is 64G enough for a boot drive?

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Weaksauce
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Nov 25, 2011
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I am about to buy my first ssd. Most of the reviews I have read say that most of the benefit comes from using it as a boot drive - the benefit to gaming isnt as great.

So, I was just going to get a small one (a 64g crucial m4) to use as a boot drive and a few comon programs, but I am concerned that I will be dissappointed with the size and regret the purchase, especially if they slow down as you fil them.

Should I wait untill I can afford a bigger one, or will the 64g be fine for what I plan on doing?

thanks
 
It should be fine but you can mitigate some of the space concerns by disabling the hibernate file (if you don't need hibernation) and shrinking the page file down to like 1-2 GB (if you have enough RAM and don't need swap).

I'm assuming you're talking about a Windows install here. A base Ubuntu / OS X install is like 5-6 GB so for those instances it's a no-brainer. You can get away with 64 GB for Windows though. My somewhat clean Windows 7 install is about 25 GB. If you can wait for a 120/128 GB drive, that wouldn't be such a bad idea... prices might come down in the meantime. But if there's a deal you want to jump on, 64 GB should be fine.
 
I Run a Dual drive system in my laptop. I have a 30GB Boot drive, and i swap out my DVD drive for a 750GB HD. I love how quick my laptop boots up and I won't go back. I also running a raid 1 256 SSD on my desktop and that is night and day.

One Problem I have is that, when i install program, it so easy to forget to make sure everything is installed on your 2nd HDD, and some program won't let you install on another drive. But 30GB is way too small for win7, but i made it work. So a 64 should give you more room then me.
 
I have a 64g crucial m4 on my desktop. I have win7, ms office, mathematica, adobe illustrator/photoshop and some scientific stuff and a couple small games still got 20 gigs free. All my docs/data/media is on my NAS accessed via gigabit. The NAS has slower sequential speed compared to a local raid but SSD caching on the NAS makes it perform quite well.

64g is great if you dont have tons of steam games you want to put on it!
 
i too have a 64GB SSD as a boot drive. Plenty of space.
Windows 7
All my drivers
Office 2010
Firefox
Skype
Skyrim
etc.
 
In addition to the two main space saving tips already mentioned (disable hibernate & tweak page file size), the other thing worth mentioning is System Restore... If you have any other form of backup (monthly drive imaging, etc.) then SR is kinda redundant and all the SR restore points add up over time, so disabling it or limiting the % of disk space available to it is another worthwhile tweak.

I get by w/40GB on my netbook so 64GB is definitely doable, tho I'll soon be moving that 40GB X25-V to an old desktop and I'll be putting my 80GB X25-M on the netbook (desktop got an upgrade to 120GB).
 
My Windows 7 install is only 13.9 GB. The two biggest things I have installed are Photoshop CS4 and Office 2k7. I have no hibernation file, no page file, no system restore (it doesn't work anyway), and no Recycling Bin. I have basically no Windows packages installed. I always uninstall IE and all the media crap. I just keep an image of the install backed up on my actual storage array. So a 64GB SSD is plenty for most people.
 
Due to some misfortune in my life a few years ago, I suddenly found myself with the time and money to play with SSDs. I bought a bunch of 30 and 60 gig drives that I played with in various configurations. Now they are all annoyingly cramped and I truly wish I had purchased fewer and larger drives at every step.

So, if you can spend a bit more for that 80 or 120 gig drive, think about it. Your storage needs will never go down.


Don
 
I agree, but I with xmas coming up, discretionary funds are tight

I bought the 64g m4 yesterday.
I figure it is easy enough to add a bigger storage ssd later, then I would get something in the 120-240 range.. hopefully prices will continue to drop.

I dont figure it would be a bad setup to have a small one for boot, a big one for games, and a spinner for music/pics.
 
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