120GB SSD Enough?

Hey guys I was looking at getting a 120 gb solid state drive instead of a 750gb 7200rpm HDD. This is mostly because of the affordability and the unaffordability of the jump to the next SSD. My question is: Is 120gb enough for runnings an OS and a few games? I own 2 external 1tbs and I would make use of it for other saves like word docs and work files.

So do you think 120gb would suffice for that? Thanks

 

If you're just using it for OS and software, IMO it's enough. If you have an ODD that you don't use, you can always swap it for a HDD in a caddy.

 

From my two computers with ssd+had, you can get away with a 64GB ssd if you're not going to put games on it, 128GB should be enough for your most frequently played games... But aside from loading faster, it doesn't do much else.

I'd also try replacing the DVD drive with an had, if you can.

 

Yes, it should be enough. I have my OS, Starcraft 2 (10 GB) and all my frequently used software on my SSD, with still 35 GB free space. So unless you currently play 4+ games or want to put WoW on it, a 120 GB should suffice!

 

My current laptop has a 160 GB SSD with no HDD, similar to the setup you're suggesting. I usually have 40-60 GB free with a few games, work files, and some multimedia stuff floating around. I could manage with 120 GB, but it would be a bit tighter. Relying on external storage for anything you regularly use on the go is not ideal, though. Anything you're going to need in a pinch should fit on the SSD.

 

I was originally going to get a 120GB SSD, but am now only considering 256GB SSD. My laptop is now 5 years old so maybe that has something to do with it, but I am looking to upgrade and think 120GB is going to be too small since I only have 10GB free now. I also only have 1 large 10GB game installed and all my docs/pics/videos are on an external NAS already.

What I've noticed is that games are much bigger now (many 10GB+). I don't know where all my space is going (maybe patches?), but even after running disk cleanup and deleting a 10GB game I downloaded from AMZN/Steam, I only have 20GB free which limits me with what game I want to install or if I want to have multiple games installed at the same time.

With digital distribution and some DRM having limited activations, I also don't want to remove old games since I would use up one activation on a re-install.

Also, when you buy and download a game from AMZN, they seem to require you to be able to have enough to download the game AND unpack it so for a 11GB game, you're probably looking at 22-24GB or so free for the download to work.

 

why don't you just add up the size of all the games/programs you plan on installing?

 

That's odd.
My HDD's C: partition is 100GB large and I have 45GB free (that's with Win 7 x64 Ultimate, MS Office 2007, Adobe CS5 - Photoshop, and 3 other programs in the group, 3d Studio Max, Star Trek Online, Star Trek Fleet Operations).

If you are using Vista, it's possible that your C drive is being taxed with shadow volume (Vista has a tendency to do that unless you manually limit it).

Other than that, try looking for accumulated junk (such as from browsing the Internet, etc.) and cleaning it up - alternatively, you can do a clean install and take it from there.

128GB SSD should be enough for the OS, installed programs and some games.
If I have at least 45GB left, then I can still put Mass Effect 2 there (which is 16.5GB large with all DLC's) and have 29.2 GB left.

 

@joecait - if you don't know where all of your disk space is going on a five year-old computer, maybe you would benefit from a complete reinstall of the OS. It sounds like you've probably got tens of gigabytes of loose files floating around that wouldn't find their way back if you reinstalled.

As for DRM activation limits, you can usually get the company to reset them with a simple email. That particular element of DRM is really intended to prevent multiple users on one copy (ala netbars) and game resale (which is often redundant with games tied to a client like Steam).

Living with a smallish SSD (and external storage) is perfectly manageable if you keep up with it, but if you feel the need to keep a significant portion of your multimedia and Steam libraries on your computer at all times, you're pretty much limited to mechanical storage for now.

 

As long as you uninstall the game as you would any other program, you would get back that install you used.

Or a really expensive 480-512 GB SSD.

