The machines are getting old, what should be done with the large amount of storage?

When it comes to mechanical hard drives, many gamers and users may sneer at them - it's 2019, SSDs are cheap, who would still use such outdated things? Yes, mechanical hard drives are slow, large, and noisy, and don't seem to have many advantages that people like. However, there are still some people who still use mechanical hard drives, and even cannot do without them...

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Of course, everyone's dislike for mechanical hard disks is justified, and judging from the month-on-month sales, mechanical hard disks are also likely to exit the stage of history. But even so, for some application groups, completely throwing away mechanical hard disks requires a high price, especially when it comes to cost-effective options.

For example, for content creators such as designers and film and television editors who need to store a large amount of data, ultra-large capacity mechanical hard disks are the most cost-effective choice. Although the current SSD has reached the TB level, mechanical hard disks are cheaper at the same capacity. Moreover, the data files they store are mostly large continuous files such as pictures, videos, and engineering files, which are often tens of GB. In this scenario, ultra-large capacity is more critical. Therefore, their computers usually have one or even several mechanical hard disks.

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There are also some nostalgic gamers who store a large number of stand-alone games from various periods on their hard drives. Among such players, one of them has stored 800GB of various versions of the "Pro Evolution Soccer" series alone. Not to mention NBA, Need for Speed, various simulators and other classic games, all of which are included. The game inventory alone is close to 10TB. One day, on a whim, he opens one of them and plays for half an hour, which is very enjoyable.

In this case, storing everything on an SSD is a high price to pay. In order to not tolerate the slow speed of a mechanical hard drive, such people can still find a way to extend the life of the HDD.

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This is what we have mentioned many times before - Intel Optane Intelligent Acceleration Black Technology. Its core technology lies in the built-in unique 3D Xpoint storage medium. With the support of 3D Xpoint, Optane has two major features:

The first is ultra-high read and write performance. 3D Xpoint is up to 1,000 times faster than NAND flash memory, and is also far ahead in read and write latency. Compared with SSD, its speed is closer to memory, but it will not lose data due to power outages.

3D Xpoint, full of high-tech

Therefore, by utilizing the high-speed characteristics of 3D Xpoint, Optane can be used as a buffer between the CPU and the hard disk, turning into a data mover that is agile and can anticipate needs in advance. In this way, the massive amount of data on the hard disk is like being moved to the SSD, which accelerates the overall experience and greatly improves it.

Optane intelligent acceleration technology, the "resurrection pill" for mechanical hard drives

How significant is the speed improvement? On desktops and laptops equipped with 8th-generation Core processors, the speed of opening large media files is increased by up to 3 times (Notes 1, 2) . When playing games, it can learn and accelerate the games you play most often, and the level loading acceleration can reach an astonishing 4.7 times (Notes 1, 3) . As long as it is a processor of 7th-generation Core or above and the motherboard has an M.2 interface, it can support Optane acceleration and enjoy several times the performance improvement.

Optane Intelligent Acceleration Black Technology Product M15

The second major feature is Optane's unique erase and write times and non-volatility. In addition to being superior to NAND in erase and write performance, 3D Xpoint can also be erased and written 100,000 times, which is not on the same order of magnitude as the currently popular TLC and QLC flash memories. It is very suitable for high-pressure repeated erase and write, and its overall life is much longer.

No matter how they prolong their lives, mechanical hard disks will inevitably be phased out in the future. As a technology, Optane also has a new solution for SSDs - Optane Enhanced SSD, which directly combines Optane acceleration technology and QLC 3D NAND solid-state drives into one. Combining Optane's high speed and high number of erasable times with QLC's large capacity and low cost has become a solution that complements each other's strengths.

Optane Enhanced SSD

How will the performance of such a combination be improved? Data shows that a laptop with an Intel Core i7 processor and a 512GB SSD equipped with 32GB of Optane can open files and workbooks 2 times faster (Note 4), open large multimedia files and Photoshop files 90% faster (Note 5), and load large games such as PUBG* 16% faster (Note 6) while maintaining multitasking.

Let's look at another set of intuitive data. The Optane enhanced SSD has a maximum sequential read speed of 2400MB/s, a maximum sequential write speed of 1800MB/s, QD1 4KB random read and write speeds of 32K/30K IOPS, and QD2 4KB random read and write speeds of 55K/55K IOPS. The read and write delays are 6.5µs and 18µs respectively. It doesn't matter if you don't understand the data. In short, it perfectly makes up for the disadvantages of QLC and is not much worse than most SSDs.

Therefore, the conclusion is very simple. On the Optane enhanced SSD, the performance improvement brought by Optane is very obvious. The performance of the Optane enhanced SSD is not only far superior to HDD, but also better than many SSDs. More importantly, the Optane enhanced SSD only needs to occupy one M.2 interface, and the maximum capacity version is 1TB, which can achieve both capacity and speed, which is definitely a boon for laptop upgrades.

This also reflects the strong adaptability of Optane acceleration and technology. Its extreme speed and erase and write performance can adapt to a variety of solutions and make up for shortcomings to achieve good performance. For this reason, after combining with QLC flash memory, the capacity, speed and cost-effectiveness are enhanced.

Optane's core technology - 3D XPoint, actually has applications far beyond the personal field.

For example, in the field of cloud computing, Optane has data center-level persistent memory technology, which, together with the Xeon Scalable Processor, has become a high-performance, low-cost solution. Many well-known domestic Internet giants have begun to adopt this technology to optimize data storage and create ultra-high-performance cloud storage and other applications.

In the data age, the demand for storage is increasing, both in the personal and commercial fields. The many features of Optane determine that it can find better solutions in terms of speed, capacity and price. It is also worth looking forward to future development. Imagine that when five-layer and six-layer flash memory become popular in the future, there will be a greater need to increase speed and extend the erase and write life. At that time, Optane will have more room to play.

Remark:

1. Benchmark test results were obtained before implementation of recent software patches and firmware updates designed to address vulnerabilities known as "Spectre" and "Meltdown." These results may not apply to your device or system after implementation of these updates. Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel® microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark* and MobileMark*, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations, and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products. For more complete information, visit https://www.intel.com/benchmarks.

2. As measured by media project load workload: Intel® Core™ i7-8700 processor + 1TB HDD + 32GB Intel® Optane™ memory vs. Intel® Core™ i7-8700 processor + 1TB HDD.

3.As measured by game level loading workload: Intel® Core™ i7-8750H processor + 1TB HDD + 32GB Intel® Optane™ memory vs. Intel® Core™ i7-8750H processor + 1TB HDD.

4. As measured by Document Launch with Background Activity (ie 18GB Video File Copy), comparing 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8565U (512GB TLC SSD) vs. 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8565U (32GB+512GB Intel® Optane™ memory H10 with solid state storage)

5. As measured by Adobe* Photoshop Project File Launch with Background Activity (ie 18GB Video File Copy), comparing 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8565U (512GB TLC SSD) vs. 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8565U (32GB+512GB Intel® Optane™ memory H10 with solid state storage)

6. PUBG* game loading (e.g. copying an 18GB video file), test results obtained by comparing Intel 8th Gen Core™ i7-8565U (512GB TLC SSD) vs. Intel 8th Gen Core™ i7-8565U (32GB+512GB Intel® Optane™ Enhanced SSD)