Intel reveals Optane DIMMs for workstations, 665p SSD for consumers, future roadmap

nanoguy

Posts: 1,355   +27
Staff member
Something to look forward to: Intel's Optane technology has been mostly confined to data centers, but now those advancements are trickling down to workstations, which means we're closer to seeing persistent memory solutions in mainstream PCs. In the meantime, the silicon giant is giving consumers faster QLC SSDs that they can afford.

Intel held a press event in South Korea this week for its Memory and Storage day, where it made a series of announcements and revealed plans for future storage products that will go in data centers and consumer electronics.

The company reiterated the importance of filling the gaps in the memory and storage hierarchy by bringing processors and data closer together.

The main focus of the event was Intel's Optane technology, which comes in several form factors, such as a memory module, SSD cache, and a high capacity QLC SSD, which is the least costly of the three. Intel currently dominates the persistent memory market, so it's nice to see them innovate despite the lack of serious competition.

To that end, Intel says it will operate a new "technology development line" in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The company is already working on the second generation Optane DC Persistent Memory, codenamed "Barlow Pass" that's supposed to be better in every way when compared to the current generation, Apache Pass that launched earlier this year.

Intel didn't offer specific numbers, but we know that its Optane DC products typically bridge the gap between RAM and NAND. They come as DIMM modules that can be installed in DDR4 slots and addressed as both RAM and storage, with capacities of up to 512GB per stick. In other words, Optane DC is like a slower, higher capacity DRAM that doesn't lose data in the event of power loss.

The 3D Xpoint technology behind Optane has so far proven too expensive to be integrated in consumer devices, but Intel has managed to bring it to the workstation market. The company says persistent DIMMs will eventually reach mainstream desktop PCs, but didn't offer a strict timeline of when we'll be able to buy sticks of 512 GB of memory for our gaming rigs. Intel is partnering with Microsoft to make that a reality, so at least we know that it's in the cards.

Intel does have something in the works for consumers in the form of a successor to its popular 660p SSD which uses 64-layer QLC flash to achieve great storage density at an affordable price point.

The 665p will come with 96-layer QLC flash that is both denser and faster. Both pricing and a release date are still pending, but we can probably expect to see it in laptops later this year or in early 2020.

To top it off, the silicon giant is also working on 144-layer QLC flash and storage solutions with 5 bits per cell, but that still doesn't hold nearly as much potential as the Optane DC Persistent Memory for client devices.

Permalink to story.

 
Intel currently has the Intel 660p 2TB SSD 3D NAND QLC M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive for just $179 at Microcenter.

I am seriously eyeing this to buy for my Gaming laptop. I was hoping a Samsung or Crucial 2TB would fall to the same price, but it looks like they won't before Black Friday.

Ultimately, the main target is price and storage capacity over theoretical maximum transfer speed for most gamers.

A 1TB SSD should be about $100 while a "high performance" model is about 2 or 3 times that.

A 2TB SSD should be about $200 while a higher performance model is about twice that price.

For the average gamer, TLC is just fine. The transfer speeds are already so much better than an HDD that your OS will benefit greatly and your games will load faster anyway. QLC technology and intel's new QLC technology look promising, but I want them to keep prices down so they can spread the love.
 
Last edited:
"The company promises larger and more affordable SSD storage"
Here's a question you might consider worthy. When they make such a promise, is it based upon todays dollars or what tomorrows dollars will look like? Might not be much of a difference, still if a company wants to be considered honest and forthcoming they should state that, shouldn't they?
 
Intel currently has the Intel 660p 2TB SSD 3D NAND QLC M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive for just $179 at Microcenter.

I am seriously eyeing this to buy for my Gaming laptop. I was hoping a Samsung or Crucial 2TB would fall to the same price, but it looks like they won't before Black Friday.

Oh wow, that's nice. I have a 512GB 960pro m.2 and a 1TB mushkin SATA SSD (I had two but one failed) in my last build. At that price It is tempting to replace both and repurpose the 1TB as a backup drive.
 
"The company promises larger and more affordable SSD storage"
Here's a question you might consider worthy. When they make such a promise, is it based upon todays dollars or what tomorrows dollars will look like? Might not be much of a difference, still if a company wants to be considered honest and forthcoming they should state that, shouldn't they?

