What’s the Deal with That 32GB NVMe in My HP 880 Gaming PC?
I recently picked up an older HP 880 gaming desktop and noticed something odd: it came with a 32GB NVMe drive pre-installed, and no other storage device was present.
Naturally, I tried installing Windows directly onto the 32GB NVMe, but the installer couldn’t detect it at all. That was my first clue something was off. To proceed, I installed a standard hard drive and successfully installed Windows there. Interestingly, during the installation process, the system still didn’t show the 32GB NVMe as a usable drive.
So what’s that mysterious 32GB module actually doing?
That’s when I noticed something impressive—this system boots incredibly fast. I’m a longtime Mac user, and I’ve always appreciated macOS for its snappy boot times, but this Windows machine caught me off guard. From BIOS splash to login screen in under five seconds—faster than many modern Macs I’ve used. And keep in mind, this is a 6-year-old PC.
Curious, I dug deeper.
It turns out that the 32GB NVMe isn’t a standard SSD—it’s Intel Optane Memory. Unlike regular storage, Optane acts as a cache drive. It’s designed to accelerate slower storage devices (like HDDs) by caching frequently accessed data and applications. That explains the performance boost, especially during boot-up.
So while the Optane module isn’t visible as a traditional drive during OS installation, it’s quietly doing its job in the background—dramatically speeding things up without you even noticing.
Mystery solved: that 32GB isn’t wasted space—it’s smart cache.
Naturally, I tried installing Windows directly onto the 32GB NVMe, but the installer couldn’t detect it at all. That was my first clue something was off. To proceed, I installed a standard hard drive and successfully installed Windows there. Interestingly, during the installation process, the system still didn’t show the 32GB NVMe as a usable drive.
So what’s that mysterious 32GB module actually doing?
That’s when I noticed something impressive—this system boots incredibly fast. I’m a longtime Mac user, and I’ve always appreciated macOS for its snappy boot times, but this Windows machine caught me off guard. From BIOS splash to login screen in under five seconds—faster than many modern Macs I’ve used. And keep in mind, this is a 6-year-old PC.
Curious, I dug deeper.
It turns out that the 32GB NVMe isn’t a standard SSD—it’s Intel Optane Memory. Unlike regular storage, Optane acts as a cache drive. It’s designed to accelerate slower storage devices (like HDDs) by caching frequently accessed data and applications. That explains the performance boost, especially during boot-up.
So while the Optane module isn’t visible as a traditional drive during OS installation, it’s quietly doing its job in the background—dramatically speeding things up without you even noticing.
Mystery solved: that 32GB isn’t wasted space—it’s smart cache.