Intel optane review in Spanish (full analysis)

Intel Optane is the brand name for the new 3D Xpoint memory technology created by Intel with the intention of rendering obsolete the NAND used in current SSDs . Optane promises to achieve runes much higher speeds and much lower latencies compared to NAND. Its first commercial version is the Intel Optane 32 GB, which, as its name indicates, offers us 32 GB of this type of memory to work as a cache and greatly accelerate the speed of the system.

Intel Optane technical characteristics

Unboxing and design

Intel Optane 32 GB comes to us inside a box in which a plastic blister is hidden, something very similar to what we see in M.2 SSDs or RAM memory modules for example. Once we open the package we find:

Intel Optane 32 GB Documentation

Intel Optane 32 GB is presented with a very similar aspect to that of SSDs based on the M.2 interface, in fact it could go through one of these without problems, the difference lies in the use of 3D Xpoint memory, a type of Non-volatile memory that promises to close the gap between RAM and storage since its high speed and low latency make it work both as storage and as RAM, although for the latter we will still have to wait a long time.

The Intel Optane 32 GB works as a high speed cache to speed up our system. In fact when we put one of these Optane modules on our PC it appears as a single storage unit next to the disk that contains the system. As if that were not enough, Optane also has the advantage of being much more durable than NAND memory, making it more suitable for environments where write intensive use is made.

The biggest advantage of Optane is that it has a random reading speed and much better latencies than in the case of NAND, this makes it much faster when handling a large number of very small files. In changes the sequential read and write speeds do not differ much from the current NVMe SSDs that are even higher. On paper, Optane can be 1, 000 times faster than NAND, although the bus will be a major limiting factor, so we are not going to see such large numbers.

Intel Optane 32 GB uses an M.2 form factor and works through the PCI Express interface like NVMe drives, we highlight that this technology is only compatible with the current Intel 200 platform and Kaby Lake, so if you have a processor From previous generations, even Skylake, you can already forget about Optane unless you upgrade. The reason for this reduced compatibility is that many resources would have had to be invested to validate Optane on previous platforms such as Intel 100 and Skylake.

Optane's main drawback today is that its price is almost prohibitive, while NAND-based SSDs are priced at approximately 30 cents per GB, in the case of Optane this rises to $ 2.75 per GB. This makes it currently only offered in 16GB and 32GB versions, the latter costing roughly the same as a 240GB SSD.

Test and Performance Team (Benchmark)

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i5-7500
Base plate:	Asus Z270 TUF Mark II
Memory:	32GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance LED.
Heatsink	Serie.
HDD	Intel Optane 32GB
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB.
Power supply	Corsair AX860i.

For testing we will use the native controller of the Z270 chipset on a high-performance motherboard: Asus Z270 TUF Mark II. Our tests will be performed with the following performance software.

Crystal Disk Mark. AS SSD Benchmark. Atto Benchmark. Anvil´s Storage.

Final words and conclusion about Intel Optane

We find in the Intel Optane they can be an interesting option for teams destined for the business world: database caching or teams that want to do a small update for the operating system and the occasional widely used application.

In our tests we passed the main benchmark tools for hard drives and SSDs. As we have seen the results that Intel promises us are totally true and performs very well.

We recommend our guide to the best SSDs of the moment.

If I have an SSD, am I interested in an Intel Optane? Well, it depends… If we do not value its market price, it seems like a good option, but we must have a motherboard with an M.2 slot for its installation and a mechanical disk as prior storage. Remember that the random access speeds are quite good and the writes are not destructive as they happen in the SSD.

Although personally with Windows 10 the 32 GB version falls short enough to install very few applications, I see much more sense with a Linux distribution.

Currently we can find in Spanish online stores for a price of 52 euros for the 16 GB model and 88 euros for the 32 GB model (the one analyzed). Cheap, normal or expensive price? For our taste it is somewhat high, considering that for 5 euros more we have a 240 GB SSD that is much more versatile in sequential reading and the ratio is 2 euros per GB. In the coming years, prices will drop, it will have more advances and we are sure that it will be an ideal option for the user.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ GOOD CHOICE OPTION.	- HIGH PRICE.
+ JUST WARM UP.	- YOU NEED A M.2 SLOT ON YOUR BASE PLATE TO BE ABLE TO MAKE IT WORK.
+ ALLOWS YOU TO UNITE THE OPTANE WITH YOUR HARD DISK VIA SOFTWARE.