is a 64GB SSD enough

[gilljoy]

Hey all quick question,

Looking to pick up new SSD looking at either an OCZ agility3 when its released for a Crucial M4

Both would be the 64gb model.

Just wondering if 64gb would be enough for windows 7, office and possibly one or two games? such as BFBC:2 and shogun 2?

Dont wana buy one and be constantly strugling for space. Gona keep all of my media files on my Samsung spinpoint F3 1tb.

Anyone have the same apprehension before purchase as me who could share their oppinion would be great

 

[beginner99]

The games can be an issue. The use a lot of space. Just windows and office is no problem.

Put the games on the HDD. They don't benefit much anyway from the ssd. I have them on a green drive. works fine.

 

[khon]

No, it probably isn't.

First of all a 64GB SSD doesn't mean you'll have 64GB of free space.

Secondly Windows + 1/2 games could easily end up being over 60 GB.

80GB might work, but it would be tight. 100GB would give you a bit of breathing room, and 120GB would give you space to spare.

I have a 120GB SSD, with Windows 7 + 2 Games (WoW + SC2) + MS office on it, and I have around 40GB of empty space.

 

[gilljoy]

No, it probably isn't.

First of all a 64GB SSD doesn't mean you'll have 64GB of free space.

Secondly Windows + 1/2 games could easily end up being over 60 GB.

80GB might work, but it would be tight. 100GB would give you a bit of breathing room, and 120GB would give you space to spare.

I have a 120GB SSD, with Windows 7 + 2 Games (WoW + SC2) + MS office on it, and I have around 40GB of empty space.

Is world of warcraft not quite large?

I'm quite suprised that with them 2 games and Win 7 your using up 80gb of space.

Hmmh i duno now

 

[deimos3428]

Games can be an issue. You can resolve it with junctions if you have a second disk.

 

[gilljoy]

so 64gb would be fine for just windows 7, office and have the games on a separate drive?

Mite just pick up an m4 today if thats the case

 

[Sureshot324]

Wow is taking up 21GB on my machine. It might be larger now since I haven't played/updated it for a while. That's an exception though. I don't have any other games that exceed 9gb.

I would save for a 120gb SSD.

 

[gilljoy]

Wow is taking up 21GB on my machine. It might be larger now since I haven't played/updated it for a while. That's an exception though. I don't have any other games that exceed 9gb.

I would save for a 120gb SSD.

mite just have to spend the extra £70.

Not sure if its worth it if my games are gona be on my F3 along with my media

 

[alaricljs]

My Win7 install takes ~18.5 GB. hybernation file deleted, pile of random small apps, OpenOffice, Acrobat Pro, if I got around to throwing PS and tools on that might take another gig.

Windows really isn't *that* big. Of course, it's still way bigger than it should be

 

[gilljoy]

hmmh im still not sure wither 64gb would be enough in the long run dont wana be out more cash

 

[groberts101]

can be easily done of you know how. I can use a 30GB drive and make that work(barely though with not much space left) so I know for a fact that a 60 gig drive is plenty if you don't mind uninstalling before moving to a new poison.

A comparible install without those games is less than 10 gigs and is really easy to do. Firts off many don't know how to properly delete the hiberfile and simply shut it off with the power options. You MUST use an elevated CMD propmpt to delete it by typing: powercfg -h off.

Then shrink the pagefile to 1024(or none if you have at least 6 gigs of ram or more) or move it to another drive followed by shutting off system restore.

Can then disable drive indexing and run a little one click app called SSD Tweaker to get rid of a few more writes and usless crap. Also consider using CCleaner(just be sure to NOT wipe free space as it writes 00's(HDD data) instead of the necessary 11's(SSD).

Those few tweaks and adjustments alone can get back 10 gigs of space depending on the amount of ram installed. Personally, I'd get a smaller SSD and then get another similar size when funds permit to tie them together in R0. Greater capacity with a nice speed boost as a cherry on top.

 

[gilljoy]

can be easily done of you know how. I can use a 30GB drive and make that work(barely though with not much space left) so I know for a fact that a 60 gig drive is plenty if you don't mind uninstalling before moving to a new poison.

A comparible install without those games is less than 10 gigs and is really easy to do. Firts off many don't know how to properly delete the hiberfile and simply shut it off with the power options. You MUST use an elevated CMD propmpt to delete it by typing: powercfg -h off.

Then shrink the pagefile to 1024(or none if you have at least 6 gigs of ram or more) or move it to another drive followed by shutting off system restore.

Can then disable drive indexing and run a little one click app called SSD Tweaker to get rid of a few more writes and usless crap. Also consider using CCleaner(just be sure to NOT wipe free space as it writes 00's(HDD data) instead of the necessary 11's(SSD).