 

I use a 160GB SSD as my primary and only drive in my desktop. That includes my OS, itunes and all my music and videos and three game installs (WoW, Deus Ex, SWTOR) and I still have 40GB free. Everything else that I use very, very infrequently is on an external USB 3.0 1TB HD.

Look at your current install size
Calculate how many games (if a criteria) you buy on average per year
Ascertain what are regularly used applications and are deemed worthy of taking up space on your primary storage medium
Determine your budget

 

Your caution is well founded; and I assure you that the space will fill up fast. I started my partition with 100GB and have already expanded it to 175GB, and I still have two or three more programs I need to add.

In fact, the 120GB SSD should only be considered as an ancillary data storage device. Nowadays its just way too small to be a primary HDD. In that case, the minimum should be 256GB. This is why I haven't bought one yet, it is a "luxury" I can not yet afford.

 

Thanks for all the tips!

The Shadow Copy bit was using about 4GB so I deleted all the previous ones except the most recent. Maybe it's because my C: drive is only 100GB (Dell configured it as 2 partitions, 1 is recovery) so I'm short that 10GB and 120GB isn't really 120GB (more like 110).

Looking at my current game installs and downloads, I have 5 games taking up about 27GB. Quickbooks takes like 1.2GB or so. Those are the largest items...

I suppose as you use the machine, for me at least, it's a hassle to keep uninstalling everything and you load various programs like picture and movie editors, biz apps, etc.

If I wanted to install a few larger games like Dragon Age Origins Ultimate (almost 25GB!), then I don't see how 120GB is going to be enough for me, assuming I want them all available that is at the same time. I guess that's really a "luxury" to have that option.

I tend to play a game consistently for a while, then go to another, but eventually go back to an old one so re-installing is sorta annoying.

Add in a few of the other cheap gaming deals that have been out like Witcher 1 and 2 and Divinity 2: Dragon Knight Saga and that's probably another 30GB?

In the end, it just depends on your needs so 120GB maybe enough for you, but for how I'd like to use it, I'll probably just wait longer and splurge on the 256GB option when I'm ready. I guess if your machine can use 2 drives, that's another option too, but I think a SSD is one of the "better" upgrades you can make compared to some others and the 256GB option can be had for close to double the 120GB option so there isn't a huge markup.

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I wanted to also add that a great program to use to find where you are wasting space is WinDirStat. After installing that and having it analyze my C Drive, it actually found 20GB in my AppData - Local - Microsoft - Windows Photo Gallery - Original Images folder. I use Windows Photo Gallery to do a lot of quick edits on photos and this was chewing up a ton of disk space.

I guess I can load 1 more game now on my machine.

 

Installing games on SSD is not really needed IMO, it's not like some games will take 30 sec to load on a regular HDD, games I play(witcher 2, skyrim, DA:O etc) usually take less than 10 sec to load a save, let's say putting them on a SSD may halve it to 3-4 sec, but what's the point really, you are not gonna load a save game every 3 minutes.

I only put games I want to record on the SSD so that I can set the record path to my HDD, because recording on a separate drive makes the whole thing a lot smoother and writing a lot of HUGE files on HDD isn't as bad as it does on SSD.

 

If you're talking about a new computer with the fastest drives then you're probably right. If on the other hand you have an older computer that has lost it's quickness, then putting in an SSD can be the simplest, easiest way to add a new like snappiness to an aging machine.

If all you have is one drive, then you shouldn't even consider anything less than 256GB. With the rapid proliferation of HD video, even that will be used up in a shore period of time. Nowadays, the storage conversation are in terabytes.

 

Why not run WinDirStat and see where the space went?

 

heh, depends on the game actually like shogun 2 where each battle "loading" sequence could take up to one and a half to 2 minutes per battle, putting it on the SSD made it to about a minute or 45 secs.

in any case I use GameSaveManager to move games I'm currently playing to the SSD while the bulk of my library is in the mechanical drive.


with about 4 games installed and a bunch of work software I still have about 44gig on my SSD so still more than enough.

 

Yeah, running this helped a lot. Nice little program with how it works. Thanks for the tip.