Big, Bold statements like this are obviously to get more investment from investors.
Intel has solid support already.
But more is never enough.
 
Intel currently has the Intel 660p 2TB SSD 3D NAND QLC M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive for just $179 at Microcenter.

I am seriously eyeing this to buy for my Gaming laptop. I was hoping a Samsung or Crucial 2TB would fall to the same price, but it looks like they won't before Black Friday.

Oh wow, that's nice. I have a 512GB 960pro m.2 and a 1TB mushkin SATA SSD (I had two but one failed) in my last build. At that price It is tempting to replace both and repurpose the 1TB as a backup drive.


My laptop came with the OS on one SSD and a empty slot for a second - as well as a 1TB HDD.

I intend to replace the HDD with a SSD and probably get this 2TB intel to fill the gap.

I could keep the 1TB HDD as a place to store videos and music tho.
 
Intel currently has the Intel 660p 2TB SSD 3D NAND QLC M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive for just $179 at Microcenter.

I am seriously eyeing this to buy for my Gaming laptop. I was hoping a Samsung or Crucial 2TB would fall to the same price, but it looks like they won't before Black Friday.

Oh wow, that's nice. I have a 512GB 960pro m.2 and a 1TB mushkin SATA SSD (I had two but one failed) in my last build. At that price It is tempting to replace both and repurpose the 1TB as a backup drive.


My laptop came with the OS on one SSD and a empty slot for a second - as well as a 1TB HDD.

I intend to replace the HDD with a SSD and probably get this 2TB intel to fill the gap.

I could keep the 1TB HDD as a place to store videos and music tho.

Wouldn't it be best to dump the HDD as mechanical drives consume much more battery than SSD? Or has that changed?
 
When my friends & family buy a laptop with a mechanical drive, I tell them to immediately let me know when their warranty runs out. As so I can crack the case open and drop in an SSD. As was the case when my niece picked up a Dell Inspirion a few heard ago; replacing her 500GB Seagate Momentus with a 1TB Samsung 850 Pro.

Sadly none have picked up a laptop with an M.2 slot. But even then, it'd be just a straight replacement with a capacity bump.

Sometimes booting up from my work desktop's HDD feels like a 486 DX/2-100 as compared to my gaming rig's SSD. lol
 
Intel currently has the Intel 660p 2TB SSD 3D NAND QLC M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive for just $179 at Microcenter.

I am seriously eyeing this to buy for my Gaming laptop. I was hoping a Samsung or Crucial 2TB would fall to the same price, but it looks like they won't before Black Friday.

Ultimately, the main target is price and storage capacity over theoretical maximum transfer speed for most gamers.

A 1TB SSD should be about $100 while a "high performance" model is about 2 or 3 times that.

A 2TB SSD should be about $200 while a higher performance model is about twice that price.

For the average gamer, TLC is just fine. The transfer speeds are already so much better than an HDD that your OS will benefit greatly and your games will load faster anyway. QLC technology and intel's new QLC technology look promising, but I want them to keep prices down so they can spread the love.

I have the 660p in my gaming rig. Its amazing. Get the 2TB and make sure you leave 300gb or so free space and you will never see any of the drives negatives and it will stay blazingly fast.
 
Intel currently has the Intel 660p 2TB SSD 3D NAND QLC M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive for just $179 at Microcenter.

I am seriously eyeing this to buy for my Gaming laptop. I was hoping a Samsung or Crucial 2TB would fall to the same price, but it looks like they won't before Black Friday.

Ultimately, the main target is price and storage capacity over theoretical maximum transfer speed for most gamers.

A 1TB SSD should be about $100 while a "high performance" model is about 2 or 3 times that.

A 2TB SSD should be about $200 while a higher performance model is about twice that price.

For the average gamer, TLC is just fine. The transfer speeds are already so much better than an HDD that your OS will benefit greatly and your games will load faster anyway. QLC technology and intel's new QLC technology look promising, but I want them to keep prices down so they can spread the love.

I have the 660p in my gaming rig. Its amazing. Get the 2TB and make sure you leave 300gb or so free space and you will never see any of the drives negatives and it will stay blazingly fast.
Is there any noticeable real world performance differences in every day tasks when upgrading from a SATA SSD like the Samsung 850 Evo?
Cheers
 
Back