Could I use a 60-64 gb ssd for a windows 7 boot drive?

silverstormz said:

I have 2 hdd's for storage and only realy intend the ssd for boot and some basic stuff like a few movies/pics so with that said would a 120gb not just be a bit of a waste?

Putting movies or games on a SSD is a waste of space. The SSD will not make the movies any better. If you put all of your programs on the SSD they will open faster and streamline the overall process.

X2 on the Samsung 840 Pro (not the 840) based on reviews and specs. I just received a 128GB 840 Pro earlier this week. It tested ok but I won't actually install it for a month or two (I got it on sale).

The 840 Pro has two more years warranty (five years) than the 840 (three years) and uses the proven MLC technology instead of the 840's new, unproven TLC technology which, in theory, will not be as durable as MLC (the technology is too new for results based on actual use to be in yet). The increased warranty alone justifies the higher price of the 840 Pro over the 840.

To get the most benefit from an SSD, you should put both the OS and your programs on the SSD. Even if you don't use but a third of the 128GB, the extra head room will help somewhat with performance, wear leveling, and leave room for expansion.

If you suffer with greed or need for speed, you could get two 64 GB SSDs and run them in RAID 0. That would dramatically increase the already lightning fast speeds of single SSDs. You could even get one 64GB now and add the second later once the funds roll in (you would have to do a clean install to set up the RAID) just so long as there isin't too much time between the two (drives in a RAID need to be indentical and wear on one might affect performance). Keep in mind running two in RAID doubles the chance for failure (and if you lose one, the other will have to be rebuilt).

All my three desktops run on 60GB SSDs - and that since years. I never was short in space. At times I was even running 2 virtual machines in addition (Win8 test and Ubuntu). That still left me 10GBs free space.

I've been waiting for the larger capacity SSDs to start coming down in price as well as them coming out with them. The Micron was the first sign of hope in that direction for seeing a 1tb model replace the Sata II mechanical for the host OS drive here.

Generally I keep all programs and files on one main drive rather then seeing the delay in access time you would run into having programs installed elsewhere. With everything on one I have to agree with the far less overhead as well as why a 120gb would be a better move especially if you are running the 32bit not 64bit 7 there.

You have to allow for more paging space since the 32bit sees more swapping out to the drive. Having a larger drive also allow you to add more programs later and not run into a drive space problem when a smaller 60gb becomes too cramped. Having a good 100gb or more for the OS is always a better move to be prepared for possible future expansion without the need of replacing one drive for another later from not having that extra space to work with.

I would never plan on anything over 1tb for the host OS drive to begin with. New 8 desktops are now seeing 2tb drives while the better move is simply adding in one or more larger storage drives for data and system images.

As far as seeing two SSDs in any Raid array that would seem to defeat the purpose of even going with SSDs to start with. Arrays are best left for storage and server applications.

With the findings here Sata II drives are better for OSing while keeping any Sata IIIs for storage/backup unless you have a newer board that only sees S3 ports. Initially when getting the present build together I ran 7 on one of the S3 drives and then after another install was needed onto one of the IIs and no biggie seen as far as any performance hit.

A 1tb SSD would eventually do better when the time comes since I tend to keep large folders on the host drive mainly for the collection(Steam mods) seen. The video files here are not keep indefinitely but are video captures that can accumilate until nuked entirely for temp vcd projects. Don't worry the 358gb steam folder is backed up on one of the storage drives as well as included in at least one system image.

essenbe said:

That size will work just fine if you put games and user files on another drive. Windows 7 will take up 16GB on a clean install. I ran Windows 7 on a 64GB SSD for over a year and never ran out of space. I have a 128Gb on this computer but have only used about 35GB. That includes Microsoft office and quite a few other programs. You will be fine with that and a data drive too.

Windows and apps will only use about half of it.
A game or two will still fit, or some level of personal files.
When I had my 64 it had windows plus several games on it, and room to spare still.
Also with SSD's filling it up isn't a issue as performance doesn't degrade when you fill them the way it does with mechanicals.


Honestly I think people over baby their ssd drives.