128 SSD - Space left after OS X and Win 7

Hi guys,

After my Asus g73 had problems, and i got the money back, i am concidering buying a MBP 15¨. I really want and SSD disk, so i am concidering buying the 128 SSD. I usually never use a lot of space on my computer, just for having 2-3 games installed, and maybe 20 gb for tv shows etc and the rest on an external hardrive.

My question is then, if i had a 128 SSD, after a full compleate OS X and a WIN 7 bootdrive, do you know how much space would be left for casual activities?

Thanks

 

It all depends on how much space you allocate for Windows and OS X. Bootcamp gives you plenty of options so you can setup the Windows partition to whatever size you want. I believe Windows 7 Home Premium (the 64-bit release which you will need if you want to fully access 4GB of RAM or more) requires a minimum of 20GB but you will likely want to allocate 40-50GB just so you have some space to install whatever programs you want.

So, if you take a 128GB SSD drive (which you should buy and install yourself as Apple's prices are expensive and you get older technology) and allocate 50GB to Windows, that will leave you with about 74GB of free space to use under OS X. I believe OS X takes up 5GB so you will have about 65GB by the time you throw in other programs (iTunes, iPhoto, Garageband, etc.).

It is up to you to determine if having ~30GB under Windows and ~65GB under OS X is enough to store the content you want. As I said, it would be better for you to buy the SSD drive and install it yourself. Another option is the Optibay route. This is where you install the SSD drive in the location of the hard drive that comes with the 15" MBP, take the optical drive out, buy a housing bay, and put the hard drive in the location where the optical drive was stored. That way you can use the SSD for OS and program storage while the hard drive can be used for media storage. You will lose out on having a built-in optical drive but Optibay also sells an inexpensive USB enclosure for that.

Or you could just buy a USB 2.0 hard drive for all of your media storage. It is fast enough for music and video playback even if you had 1080p HD content.

 

Thanks!

I assume your numbers are without first removing what is the actually formated space due to the round-up? So i guess i will loose around 10GB there aswell.

Anyway, 60ish GB for OS x stuff should hold. Great!

Regarding buying the SSD myself. After checking the prices for a third-party SSD (not assuming whatever i can sell the standard hardrive that comes with it for) it is actually more expensive in Norway for a 128 gb. But when you say that it is older technology, is that noticable?