Solved Will a 64gb SSD be big enough for...

[James7679]

OS(Windows 7x64 Premium)
BF3
Associated drivers

If so, besides the OS and BF3 what else NEEDS to be installed on the SSD for it to efficient?

One fell into my lap, wondering if I can use it or not.

 

[fseal]

yeah it'll work, sort of just barely You'll have to nix the hibernate file and watch what you install on the drive but it'll work. 64 gig == 59 gig formatted - 25 or 30 gig for windows you'll have about 30 gig left (after you kill the hiberbate file).

In time you'll probably be fighting to clear space on it all the time though.

 

[James7679]

Kill the hibernate file? How would I do that?

What other files should I install on it? Nvidia drivers, mobo drivers, etc...?

 

[fseal]

You can turn off the ability to hibernate in the windows settings. If you have 8 gigs of ram it creates an 8 gig hibernate file and uses up 8 gig of your precious SSD (Or you can move it to another drive, but you definitely want it off your SSD).

The 25-30 gig value is for windows and all updates and drivers... What you add after that in programs.. What is BF3? 5? 10? 15? Gig?

 

[bassfisher6522]

As fseal stated...the 64gb will just barely cover it. I would opt for the 128 gb if you can. It's almost double in price but well worth the peace of mind on size limitation.

 

[James7679]

Well, this one was free. And having just bought an Evga 580 gtx 3 gig, I don't have the money right now.

 

[fseal]

It's certainly worth playing with

Just keep your current installed drive safe, replace it with the SSD, install windows, update, drivers and BF3 and see how you like it! (Specifically, do NOT keep your current working windows C drive in the machine when playing with the SSD, take it out and keep it safe so there are no mistakes)

My guess is your going to HATE going back to the old drive

 

[James7679]

@fseal, that's a good idea. I'll load all my drivers on my flash drive and give it a shot. Is it possible to install things like media center and media player on one of my other drives? Is there any other fat to trim?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

In my experience a bare Windows 7 install is under 20 GB. I have 50 apps installed and my total occupied space is 27 GB.

You can move the page file to another drive and/or reduce its size.

You can also limit or entirely turn off System Restore, which usually takes up 5 or 10 GB if you don't check on it.

 

[James7679]

In my experience a bare Windows 7 install is under 20 GB. I have 50 apps installed and my total occupied space is 27 GB.

You can move the page file to another drive and/or reduce its size.

You can also limit or entirely turn off System Restore, which usually takes up 5 or 10 GB if you don't check on it.

I would use one of my other drives for page file, for sure.

System restore...
Do you mean Backup and Restore? If so, My main drive, backs up to another drive, not on itself.

Thank you all for your recommendations.

 

[whs]

Both my desktops have 60GB SSDs and I never ran out of space. Always have appr. 30GB free and I even run Ubuntu as /7 guest system in a Virtual Box. No need to move the pagefile. Just reduce it to 2GB - that is plenty. Just move the user data to the HDD.

 

[DeaconFrost]

You should have plenty of space, if that's all you have installed. However, if this is a tower computer, you can always use an HDD for D, and create a folder called D:\Games to store BF3.

 

[James7679]

You should have plenty of space, if that's all you have installed. However, if this is a tower computer, you can always use an HDD for D, and create a folder called D:\Games to store BF3.

Yes, it's a Combo system(Gaming, Media, etc)

I would prefer to have BF3 on the SSD, load times are ridiculous with the mechanical drives.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

System restore...
Do you mean Backup and Restore? If so, My main drive, backs up to another drive, not on itself.

No, I mean System Restore.

It is a means of "rolling back" the registry to a previous time, typically to get out of a jam of some type. Windows Backup and Restore is something else entirely.

System Restore works quite well in my experience, but it does take up space. I have about 7 GB devoted to it, which at any given time encompasses about 15 "restore points" dating back 2 or 3 weeks.

The amount of space devoted to it is easily controlled by a slider--you can set it to 0 if you want. I'm not sure what the default is.

 

[whs]

How big is BF3 ??

 

[DeaconFrost]

I would prefer to have BF3 on the SSD, load times are ridiculous with the mechanical drives.

It didn't seem that bad for me, loading off my WD Caviar 750 GB. Hard drive speed isn't going to have any affect on in-game action.

If you are truly worried about it, then sell the 64 GB off and get a larger drive. There are some great deals on 128 GB drives right now.

 

[fseal]

I stuck skyrim on my SSD, that entire game is about loading screens

So depends on the game, but Skyrim on the SSD was a must!

 

[James7679]

How big is BF3 ??

I'm on my work pc right now, so I am not 100% sure. I know BF2 final was like 13gb. BF3 initial was like 8gb. It has updated quite a few times already, so I'd say it's approaching 13gb currently.

 

[James7679]

Okay, so here's where I stand.
1. Disconnect current Primary HDD
2. Install SSD as primary
3. Install OS
4. Install Drivers
5. Update OS
6. Change page file to secondary HDD(Where do I change the drive used?) or reduce to minimal(2gb?)
7. Change System Restore to either secondary HDD(Where do I change the save to point?) or reduce to minimal
8. Turn off Hibernate or move to secondary HDD(How do I move it?)
9. Install Origin and Battlefield 3

Anything else here that I am missing?
Oh, and do I just cut n paste my user directory to the secondary? Will the shortcuts still work or will they have to be reset? I've never really screwed with Windows settings too much.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I don't think you can move hibernate or System Restore.

Hibernate you turn off with a command. I think it is "power -cfg off" or something close to that.

You can adjust System Restore through Control Panel/system/system protection/configure.

Page file is at control panel/system/advanced system settings/performance/settings/advanced.