How to make best use oft Intel Optane drive?

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#1

Hi folks,

I have a brand new Dell Laptop with an Intel H10 32Gb Optane with 512 Gb SSD drive. The Optane drive is advertised to be very fast, something between SSD and DRAM.

I want to get rid of Windows an install Manjaro.

But how do I best use the 32 GB Optane drive?

My idea so far:
I could put the swap partition on it but I think it will not be used very often.

What about /boot?
What about /proc?
What about /tmp?

I don’t know…

Which partitions/mount point woulds make sense to put on the Optane drive?

Could you please advice me as I want to soon install Manjaro.

#2

Hello @halloballo :wink:

I don’t think there will be any real benefits by using an Optane drive with a SSD. If it would be a spinning disk, sure.

bcache could be used: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/bcache

Otherwise i would put the root directory on the optane drive and add directories like /temp as tmpfs.

Directories like /opt , /usr, /home, /var would be outsourced to the SSD.

#3

Thanks for your reply

Do you mean I should put / on the Optane drive and /opt , /usr, /home, /var on the bigger SSD?

#4

Yes that is what i wrote :sweat_smile: , but never used an optane drive. I guess it will recognized as normal ssd drive.

#5

I want to ask my question in a different way:

Which directory would benefit the most from the fast Optane drive?

#6

In general directories with files you use often :stuck_out_tongue: And therefore it would be better to use it as cache like bcache, but:

  1. Swap (also hibernation will be much faster)
  2. If you don’t want to use tmpfs, then any temp and cache folder.
  3. Applications in /usr/bin /bin /sbin since it loads faster.
  4. For fast startup /boot

In my opinion: any files, but it depends on what you use most.

Bcache is done and stable [...]

https://bcache.evilpiepirate.org/

#7