External Raid 5 --> eSata --> Sata3 --> Optane?

[Raima]

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of planning out my build.

I currently have an iMac i7 Late 2012 with a external raid 5 enclosure connected via esata --> thunderbolt. I'm getting roughly 80mb writes and 200mb reads on spindals. I'd like to improve this if possible.

I'd like to skip the thunderbolt connection in my new hackintosh build, and connect it straight to the sata3 ports via an esata adapter. On top of this, is it possible to link the raid5 external box to an intel optane stick?

Does anyone have optane working at all on a hackintosh?

 

[Asobu]

Would love to know about this as well as I have an Optane M.3. and using 256gb SSD to use as hackintosh boot.

@Raima, easiest solution would be create 2 boot profile in the bios.
One normal, optane enabled for Windows.
Second for mac, optane disabled for macOS.

Since I'm not sure if there is intel optane driver for Mac.

 

[deagle50]

You can use Optane as your fast tier for a Fusion volume. Although I'm not sure if Fusion volumes support external enclosures.

 

[Asobu]

@deagle50 Optane doesn't work that way, it's not for a Fusion volume, and it's definitely not using an external enclosure.

 

[Raima]

Just a quick update. The connection from eSata to Sata did not work, unless I'm doing something wrong. The raid enclosure bay drive just sits there in standby mode.

 

[deagle50]

@deagle50 Optane doesn't work that way, it's not for a Fusion volume, and it's definitely not using an external enclosure.

The Optane memory stick is just an NVME drive like any other. The intel driver does productized caching stuff.

Instead of using the Intel software (which doesn't exists for MacOS) you can use the built-in Fusion volume option and get a very similar result.

 

[Asobu]

The Optane memory stick is just an NVME drive like any other. The intel driver does productized caching stuff.

Instead of using the Intel software (which doesn't exists for MacOS) you can use the built-in Fusion volume option and get a very similar result.

Ah OK. Mine is attached to the motherboard not using external enclosure, so not sure if it would work.

 

[deagle50]

Ah OK. Mine is attached to the motherboard not using external enclosure, so not sure if it would work.

I just pulled the trigger on a 32GB Optane stick for the High Sierra re-install I've been putting off. I'll let you all know how it goes with Fusion.

 

[MatheoDJ]

I just pulled the trigger on a 32GB Optane stick for the High Sierra re-install I've been putting off. I'll let you all know how it goes with Fusion.

@deagle50 Have you accomplished this before? I bought an optane M.2 stick for Windows, but I had to turn it off in BIOS just to get my hackintosh to boot. I'd like to understand better how to use the Fusion option. How does that work?