Intel also promises higher endurance than your typical SSD. The inaugural Optane model can withstand stresses normally associated with RAM, writing about 12.3 petabytes of data in its lifespan.

You can get the drive right now if you're part of Intel's early shipping program, and there are promises of larger capacities (750GB and 1.5TB) and U.2 form factors coming later in 2017. Not that you're going to drop any of them into your gaming rig any time soon. The 375GB version costs a hefty $1,520 -- even if you could realistically buy one for home use, you'd get far more value out of a high-capacity conventional SSD. Optane won't be viable for mainstream PCs (outside of tiny capacities) until prices fall much, much lower.