Just last week, one of my customers asked me about buying a new computer and they wanted to know if I could price them one with Intel’s Optane Memory. I was surprised they asked as it seems that few of my customers have even heard of Optane let alone know enough about it to request it.

Intel’s Optane Memory is a technology which Intel and Micron designed and began to offer about a year ago. (It’s taken this amount of time for the product to start to show up in new desktops and laptops.) In basic terms, the Optane Memory works alongside a computer’s RAM and hard drive. What it does is take the programs and files that a computer operator uses the most and stores them in a module (the Optane) so that they can be retrieved more rapidly. This process can be appreciated most when your computer has a HDD SATA hard drive. (As opposed to a Solid State Drive – SSD.) These are the drives with a motor that moves the arms which scan the drive disks. Under the right circumstances, Optane can be up to 1,000 times faster than traditional flash memory. Still, even if you don’t get that kind of speed, you’ll see faster start-up and speedier opening of programs and files if your computer has the Optane Memory.

Do you have to buy a new computer to get the Intel Optane Memory? No, but your older computer has to meet certain criteria. Before you consider buying Intel’s Optane Memory to speed up your current computer, you should read the full requirements HERE.