It’s been about a year since Intel launched its first Optane storage for mainstream computers. But the first consumer solid state drives to use 3D Xpoint technology were pretty expensive when you looked at the price-per gigabyte, which is one of the reasons Intel decided to launch low-capacity drives meant to be used alongside a bigger SSD or hard drive.

Now Intel is expanding its Optane lineup with a new set of mainstream drives, and this time they offer enough storage capacity that you might want to use one as your primary SSD.

The new Intel Optane SSD 800P comes in 58GB and 118GB capacities.

Newegg is already selling the 58GB model for $129, and the company is taking pre-orders for the 118GB version for $199. It’s expected to ship later this month.

That makes it a bit pricey when compared with other types of storage, but it’s a relatively affordable option for folks looking for a way to speed up their existing PCs.

Intel says the system can support sustained sequential read speeds up to 1450 MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 640 MB/s. It supports 4K random read speeds up to 250 thousand IOPS and 4K random write speeds up to 140 thousand IOPS. And the drive comes with a limited 5-year warranty, suggesting Intel doesn’t expect its Optane SSDs to fail anytime soon.

Initial reviews suggest that while this isn’t the fastest Optane drive available (Intel has some commercial versions which are faster), it offers read/write speeds that are competitive with some of the best NAND flash SSDs on the market, and could speed up overall system performance thanks to low latency and also by eliminating some NAND drawbacks like the need for TRIMP, garbage collection, or differences in performance between an empty and full SSD.

The Intel Optane 800p is an M.2 2280 solid state drives that use an NVMe PCIe 3.0 x2 interface.

You can use one of the drives to replace a traditional NAND flash SSD in a laptop, desktop, or tablet PC. Intel says the new drives can be used either as standalone storage or in dual-drive or multi-drive RAID setups.

Intel’s first consumer Optane products came in just 16GB and 32GB versions, and were basically meant to store your operating system and not much else. You could use the new drives the same way, but with up to 118GB of storage you might not actually need a second drive at all.

In addition to larger capacities, the new drives also have a few other improvements including a deep sleep low power state which consumes just 8 mW, making the new drives better suited for use in laptops, tablets, and other battery-powered devices.

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13 replies on “Intel launches Optane 800P SSD for mainstream consumers (speedy, pricey storage)”

  1. people should really stop believing the optane hype, remember they originally stated that figures 100 times better performance and endurance than they can actually or will ever do…

    by far the better option is to ask/demand the actual 3rd party pcb SBC vendors reading start including the real deal on your dev kits and home devices “Everspin DDR3 Spin-Torque MRAMs are fully compatible with DDR3 standards for DRAM operation defined
    in JEDEC Standard JESD79-3F.”

    see https://www.everspin.com/supportdocs/EMD3D256M08G1-150CBS1R

    EMD3D256MxxBS2_datasheet_v1.4_020918%20.pdf
    “… Basic Functionality
    The DDR3 STT-MRAM is a high-speed Spin-Torque Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory internally
    configured as an eight-bank RAM. It uses an 8n prefetch architecture to achieve high-speed
    operation. The 8n prefetch architecture is combined with an interface designed to transfer two
    data words per clock cycle at the I/O pins. A single read or write operation for the DDR3 MRAM
    consists of a single 8n-bit wide, four clock data transfer at the internal STT-MRAM core and two corresponding
    n-bit wide, one-half clock cycle data transfers at the I/O pins….”

    1. Lots of Google hits for PR and media related to MRAM, about how it is a “good” investment, going to take off any day now, but like it has been for years now, no links to actually buy product. Get some product in stores then come spamming this forum again. All I have ever actually seen of MRAM is a few small SRAM replacement chips at Mouser.

      1. LOL john, by “come spamming” showing a direct URL to both the main page and direct links to both the existing packages and the tape reel versions current real data sheets that you can buy right now*, you sure have a warped sense of reality there mate.

        John: i can’t find it, so it doesn’t exist, i demand you make and give it to me now mentality.

        just because your so called “google fu” is so weak you cant even find a direct seller doesn’t mean they dont already exist mate, only real makers of devices will actually ring the supplier and make something you obviously can’t make or even evaluate for yourself.

