How to Install an Intel Optane M.2 NVMe Accelerator into your Existing Dell OptiPlex, Inspiron, Precision, and Alienware Computers

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Pre-Requisites

To add an Intel Optane accelerator to your existing Dell or Alienware computer, you must ensure that it meets the following requirements:

1. The computer has an Intel 7th Generation processor (Kaby Lake) or later CPU.
2. The computer Operating System (OS) is Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Redstone 1 (RS1) Version 1607 or later.
3. The computer has a single SATA 3 hard disk drive (HDD) or single SATA 3 solid-state drive (SSD). NVMe drives and RAID arrays cannot be accelerated with Optane.

Installation

Once you have verified that you have the required hardware and OS for Optane. The next step in the installation of Optane is to ensure that you have the latest BIOS installed on your computer. The list below details the minimum BIOS versions required for these select computers:

You need the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) Driver and Management Console User interface (UI) version 15.5.xxxx or later. Download the driver from the Dell Support Website, Drivers and downloads, Serial ATA section after entering your service tag or selecting your computer model manually.

Installation Steps:

1. Ensure that the BIOS is in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Mode (REQUIRED for OPTANE OPERATION).
2. Disable Legacy Option ROMS in the BIOS (REQUIRED for OPTANE OPERATION).
3. Update the system BIOS if the BIOS version is not at least the minimum required version that is listed above.
4. Install the Optane module in the M.2 slot of the computer motherboard. You can find the drive installation steps for your specific computer in the User Manual on the Dell Support Website, Manuals, and Downloads section.
5. Boot the computer into Windows.
6. If your computer has the Dell Factory image of Windows 10. Download the Partition Tweak Script for Optane (Partition Tweak Script A02.zip) from the Dell Support Website. Applications section, then extract the batch file from the .zip file, then run the FreeSpaceFromLastRecoveryPartition_Disk0_V15.bat batch file:
   1. Run the batch file by right-clicking the file that you downloaded from the Dell Support Website (FreeSpaceFromLastRecoveryPartition_Disk0_V15.bat) then select the "Run as Administrator" option.
   2. You may get a User Account Control (UAC) prompt to approve running the batch file, if you see this open, Click "Yes."
   3. You see a Command-Line window open. Then several commands that are performed as the batch file reallocates space from the recover partition to allow the Optane setup to install correctly.
      Note: Custom Windows 10 installations that do not contain the Dell Factory Recovery partition will not require this step.

   4. Once completed and you confirm that the process completed, close the Command Prompt Window if it does not close automatically.

7. Open Programs and Features in Control Panel and uninstall the existing version of Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and Management Console. Restart the computer.
   Note: This will only uninstall the USER INTERFACE, you get a open informing you the driver is loaded and cannot be uninstalled in Windows.
8. Run the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) Driver and Management Console User interface (UI) installation. Again, you may get a User Account Control (UAC) prompt to approve running the batch file, if you see this open, Click "Yes."
9. Once the installation is completed, you are prompted to restart the computer.
10. Open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) UI from the start menu tile (Figure 1).
    
    Figure 1 - Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) opening screen.
11. Click the "Intel Optane Memory Button," to access the Optane configuration options (Figure 2).
    
    Figure 2 - Selecting the Optane Memory tab
12. Click the "Enable" hyperlink in the IRST interface to pair the Optane module with the SATA 3 drive (Figure 3).
    
    Figure 3 - Starting the Optane Array Creation on the Optane Memory tab
13. You see a pop-up showing the Optane device and the computer drive that the Optane device will pair with, then click "Yes" (Figure 4).
    
    Figure 4 - Clicking YES to pair the drives and create an Optane Array.
14. Once the pairing is complete, click the "Reboot" button to complete the Optane configuration. You will also see that the SATA Drive, and the Optane device are now shown as an "Optane Memory Array" (Figure 5).
    
    Figure 5 - Completing the Optane setup.
15. After the computer restarts, you can open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology application from the top of the start menu. If you click the Intel Optane Memory tab, you will now see that the hyperlink option is now "Disable," indicating that Optane is enabled (Figure 6).
    
    Figure 6 - Optane setup is completed.

If you have further questions about this article, contact Dell Technical Support.

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