By Kevin Lee
Intel unleashed unbelievably fast Optane 900P SSDs earlier this year but, to our chagrin, they’re not exactly affordable at $369 (£329, AU$559) for the smallest, 280GB drive. Not to mention 900P drives don’t come in the easy-to-install and ubiquitous M.2 form factor – instead, they’ve only been available as a beefy PCIe card or U.2 drive.
So, enter the Intel Optane SSD 800P drives. These drives pack the same 3D XPoint technology that makes the 900P series so blazing fast into a far smaller package. Plus, these gum stick-sized SSDs start at a more affordable price, albeit with much, much smaller capacities, with 58GB running for $129 (about £90, AU$165) and $199 (about £140, AU$255) for 118GB.
While these drives should be just as fast as the company’s flagship enterprise drives, poor decisions to limit its maximum bandwidth, capacity and performance – no to mention a still high asking price – make them hard recommend for anyone.
Features
Whereas the Intel Optane SSD 900P was introduced as a high-end storage solution, the Intel Optane SSD 800P was announced as mainstream storage for use as a primary – or operating system boot – drive.
However, we find it tough see ourselves using a 58GB SSD as …read more
Source:: techradar.com – PC and Mac