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REAL WORLD FILE TRANSFER
For our Real World File Transfer Comparison, we have compared the Optane H10 disk caching in its first run, 10th run, disabled and we have also thrown in the 760p for good measure. This test is conducted through the transfer of data from one spot on the test drive to another to give us the truest of transfer speed results for that device.
Taking a look at these results, we can definitely see an improvement in data transfer performance of real samples between the 1st and 10th run when Optane is activated. Without hesitation, we can say the Optane H10 is definitely doing what it should as performance improves as we move the same data samples again and again and again and… What was a bit of an odd duck was the fact that there seemed to be better results with the Optane disabled in IRST, yet both enabled with cache and disabled weren’t that far off from the 760P.
BATTERY LIFE TEST
Probably the most impressive thing about the HP Spectre X360 13″ ultrabook is its battery life claim of over 22.5 hours. No other laptop that I know of comes close to this, and I cannot come close to touching that with the same ultrabook in the 15″ screen size. Intel claims 17.97 hours in their documentation, with the Optane H10 installed, and this is watching an offline 1080p video with Microsoft Movies and TV set to repeat, the screen brightness set at about the 35% mark, headphones on and Wi-Fi off. So we set up our timer, ensured the ultra was fully charged, started the movie at full screen mode, unplugged the power adapter and conducted the test until the screen stopped.
Our final result was 16 hours 52 minutes and 13 seconds. It never reached the 18 hour mark as Intel suggested…but still a very healthy battery life.
REPORT SUMMARY AND FINAL THOUGHTS
Testing the Intel Optane H10 with Solid State Storage has been one of the most time-consuming reports we have done in some time. It isn’t bad enough that we can’t simply demonstrate the caliber of this SSD through synthetic and our own real world testing, but also, the suggested test regimen necessitated doing a test, rebooting, waiting five minutes, and then doing the test again for well over a hundred runs… all in the name in demonstrating what this Optane H10 SSD is capable of… and we were thoroughly impressed.
Our scenarios demonstrated that the Intel Optane H10 is fully capable of disk caching hot data so that common computing tasks and applications are started much quicker than they might normally be with ‘just an SSD’. The drastic improvement in our typical user scenarios that included GIMP, Excel, Power Point, Word and a game launch, was definitely not expected. These start times being faster on the Optane H10 than the premium 760P NVMe SSD were a clear indication that the H10 learns the users common patterns and keeps that data stored within Optane for faster retrieval.
Even looking at the results of 3DMark and PCMark 8, where no repeated activity was needed to disk cache, the Optane H10 held its own and did extremely well. In fact, the only testing that was found to be frustrating was the synthetic testing where our typical benchmarks did not perform as expected… just as Intel told us they wouldn’t. Yet we still took it upon ourselves to test in our own fashion and found that our true testing, along with one or two synthetic tests were able to demonstrate for us that of which we needed to see; the Optane was very much a quality product.
There is a question that I do have of course, and that is where the heck are the higher capacities we have been promised? A major selling point of QLC 3D NAND is that we can achieve 33% more capacity in the same footprint…so go to it. Can we get to a 4TB NVMe M.2 SSD (two-sided of course)? I would be just as impressed seeing that 2TB capacity become commonplace.
For now though, great job with the Optane H10 SSD Intel. I was a guy who started the review looking for the worst and came out of a very long weekend of testing very impressed. Silver Seal!
Watch for the Intel Optane H10 SSD in Popular Ultrabooks at Amazon!
“In this test [PCMARK], there were no repeated runs to establish a disk cache. It was a single run where the H10 Optane bettered the Intel 760P NVMe SSD in three of four tests, although all were very close.”
The numbers pictured say that the 760p is better in 3 of the 4 tests, not the other way around, did you input things backwards?
Odd and I removed that statement. Thank you. When time permits, we will be rerunning this test.
Optane only works with Intel compatible motherboards etc.
That sucks big time. Very limited in what hardware it will work with.
Exactly like Apple. I’m waiting for Samsung and others to catch up.
Optane like many Intel products are over hyped and over priced just like nvidia.
Valid points. Thank you.
How did it affect system bootup times?
System boot times were faster, keeping in mind that they are already fast for an SSD. Boot time is one of the areas that increase as hot data is saved.