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As for what makes it tick, 3D XPoint is rather cloaked in mystery. The idea behind 3D XPoint is to deliver the benefits of both technologies. For those reasons, NAND is found in flash drives and SSDs. NAND, in contrast, is cheap, able to scale to larger capacities, and non-volatile-able to hold data without being powered all the time. ![]() It's also volatile, meaning that it needs a constant stream of power to retain data. DRAM is costlier, and thus, you'll tend to see it in lower capacities. The main differences between these two kinds of memory, at the most basic level, are persistence of data, and cost. Also, 3D XPoint, designed by Intel and Micron, is best described as a cross between very fast DRAM and high-capacity, affordable NAND flash memory. To clear up a few things up front: "3D XPoint" is the name of the new memory tech, while "Optane" is the branding for the products that use it. (Opens in a new window) Read Our Plextor M8Pe M.2 NVMe SSD Review While it is also a child of 3D XPoint, Optane Memory-capital "O," capital "M"-is a whole other animal. True client-style solid-state drives (SSDs) employing 3D XPoint are expected down the road, and Intel has detailed a data-center-grade SSD, the 375GB Intel DC P4800X (Opens in a new window), priced at $1,520, that will make use of the memory tech. But it was not clear until recently what they would actually be, or what markets they'd serve. The first products featuring Intel and Micron's joint-developed 3D XPoint memory technology (pronounced "cross-point") are now hitting the market. ![]() The concept sounds simple, but even close observers of the PC-component market might be forgiven for being confused around this thing called Optane, as it's been tied to a much-anticipated kind of memory called "3D XPoint." Optane Memory acts as a dynamically managed staging area for your most-used files, operating-system elements, and other bits, accelerating access on the fly according to what you use most. Spinning-platter hard drives are, as a rule, much slower in terms of load and response time, due to their moving parts. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. ( See how we test everything we review (Opens in a new window).) It's a caching drive made of solid-state memory that's designed to speed up the perceived reaction time and speed of a hard drive that's used as your system's boot drive. Going on sale April 24, 2017, and expected to start showing up as a component in pre-built PCs in the next few months, Optane Memory is part storage drive, part system accelerator. ![]() (See our guide to The Best M.2 Solid-State Drives.) Just don't think of it as RAM-though it sounds like it ought to be RAM. That's not to say that Optane Memory is a bad thing. With Intel's Optane Memory M.2 storage modules ($44 MSRP for the 16GB version, $77 for the tested 32GB), that gets all muddied up, and gives us a whole lot more explainin' to do. Those same units, when used for long-term stowing-away of your data on a hard drive, is storage capacity.
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