand...

- And only works on Tuesdays and Thursdays
- In the mornings
- if the outside temperature is less than 70degF and 45% relative humidity
- you must be wearing a hat
- electricity must be at least 80% renewable
- home must be heated by natural gas
.....
 
We must be to stupid to remember that Intel already gave SSD + HDD caching on the Z68 chipset
Click to expand...

It is however a much better caching option. When Micron comes out with a PCIe version of this I am all over it. I expect to install it in a Ryzen board running linux providing cache for zfs.
 
Just buy the $65 Pentium, then spend the $60 you saved PLUS the $50 you would have spent on a 1GB hard drive on a 512GB SSD.
 
The more I read the more this feels like a product released for some press more then to make money.

This thing doesn't seem to have much practical use does it ? I could understand a product like this to bump up performance on a 2-3 year old Intel system.... but a product like this for a new top of the line Intel system ? Why in the hell would you not just buy proper fast SSDs ? :)

The only thing this release gets Intel is a few front page Intel stories instead of yet another AMD rumor that makes people think about waiting on that new Intel purchase.
 
Intels first consumer release of Optane seems like a giant waste. I just dont see people upgrading their systems to the latest tech and choosing to run cheap hard drive instead of a ssd.
 
This just reminds me of SSHDs and how they weren't really all that much compared to buying an SSD.

If they can't do better with Optane, I am officially disappointed in a huge way and will just stick with NVMe drives and their "limited" writes, which should be plenty until the drives are ancient.

I saw the Intel slides on how they expect to make more revenues off Optane than processors a few years out, that may come true -- but not they way they hope, more like because nobody wants either.

And when will W11 come out to get rid of that W10 interface trash? /rant
 
This just reminds me of SSHDs and how they weren't really all that much compared to buying an SSD.
Click to expand...

This time the cache drive won't be what is essentially equivalent to a 4 or 8GB USB stick flash device.
 
If only Optane was something the general consumer cared about.

All is well in the world?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Parja
like this
On SSHDs what they call a SSD is more of a USB stick than what I would call a real SSD. There is a single flash chip instead of 8+ (in RAID0) that would go in a SSD.
 
My Samsung 840 EVO is plenty fast for me!

upload_2017-4-1_10-27-52.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top