1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:05,759
Intel optane memory modules in spite of

2
00:00:03,439 --> 00:00:11,200
their tiny capacity these things do a great job of accelerating anything from

3
00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:16,640
a boot hard drive to even something like a steam game drive only one small

4
00:00:13,599 --> 00:00:17,680
problem Intel only officially supports

5
00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:24,080
optane on its own platforms and even then only

6
00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:28,000
the latest ones but

7
00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:30,560
did you know that AMD has a competing

8
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:35,120
solution called store mi storm i aims to do the same thing as

9
00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:40,160
optane caching but with the added flexibility of using any SSD you want

10
00:00:38,239 --> 00:00:43,280
like this one or this one or

11
00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:51,440
this one so naturally we wondered what happens

12
00:00:48,399 --> 00:00:53,520
when you try and run Intel designed

13
00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:59,849
optane memory modules in a competing platform

14
00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:09,840
origin pc's evo 15s weighs only 4.3

15
00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:12,640
pounds and features a smooth 144hz 1080p

16
00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:17,840
display along with an NVIDIA gtx 1070 max-q graphics card check out their

17
00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:20,720
latest deals by clicking the link below

18
00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:25,600
as usual Intel's and AMD's approaches to the problem of tiered storage have a lot

19
00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:31,040
in common so both take the hassle of managing two separate drive letters a

20
00:01:28,159 --> 00:01:37,680
smaller c drive that's faster for your os and your key programs and then a big

21
00:01:34,079 --> 00:01:39,759
d drive for your games and media files

22
00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:44,960
so basically you're combining these two physical devices into one virtual one

23
00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:50,560
that intelligently moves the most frequently accessed data to the faster

24
00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:52,720
of your drives this technology is called

25
00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:55,680
tiering and it has a long history in enterprise storage

26
00:01:54,799 --> 00:02:00,000
but there are also some key differences

27
00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:06,880
since AMD's motherboard division doesn't have an SSD business unit breathing down

28
00:02:03,439 --> 00:02:10,800
their necks to sell more more caching

29
00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:12,560
modules store mi can be used with any

30
00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:19,920
SSD tm as long as it's either less than 256

31
00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:23,760
gigs or you artificially limit it to 256

32
00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:26,560
gigs and as long as you have an x470

33
00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:31,440
motherboard presumably so AMD can absorb the licensing cost of the third-party

34
00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:36,080
fuse drive software AMD's smaller software development team

35
00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:40,319
would be another key difference but honestly that's okay for us anyway since

36
00:02:38,239 --> 00:02:46,480
we're going to be using the same octane memory module for both platforms

37
00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:47,840
and this thing is only 32 gigs well

38
00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:53,760
within the limit sent to my setup is pretty straightforward you pick two drives

39
00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:58,720
that's the maximum in the included version you assign one to the fast tier

40
00:02:56,879 --> 00:03:03,040
and the other to slow and then the program goes and does its

41
00:03:00,879 --> 00:03:08,400
thing so we'll be using the exact same method as we did for optane testing in

42
00:03:05,519 --> 00:03:14,390
order to evaluate it launch six games one after the other time the load times

43
00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:18,380
reboot and repeat

44
00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:26,560
oh what just happened

45
00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:31,519
okay so the first run was slower than loading

46
00:03:29,599 --> 00:03:35,360
from just a hard drive but that's normal while the caching

47
00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:41,760
software learns but then the performance

48
00:03:38,159 --> 00:03:44,480
on the next run not only didn't improve

49
00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:50,080
it actually got worse except then when sometimes it it didn't

50
00:03:48,879 --> 00:03:54,959
honestly analyzing these numbers was like doing

51
00:03:52,560 --> 00:04:00,319
postmortem on like what the dog had for breakfast they're scattered all over the

52
00:03:57,439 --> 00:04:04,640
place with in some cases no discernible pattern whatsoever i mean then to make

53
00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:09,519
matters worse at some point uplay kicked us out for game assets violation and

54
00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:13,439
when we ran steam's integrity checker tons of the files were missing like what

55
00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:17,120
what happened okay it's possible we dropped the hard

56
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:20,320
drive who knows things happen around here so

57
00:04:18,639 --> 00:04:24,479
we grabbed another one and then believe it or not things got

58
00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:30,080
even weirder even after untearing the drive before

59
00:04:27,919 --> 00:04:35,520
moving it to the other system it was not visible to the other machine

60
00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:38,400
other than in the UEFI BIOS Windows couldn't see it

61
00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:43,360
at all the only way for it to detect was by

62
00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:47,360
brute forcing a format of the drive using paragon

63
00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:53,440
then while investigating we hooked up a second drive back to the AMD test bench

64
00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:56,560
tiered then untiered it dropped a couple files onto it moved that to the second

65
00:04:55,520 --> 00:05:01,120
machine only to have it also not detect then we

66
00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:04,960
had to brute force format that to make it accessible again and then we dumped

67
00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:09,039
the steam folder onto it and upon hooking it up to the first machine we

68
00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:13,840
were greeted with like a ghost of the old drive contents and then this

69
00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:20,320
unexpected error preventing us from accessing it so okay so tldr

70
00:05:17,039 --> 00:05:22,320
if storemi touches your drive you cannot

71
00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:26,720
access it on another machine without a full format now in fairness to AMD there

72
00:05:25,199 --> 00:05:31,039
is a one-liner warning when you're tearing the drives up but it's still

73
00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:35,120
pretty frustrating with that behind us though we rebuilt a

74
00:05:33,039 --> 00:05:38,400
new tiered drive and got to benching again

75
00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:43,039
and same thing numbers all over the place and frenetic

76
00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:48,080
hard drive activity tick but then other reviewers were