        *Everspin DDR3 Spin-Torque ‘MRAMs are fully compatible’ with DDR3 standards for DRAM operation defined in JEDEC Standard JESD79-3F, with exceptions and improvements as noted and defined in this data sheet….”

        1. If regular ddr memory did not get faster or price per byte did not fall, at some point mram ddr would become viable for desktops. Just doesn’t look like it is ever going to happen.

  2. I think a lot of commenters are missing the point. Intel has already driven the price down to a point where the average consumer can afford this technology. $200 is a lot cheaper than the first SSDs that hit the market. Those drives were tiny, not very fast (by today’s standards), expensive, and not very reliable. Most everyone should have stayed away from those too. I am not saying we should all go out and buy an Optane drive. I am saying I am glad the technology is moving this fast. Give it a couple more years and it might be worth the premium to get an Optane drive. For now I will be cheering Optane on…from the sidelines.

    1. Again, the issue isn’t the technology itself, only that it’s coming in too late for what it is, especially in the consumer space.

      Sadly, this is too typical of Intel’s bad marketing decisions.

      1. But it’s not an intel only thing though. Optane is just the brand name for 3D xpoint technology which was developed by both intel and Micron (crucial) together. Micron will be releasing their own optane variants….and once they do..others will follow. Intel and Micron are pioneering a newer industry standard, one that can far surpass NAND.

  3. This technology is so poorly positioned that it’s DOA.

    Just buy a NVMe SSD and call it a day, no need to even look at this thing.

    For most people, even a SATA SSD is a better choice from a price/performance point of view.

  4. I don t get it. Why is optane better?
    Intel SSD 760p is twice as fast and cheaper.

    1. Lower latency than Nand ssds i believe, and Optane theoretically was supposed to be almost as fast as Ram while providing longterm storage like Nand……it seems the faster optane is reserved for servers and commercial uses…and intel still hasn’t realized the full potential of optane yet

      “On a cellular level, 3D XPoint is 1000x faster and 1000x more enduring than NAND flash memory. In the real-world, actual performance is limited by bus performance.”

      Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/articles/8119/intel-optane-memory-matters/index.html

    2. The 760p is only twice as fast for sequential reads and writes. For random reads the 800p is five times faster, so the overall result depends a lot on your typical workload.

      But, of course, for most people, buying a regular SSD is going to be a no brainer at this point, but you’re comparing a first generation retail device (800p) with a technology that’s been honed and refined for over 10 years already.

      Optane (already) has better durability and is much faster than the fastest SSDs when it comes to certain tasks, but the 800p series is just Intel dipping a toe into the water with their optane technology. If the technology delivers on its promise, there will be plenty more products forthcoming, at lower prices and higher capacities.

      1. I think you said it there “when it comes to certain tasks”. Only someone in the IT industry with a need for the absolute fastest “at any cost” niche are served with this product.

        For the enthusiasts (Home Cloud/Personal PC) they’re just as well off with Samsung’s NVMe drives. …and for the regular mainstream consumers, a cheap TLC WD SSD is going to be just as good because they won’t come close to needing/stressing the drive.

        So Intel has a LONG way to go with Optane, it either needs to get a lot cheaper or it needs to get a lot faster. Because the value is certainly not there, at least for mainstream and enthusiasts. Maybe they prefer to keep it in the niche?

        1. Actually, it’s price competitive in the server realm. For databases, we use SSDs that are specified for 3-10 DWPD. The server version of Optane is specd at 30 DWPD, and at equivalent sizes costs LESS than SSDs specd at 10 DWPD. I think the current maximum size is 1.2TB, but for many applications that’s just fine.
          It’s almost as fast as the fastest SSDs for sequential reads, but for random read/writes it’s a complete game changer. The high IOPS you see for other SSDs are for completely unrealistically threaded applications. For more typical applications running a few I/O threads, it’s closer to RAM than SSD.
          Now I wouldn’t get this for my home workstation or server, but then again I wouldn’t get a GTX 1080 Ti either. There’s all kinds of ways to blow money.

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