Intel Launches Optane 800P SSDs for Consumers

if yous desire a fast PC in 2022, then an SSD is essential as your boot bulldoze while hard drives notwithstanding have their identify in a system, offering terabytes of cheap storage. Merely there is a third option you'd be forgiven for forgetting about. It'southward called Intel Optane Memory, was developed by Intel and Micron, and at present it'south being targeted at "mainstream consumers."

Optane is Intel'due south brand name for the not-volatile memory known equally 3D XPoint (Micron brands it QuantX). Optane sits somewhere in-between your standard SSD and RAM in terms of operation. Information technology's finer a faster SSD, which makes information technology highly desirable to have as a boot drive. The problem is, it's really expensive, or at least was at launch which meant Intel only offered 16GB ($36) and 32GB ($60) Grand.2 Optane drives for utilize every bit "system accelerators." That changed this calendar week, though.

Intel launched ii Optane SSD 800P drives, which are aimed squarely at consumers. Storage is still limited to either 58GB or 118GB, only these M.2 SSDs offer read speeds of upward to 1,450MB/s and write speeds of 640MB/s. Read latency is just 7 microseconds, and write latency 18 microseconds.

Intel says the 800P drives are ideal as a standalone SSD (if you can cope with the storage limit), in a dual drive setup, or as part of a RAID configuration. Laptops are likewise a key target for Intel, with the 800P supporting low power states to aid battery life without sacrificing speed.

The 58GB 800P costs $129, where as the larger 118GB version is $199. For me, that still classes them as enthusiast drives, especially when you consider a 250GB Samsung 960 EVO SSD costs just $120 and the 500GB version if $236. Intel is clearly sticking with Optane, though, and we should expect the storage size to keep increasing and the price falling. Hopefully, like concluding year, Intel will opt to add these Optane drives to new versions of the NUC.