I bought a Y530 with the 16GB Optane module and added a 2TB 850 EVO SATA drive. Originally I did not utilize the Optane module due to the various reports that Optane does not accelerate a SATA SSD to any useful degree. I have my 850 EVO in software Bitlocker mode due to the 850 EVO hardware encryption bug. I decided to install and activate the 16GB Optane module just to see what would happen. What I can tell you is the benchmark results with the 16GB Optane show no real improvement, but the actual user experience is noticably faster with the 16GB Optane. 

Becuase my experience with the 16GB Optane was so favorable, I decided to upgrade that device to the 58GB Optane module due to the enhanced performance of the 58GB module vs the 16GB module and the extra cache space. This is where the weirdness began. 

When you install Optane you have 2 choices for which app to use with Optane, either the "Intel® Optane™ Memory User Interface" or "Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) User Interface": 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000024385/memory-and-storage.html

When I installed the 58GB module, replacing the 16GB module, the Intel® Optane™ Memory User Interface correctly identified the module as 58GB, however the application showed only 16GB of the module being utilized as Optane memory. Also, with the Intel® Optane™ Memory User Interface the Optane module showed up in Windows Disk Management as a separate phyisical disk. Then, I uninstalled the Intel® Optane™ Memory User Interface and installed the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) User Interface instead, which resulted in the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) User Interface recoginzing the 58GB correctly and in effect merging the two disks into one - in Disk Management the Optane module is not even displayed as a physical disk.

However, unlike the Intel® Optane™ Memory User Interface application, the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) User Interface does not have a graph or index that shows you how much of the Optane module is dedicated to system files vs application files, so there appears to be no way to determine whether only 16GB of the module is being utilized vs the full 58GB. 

The performance with the 58GB Optane module is blazing fast. Much faster than with the 850 EVO alone, and the 58GB module seems to be faster than the 16GB module...this is from a user experience perspective rather than benchmarking. 

If anyone has any information on this please discuss. 

PS: Why am I bothering with Optane instead of just getting a 2TB NVME? The simple answer is cost. I already owned the 2TB 850 EVO from a previous computer, and I could only net about $200 for it if I sold it on eBay. A 2TB NVME would cost about $500, and the 58GB Optane module only cost me $94.48 with tax and shipping, etc. 

I think that a better buy would have been a M.2 NVMe drive running OS using the SSD as data drive and removing Intel's Optane/RST software.

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I think that a better buy would have been a M.2 NVMe drive running OS using the SSD as data drive and removing Intel's Optane/RST software.

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That would have required complete reinstallation of the OS and software, which would have been a total pain. 

I'm very happy with the Optane + SSD solution. It is very fast. I am suprised that there are not online reviews and youtube videos of this setup showing the real world use case. My actual boot time is about 50% faster and every app I use opens virtually instantly. 

The problem with review tests generally is that they show virtually clean windows installations vs virtually clean windows installations, which is not how the real world works. In the real world you have a computer loaded with software and system tray icons/apps and lots of background programs loaded. The Optane high random read rate seems to really shine with real world uses. 

The rumor is that in Q2 2019 Intel will be releasing the 3rd Gen Optane with 4x PCI lanes and an even faster interface. I am looking forward to trying that out.