I have read up on this Intel Optane memory thing. I have a few options for a few decent computers I have found but they have this new Optane memory. I have read that this isn't good on a SSD. I also read you can turn it off with software named Intel management software. Is this true? Say I get this machine and later want an SSD in it...Can I just shut off the octane in that application? I won't buy a machine if I can't later upgrade it to a SSD. Thanks for any input.
I have an Acer Swift notebook that has a combo of a 1TB HDD and Intel Optane memory in M.2 format The two combine to give a 1TB storage device that behaves as fast as an SSD but at significantly less cost You are correct you cannot combine the Optane and an SSD but in my case I can replace the M.2 Optane with an SSD in the same format
But I believe you can turn it off 2 ways....either in BIOS or using 2 different software programs..Intel Management and Intel Optane programs. From what I'm reading You use either method to turn off the Optane then you can put in a SSD keeping the Optane disabled. Just want to see if I was reading this correctly.
Yes I do have the option to disable the Optane module either from the Bios or from Intel Rapid Storage Manager - but I have not tested this i.e. I have not done this and then replaced the hdd with an sdd
What are the specs of this note book? Is the Intel Optane soldered on the board or is it on an M.2 slot? If you have it in an M.2 slot you can probably just remove it and install an M.2 SSD drive in it's place. Possibly an NVMe drive, but after checking some generic Acer Swift specs it does not look promising to use an NVMe drive.
I was a little skeptical with optane. Originally I believed it would behave like a hdd with ssd cache (hybrid). With that in mind I would think you'd be better off having your OS on a M.2 NVMe drive & hdd as storage. Wow I was wrong. Optane+HDD was faster than an NVMe drive in all the tests I tried. With the newer UEFI & drivers you can also setup NVMe with OS and set Optane+HDD as a Data drive - AWESOME!