Intel halts the production of its Core+ Series (Processor+Optane Cache bundles)

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/18/2019 09:49 AM | source: tomshardware | 9 comment(s)

Remember back in April that we mentioned Intel to offer Core+ bundles? That is a Core i5/i7/i9 Processors Bundled with Optane Cache SSD. Intel started to push its partners to bundle the processors and motherboards with Optane.

You might have noticed a lack of these SKUs in the stores, as Intel halts these models. Tom's Hardware has found out that no new orders will be accepted after 30 September 2019 That little + means, well, it simply means that the product is Optane ready and bundled. There were merely three Core+ bundles available, an Core i7+8700, i5+8400, and i5+8500 plus a 16GB Optane Memory stick, all are to be discontinued. Optane caching was three years ago, however, most users didn’t find the relative little speed improvement worth the considerable higher price as a regular SSD is (for most) the way to go.

An intersting fact is that Micron made these units, and Intel and Micron halted their joint development of 3D XPoint memory (the memory tech behind Octane) back in July.

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rl66
Senior Member

Posts: 3033
Joined: 2007-05-31

#5629412 Posted on: 01/19/2019 12:51 PM

the idea were good, but never reach the consumer full potential:
-Over expensive price?
-Lack of support?
-Intel only?
Optane cache is dead

Undying
Senior Member

Posts: 16466
Joined: 2008-08-28

#5629413 Posted on: 01/19/2019 12:58 PM

Maybe becouse 16GB stick is nothing and makes no sense.

anticupidon
Senior Member

Posts: 6192
Joined: 2008-03-06

#5629437 Posted on: 01/19/2019 02:32 PM

Something tells me that it has to do with recent "divorce" from join venture with Micron.
Am I wrong?

nosirrahx
Senior Member

Posts: 365
Joined: 2013-04-05

#5629468 Posted on: 01/19/2019 04:21 PM

Something tells me that it has to do with recent "divorce" from join venture with Micron.
Am I wrong?

Micron might be saying the same thing I have been saying about Optane from the start. Intel has no idea how to market or implement Optane and Micron thinks they can do better.

This all started with Intel coming to market with a product that was not ready yet at a point where the intended use case for Optane cache was already in the past. They got both parts wrong.

A cheap 256GB SATA SSD and big HDD was far too cheap to make caching with Optane a viable option.

The only economically viable option for Optane isn't even supported by them. Read here for their interaction with me on this subject:

https://forums.intel.com/s/question/0D50P0000490SECSA2/i-have-a-question-about-official-and-unoffical-optane-support?language=en-US

The synopses of that conversation was that a 2TB SATA SSD cached to a 58GB 800P Optane drive is both cheaper and faster than a 2TB NVMe SSD and that Intel does not care and wont support this.

tsunami231
Senior Member

Posts: 12120
Joined: 2003-05-24

#5629512 Posted on: 01/19/2019 08:31 PM

my uncles pc has this, and he says he dont see much diffrence, a HDD is HDD still and that cache didnt help much not like SSD does

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