Those few tweaks and adjustments alone can get back 10 gigs of space depending on the amount of ram installed. Personally, I'd get a smaller SSD and then get another similar size when funds permit to tie them together in R0. Greater capacity with a nice speed boost as a cherry on top.

I like the sounds of this,

So since I've got 6gb of ram I can just get rid of the page file? Will that not cause some system issues?

So if i get one I can do the following:
1. delete and disable hibernation, never use it anways
2. Remove system restore, again never used
3. Keep games on seprate Hdd and have favourite on SSD.

This sounds a like a plan

 

[alaricljs]

As to the pagefile, it depends on what apps you use. There are still some apps that freak out if there is no pagefile even if you never hit it. The safest way to do it has been posted here a few times. You basically shrink the pagefile to minimal (~256MB) and go on with your life, come back and see how big it's gotten. Set a maximum slightly above that for some breathing room.

As for your 3 step plan, basically yeah. I even do all that on my HDD installs.

 

[groberts101]

yep you can disable the swap file if you never bump into it during your heavier workloads. Open resource monitor and click the memory tab to see what you use when doing your typical tasks/games. In fact, push it a bit harder than normal and see if you even get close to using it all. Most don't use as much as they think they do and just because Windows CAN use it.. doesn't mean that it DOES use it.

I started out using SSD with only 30 gigs and the above tweaks made it tolerable until I added another 5 drives for an uber-fast 6 drive array.

The biggest thing to remember with limited free space availability for an SSD is that the free space is your "write reserve" which reduces the tendency for speed degradation due to a completely dirty drive. Easy to overcome that by allowing as much free space as possible(never exceed about 75% of capacity with stored data/apps/OS) and allow some additional logged off idle time for garbage collection to keep things nice and clean from the mess you created(writes) when using it.

 

[gilljoy]

Brilliant,

now I just need to decide wither or not to wait for the OCZ agility 3 models to come out

 

[GrimReepr]

even after moving the page file and deleting the stupid 3gig hibernation file, i still couldn't handle even an 80gig drive. i have an intel 120ssd. only 30gigs free with a few games and cs5/lightroom on it

 

[gilljoy]

even after moving the page file and deleting the stupid 3gig hibernation file, i still couldn't handle even an 80gig drive. i have an intel 120ssd. only 30gigs free with a few games and cs5/lightroom on it

hmmh,

I've ordred the 64gb model.

I can always sell it in 2/3 months and get a higher capicity or use it in my macbook.

SSD's seem to hold their value and £91 seems a low enough price to give it a go.

+ just added up all my game installs, steam folder and media and it accounts for 235gb of my total usage. 64gb should be grand just for windows

 

[Seero]

window vista/7 itself takes around 30 gb after patch+cleanup+optimize. You can put 1-2 games on it but that is it. Mind you that windows does grow due to cache and alike.

The one thing cool you can use is "junction point". You can point your folder in one drive to another drive so when you save stuffs in c:\download, it actually stores it on another drive in another folder.

 

[Emulex]

no not really. esp if its a sandforce that leaves you with 50-55gb formatted

 

[SickBeast]

OP, 64gb is enough for what you're trying to do. I have a 60gb SSD (55gb formatted) and I have enough room for Windows 7 x64, all my apps, and 3 games, with around 20gb to spare.

 

[stahlhart]

Windows 7, Office 2010 Professional and whatever else installed on C: that I had no control over gets me to about 35Gb on the SSD, so with a few games I think you'll be close to the 75% mentioned, but okay.

I went with the 120Gb because everyone here was saying that the higher capacity drives performed better.

 

[Elixer]

For what it is worth, for a basic windows 7 + office, yeah, should be OK, however, if you keep your user directory in the default area, then all bets are off once games come into this.
There are some games out there that can chew through GBs for savegames, and you also have everything else saving on the SSD as well.

If you are a developer, then 120GB isn't enough for all your compilers / SDKs.

There are also some programs that force you to install on the system driver, but that is another topic.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Should be plenty. I have Windows 7 + hiberfil.sys + Office 2010 Enterprise edition + all my other programs on my 60GB SSD, and I still have 20GB left over.

 

[RU482]

I have a win 7 32bit footprint of just around 6GB.

They key is to right click on Computer-> properties -> Advanced System Settings -> performance, settings -> advanced -> change, then uncheck "automatically manage paging file size for all drives", check "custom size", and enter 512 as the minimum, and whatever the hell you want as the maximum. Click Set, then OK, OK, OK, OK and reboot.
I've heard there are other things that can be done to eliminate the hiberfil file too, but I haven't gone there.

 

[Emulex]

how about 16gb swap and 16gb hiberfil for that 55gb drive?