77
00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:53,440
getting sent some eye to work so what's the pattern here

78
00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:57,919
well other reviewers tested launch times

79
00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:59,600
back to back as in run one app reboot

80
00:05:57,919 --> 00:06:03,759
observe scaling so could that be it

81
00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:09,039
actually yes so when we used the same approach we

82
00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:13,840
finally got our optane module to work with storm i but even then

83
00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:19,039
it took three or four runs to see the improvement and the results were nowhere

84
00:06:16,319 --> 00:06:24,319
near what we expected so then we got to thinking maybe store

85
00:06:21,759 --> 00:06:29,680
mi uses a more rudimentary caching algorithm that simply runs out of space

86
00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:34,400
on such a small caching drive that might explain the

87
00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:38,240
hard drive thrashing popping a samsung 960 pro into the machine confirmed the

88
00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:43,360
theory performance improved to SSD grade by the

89
00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:48,240
about the second run and then even further on the third and was right up

90
00:06:45,840 --> 00:06:52,400
there with our Intel platform plus optane

91
00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:55,919
so we were satisfied store am i great product actually no we were only

92
00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:03,759
temporarily satisfied because the untiering process took over an hour with

93
00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:06,319
a 12 terabyte drive and a 256 SSD

94
00:07:03,759 --> 00:07:10,720
so store my works but it comes with a lot of limitations

95
00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:15,520
unless you shell out extra money making it far from ideal and then

96
00:07:13,199 --> 00:07:20,160
Intel's own solution is relatively locked down so

97
00:07:17,199 --> 00:07:24,000
now what is there a better way perhaps

98
00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:29,680
we scoured the LTT forum which we should totally join bt dubs and found out about

99
00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:31,759
primo cash it comes with a 60-day trial

100
00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:33,840
so we gave it a shot and oh

101
00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:40,240
my god first of all its flexibility is head and

102
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:46,720
shoulders above the other two so you can configure control and monitor

103
00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:52,240
multiple arrays you can actually mix partitions from different drives within

104
00:07:49,759 --> 00:07:57,199
the same array you can set detailed options for each of your configurations

105
00:07:54,479 --> 00:08:03,280
and you can even add drives to be cached into existing arrays and furthermore it

106
00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:08,560
can even use part of your system memory as a super fast extra cache and it

107
00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:13,599
provides monitoring of key stats like cache hits and usage

108
00:08:11,039 --> 00:08:19,360
second of all it's non-destructive that means that what primocash seems to

109
00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:21,280
be doing is copying files to the cache

110
00:08:19,360 --> 00:08:26,319
rather than moving them that means that uncaching is a matter of

111
00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:31,039
a few clicks and a few seconds of waiting since you don't have to sit

112
00:08:28,479 --> 00:08:34,719
there while the files re-copy from your fast storage back onto your freaking

113
00:08:33,279 --> 00:08:39,680
slow storage and then finally there's the performance

114
00:08:37,279 --> 00:08:44,080
not only did it manage to be on par with the other two solutions it also made an

115
00:08:42,479 --> 00:08:50,000
optane cache on AMD sing the song that store mi

116
00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:55,360
couldn't unfortunately taking our best case scenario on primocash and topping

117
00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:59,279
it up with eight gigs of our system RAM that we had to spare didn't make a

118
00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:03,680
noticeable difference to our testing but we're still really impressed

119
00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:09,920
so there you have it all three solutions can achieve similar

120
00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:12,959
performance so optane works really well

121
00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:16,560
with platform lockdown limitations

122
00:09:12,959 --> 00:09:18,320
storm i works well with some headaches

123
00:09:16,560 --> 00:09:23,279
not to mention platform lockdown limitations or

124
00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:25,519
that cheddar and primo cash works on

125
00:09:23,279 --> 00:09:30,640
everything with everything with no side effects that we observed

126
00:09:27,279 --> 00:09:33,200
but does cost 30 for a license after the

127
00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:36,720
first 60 days with that said you could just buy a

128
00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:39,279
cheaper board instead of an x470 and then just spend that 30 bucks on a

129
00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:43,440
license yeah like why not do that

130
00:09:41,680 --> 00:09:47,279
there's your conclusion skillshare is an online learning

131
00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:52,560
community with thousands of classes in design business technology and more and

132
00:09:50,399 --> 00:09:56,720
premium membership gives you unlimited access to high quality classes on

133
00:09:54,640 --> 00:10:01,519
must-know topics so you can improve your skills unlock new opportunities and do

134
00:09:59,519 --> 00:10:05,920
the work you love one of our editors taryn has been using skillshare a ton

135
00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:09,200
he's done courses on logo designs mastering adobe illustrator and he's

136
00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:13,519
currently working through duncan rogoff's mastering adobe after effects

137
00:10:11,519 --> 00:10:17,519
course skillshare is also more affordable than most learning platforms

138
00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:21,920
out there an annual subscription is less than ten dollars a month so go check it

139
00:10:20,079 --> 00:10:25,760
out because since skillshare is sponsoring this video the first 500 of

140
00:10:24,399 --> 00:10:31,600
you to use the promo link in the description will get their first two

141
00:10:27,519 --> 00:10:32,880
months for nothing go go go go go

142
00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:37,279
so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video you can hit that button but if you liked it hit like get

143
00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:42,160
subscribed or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description

144
00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:46,640
we'll have like whatever i have optane modules down there the primo cash

145
00:10:44,240 --> 00:10:49,680
software maybe some big fat hard drives also down there is our merch store which

146
00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:53,760
has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which

147
00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:57,600
i would say occasionally but it happens more often than you'd think teaches us

148
00:10:55,760 --> 00:11:01,680
as much as we teach them thanks for the tip on primocash you guys yell rock