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Intel 900p & PCIe 2.0

HHamo
Beginner
2,594 Views

Hi,

I've been thinking to get the Intel 900P SSD for 2 servers of mine (Dell R610), but they have PCIe 2.0.

My questions:

1. Can they be used on PCIe 2.0 based systems?

2. Do they require UEFI based system?

3. Is there any performance degradation by using PCIe 2.0?

Thanks

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1 Solution
idata
Employee
1,025 Views

Hi Hetz,

 

 

Let me answer your concerns about the Intel® Optane™ SSD 900P.1. Can they be used on PCIe 2.0 based systems?Yes, they can be used on PCIe 2.0 interfaces. However, keep in mind that the performance would be highly reduced.

 

2. Do they require UEFI based system?Yes, they do. You would need UEFI 2.3.1 or later with NVMe support.

 

3. Is there any performance degradation by using PCIe 2.0?Yes, there is a performance degradation because of the difference between the PCIe versions. Unfortunately, there are not tests of the SSD running on a PCIe 2.0 interface, so I cannot tell you how much the performance is degraded, but theoretically, the performance should be limited to the maximum capacity of a PCIe 2.0 interface.

 

 

I hope this clarifies your concerns about the SSD. If there is anything else you would like to know, feel free to ask.

 

 

Have a nice day.

 

 

Regards,

 

Diego V.

View solution in original post

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6 Replies
n_scott_pearson
Super User
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  1. I am not positive, but I believe that the answer is no; it needs to be a PCIe 3.0 system.
  2. Yes, UEFI is required (but there's a 'but'; see below).
  3. If it will work in a PCIe 2.0 system (which I don't believe it will), the answer would be yes, there would be a performance degradation - but it would still outperform a SATA drive.

In an older PCIe 2.0 system, if the drive works at all, you definitely wouldn't be able to boot from it. It requires specific BIOS support to boot from it and this support is only going to be found in the last few generations (certainly not in one that is old enough that it only supports PCIe 2.0).

Hope this helps,

...S

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HHamo
Beginner
1,025 Views

The reason I'm asking is because with GPU like Nvidia 1080TI, if you stick the card in PCIe 2.0 x16, at most you'll get something like 2-3% less performance, so that's why I wonder if there will be a serious performance hit.

As for boot, well, a simple disk on key with grub and a configuration file which will point to the 900Ps partitions will do the trick.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
1,025 Views

Well, this query has been moved to the SSD forum and hopefully one of the true experts monitoring this forum will be able to give a more conclusive answer...

...S

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idata
Employee
1,026 Views

Hi Hetz,

 

 

Let me answer your concerns about the Intel® Optane™ SSD 900P.1. Can they be used on PCIe 2.0 based systems?Yes, they can be used on PCIe 2.0 interfaces. However, keep in mind that the performance would be highly reduced.

 

2. Do they require UEFI based system?Yes, they do. You would need UEFI 2.3.1 or later with NVMe support.

 

3. Is there any performance degradation by using PCIe 2.0?Yes, there is a performance degradation because of the difference between the PCIe versions. Unfortunately, there are not tests of the SSD running on a PCIe 2.0 interface, so I cannot tell you how much the performance is degraded, but theoretically, the performance should be limited to the maximum capacity of a PCIe 2.0 interface.

 

 

I hope this clarifies your concerns about the SSD. If there is anything else you would like to know, feel free to ask.

 

 

Have a nice day.

 

 

Regards,

 

Diego V.
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idata
Employee
1,025 Views

Hi Hetz,

 

 

I'd like to know if the information above answered your concerns about the Intel® Optane™ SSD 900P, or if you still have questions about it.

 

 

If so, please feel free to post them in the thread.

 

 

Regards,

 

Diego V.
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idata
Employee
1,025 Views

Hi Hetz,

 

 

I'd like to add to my previous post that, besides the facts previously discussed, you have to consider as well that the Intel® Optane™ SSD 900P Series is not intended to be used in server or data center environments. This drive is designed to work in client environments. Using it in other environments like data centers may void the Warranty.

 

 

Regards,

 

Diego V.

 

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