How Much Hard Drive Do I Really Need?

Getting ready to pull the trigger and order a customized dv7t but struggling with how much hard drive we will really need.

This will be our primary pc, moving away from a desktop, but we are NOT gamers. Thought it best to put money in the processor and memory since we are good about backing up photos, etc.

PC will have MS Office Standard and some photo editing software but not loaded down with other memory hogging programs.

Can I get by with 256GB?

Or is there a really compelling reason to move to 320 or the dual hard drives?

Please advise ASAP.

 

The nice thing about both RAM and HDs is that they are easy to replace by yourself. If you did decide to get a bigger HD down the road we on the forums would be able to help you install it with tutorials and the like and you'd be able to do it for sure!!

But yeah, I think for you 250 GB should be plenty.

Hope this helps!

 

get a 320gb 7200 rpm hdd

 

I don't think you will need more than 250GB. Maybe if you do a lot of movie editing and the like you may, but you don't have too many things that will eat up hard drive space.

 

Before just taking people's advice on what drive to take, you might want to tell us what apps you run, how much space you currently use, etc.

 

also how much media do you have - movies? music? how about digital movies you take with your camera (if you do) - do you take a lot of digital pictures? how many megapixel?

asking a q like how much hard drive do i need is like asking how much money could one person need. it's entirely up to the individual and their needs, etc.

if you have 3 options (as an example, 200 gigs, 250 gigs and 320gigs), and you are still UNSURE as to how much you need, go with the middle option - 250 gigs.

even though 200 gigs is good enough for many people, we do not have sufficient info to give you better suggestions.

 

additionally - drive prices are so cheap now. a 320 gig western digital drive is like $120 or so - so you always have the option of going larger later. personally, im moving up to dual 500gb drives once the prices come down from $190 each. im going to buy when they're at like $120/$130 a piece - which is like 2 years from now. LOL

 

Harddrives are easy to replace or upgrade. Go with the middle ground as some have suggested and then upgrade later. Put your money in the stuff you can't easily change, like Processor.



I get the sense that you are confusing memory and hdd space. Neither process or memory will help you backup photos in terms of space. Just think if each picture is roughly 2-3 MB, 1 GB can hold 400-500 pictures.

 

haha yeah it's true. HDs are getting cheap. I know that you can get a top of the line 320 GB 7200 RPM Seagate for like $130 on newegg.

 

Everyone seems to be assuming that bigger is better. Don't forget that with a laptop, bigger can also mean more power consumption (less battery life) and more heat. So check the specs on the drive at the manufacturer site. I would go with the smaller drive and backup any photos to an external drive or desktop - especially since many of the latest HP laptops run HOT, which is a killer of hard drives. I do a lot of photo stuff and have a long way to go to fill up a 120GB drive.

 

^ excellent point. i got an external 750 gig drive recently at staples. it was a 750gb mybook, western digital, and i got it for $119, or around $130 after taxes. i have maybe 400gigs used on it as of right now - with ALL my media as a backup. at the same time, much of that media (movies, mp3s) is also on my laptop so i can access it anytime without having to copy over 4 gigs each time i want to watch a movie.

as for pictures, i have two sandisk cruzer 8gb drives which i use to backup all my pics. they're dirt cheap on amazon right now - like $24 bucks each - in case you want to get those just for your pictures.