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Grab the cheapest Intel Optane M10 drive from eBay with a 1x PCI-E adapter from them too. 16GB of Swap for less than $20. The M10 are over produced and only PC

Grab the cheapest Intel Optane M10 drive from eBay with a 1x PCI-E adapter from them too. 16GB of Swap for less than $20. The M10 are over produced and only PCI-E 3.0 2x lane devices but 16GB of DDR5 is going to cost over $200. You can do the same with USB-C M.2 adapters but the adapters cost more and eww USB for Swap, hope the device never drops.

hdb2 1mo ago
Hey, I apologize for using you as tech support, but I found tons of those M10 sticks you are talking about, but what should I be looking for in terms of an adapter? All I can find are adapters listed as M.2: https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-Adapter-Aluminum-Heatsink-PA09_HS/dp/B07FN3YZ8P https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-Adapter-Aluminum-Heatsink-P...
- Computer0 1mo ago
  I believe the intention is for you to put it in the M.2
- undersuit 1mo ago
  That's a 4 lane adapter, it'll work if you have a 4x, 8x, or 16x PCI-E slot open. This is a 1 lane adapter: https://www.ebay.com/itm/128010189845?var=429206655218 https://www.ebay.com/itm/128010189845?var=429206655218
Melatonic 1mo ago
Is that really competitive with just doing a pciexpress card with faster M2 SSD ?
- undersuit 1mo ago
  Optane on a cheap adapter is superior in just this Swap application because the 16GB M.2 are very cheap, the 2x lanes aren't under utilizing your 4x motherboard M.2 slot when used with an adapter, and Optane has better write endurance and latency then even the newest flash.
  - Melatonic 1mo ago
    Read more about it. Not sure on endurance but does it really do that well on latency ? Curious if you have any resources. Some boards have a lot of spare m2
    - undersuit 1mo ago
      https://cdn.multitronic.fi/media/a/3/mmo_41700684_1565162938_0972_15378.pdf https://cdn.multitronic.fi/media/a/3/mmo_41700684_1565162938... I suggest using an 1x PCI-e adapter because putting a M10 in a M.2 slot is likely going to only have 2 of 4 PCI-e lanes in use. You have to figure out the tradeoff of using a Swap on your, now very expensive as well, Flash storage that may have flashier sequential read and write speeds but doesn't have the ability to sustain random read and write performance which is what a Swap is going to use the most. There are faster Optane drives that use 4 PCI-e lanes or even PCI-e 4.0, but they get pricey quickly, so you should just buy ram then. The deal is the 16GB Optane on an unused 1x PCI-e slot.
      - Melatonic 1mo ago
        What about using one of those fancier enterprise Optane drives (that are also larger) either as a swap or - dedicated drive for writing or reading huge amounts of small files ? The Intel P5800x is the opposite of cheap but from tests I'm seeing the latency and performance is very impressive for some niche use cases
        undersuit 1mo ago
        400GB of Optane for $500 is kinda tempting now(also the E1.s form factor p5801x). I run my P5800x on my NAS for small files and metadata. They're the fastest but I wouldn't suggest running out and buying one because you're avoiding a 16GB to 32GB upgrade, RAM is still faster. Use it as a caching or swap device when you're running a LLM on a motherboard with maxed out RAM and GPU.

hdb2 1mo ago

Hey, I apologize for using you as tech support, but I found tons of those M10 sticks you are talking about, but what should I be looking for in terms of an adapter? All I can find are adapters listed as M.2: https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-Adapter-Aluminum-Heatsink-PA09_HS/dp/B07FN3YZ8P https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-Adapter-Aluminum-Heatsink-P...

Computer0 1mo ago
I believe the intention is for you to put it in the M.2
undersuit 1mo ago
That's a 4 lane adapter, it'll work if you have a 4x, 8x, or 16x PCI-E slot open. This is a 1 lane adapter: https://www.ebay.com/itm/128010189845?var=429206655218 https://www.ebay.com/itm/128010189845?var=429206655218

Melatonic 1mo ago

Is that really competitive with just doing a pciexpress card with faster M2 SSD ?

undersuit 1mo ago
Optane on a cheap adapter is superior in just this Swap application because the 16GB M.2 are very cheap, the 2x lanes aren't under utilizing your 4x motherboard M.2 slot when used with an adapter, and Optane has better write endurance and latency then even the newest flash.
- Melatonic 1mo ago
  Read more about it. Not sure on endurance but does it really do that well on latency ? Curious if you have any resources. Some boards have a lot of spare m2
  - undersuit 1mo ago
    https://cdn.multitronic.fi/media/a/3/mmo_41700684_1565162938_0972_15378.pdf https://cdn.multitronic.fi/media/a/3/mmo_41700684_1565162938... I suggest using an 1x PCI-e adapter because putting a M10 in a M.2 slot is likely going to only have 2 of 4 PCI-e lanes in use. You have to figure out the tradeoff of using a Swap on your, now very expensive as well, Flash storage that may have flashier sequential read and write speeds but doesn't have the ability to sustain random read and write performance which is what a Swap is going to use the most. There are faster Optane drives that use 4 PCI-e lanes or even PCI-e 4.0, but they get pricey quickly, so you should just buy ram then. The deal is the 16GB Optane on an unused 1x PCI-e slot.
    - Melatonic 1mo ago
      What about using one of those fancier enterprise Optane drives (that are also larger) either as a swap or - dedicated drive for writing or reading huge amounts of small files ? The Intel P5800x is the opposite of cheap but from tests I'm seeing the latency and performance is very impressive for some niche use cases
      - undersuit 1mo ago
        400GB of Optane for $500 is kinda tempting now(also the E1.s form factor p5801x). I run my P5800x on my NAS for small files and metadata. They're the fastest but I wouldn't suggest running out and buying one because you're avoiding a 16GB to 32GB upgrade, RAM is still faster. Use it as a caching or swap device when you're running a LLM on a motherboard with maxed out RAM and GPU.