Should I go with a 128 or 256 SSD drive array? (Also, do SSD benefit from having more free space?)

I just configured my vaio Z and am wondering if I made a mistake by spending $300 on a 256 GB SSD array (2 -1 28 drives). Originally I had gone with the 128 GB array (2-64 GB SSD Drives), but people on the forum remarked that it was too small, but I don’t know about that. Hopefully someone can help me out. Here are the factors as I see them:

Reasons to go with a bigger drive:
-Future proofing the computer (this will be my main laptop for 3-5 years)
-I could use the extra space for memory caching (page files) which supposed works as fast as ram.
-Have more storage space for files (while I could use an eternal drive, this computer (Sony Vaio Z) does not have firewire, esata or USB 3 so transfer rates will suffer somewhat. By having a larger SSD I would have to do less transferring.

Reasons to go with the smaller drive:
-CHEAPER (a lot cheaper! - $300)
-I have trained myself to just keep essential files and whatever media I am working on at the moment in the on-board hard drive and keep everything else on an external. It really has not bothered me. I mean why keep files on the laptop if I can just keep them on an external, I really don’t use very much when I am mobile and when I need it (like music and movie files as well as storage for media recorded while on vacation.) I can just bring an external along.

Question: Do SSD perform any worse when they are full? Or are they like standard hard drives that work better when they have space?

I look forward to your thoughts. Any help would be greatly appreciated, whether it be a comment, suggestion, criticism etc.

Regards,
Mario

 

128GB should be more than enough in my opinion. Although you are into video editing, so I'm not sure.

I had a 40GB Intel SSD in my laptop, with a little bit of management I still had 20GB free space. Now I have a 500GB HDD and I use 300GB.

Whether your SSD slows down when it's full: possibly yes. It depends on the type how much. I don't think it will be a problem up to 80%.

I've read that it's not easy to replace the SSD in Sony Z (impossible?). You may want to take that into account to.

 

If by array you mean RAID-0, then you need to realize that TRIM isn't supported yet on RAID-0.

 

Yeah, I am still trying to figure out that whole trim support thing. I got to get on that.

While I do like to edit video, I don't think I would be editing more than an hour long file which is 60 gb uncompressed. Considering that I will only have 100 gb left after windows 7 install, I would only have 40 GB left, so things will be getting tight, even with minimal data occupying the drive. Looks like I made the right decision, especially considering that the drive is really hard to upgrade.