SSD-How many GB for Windows 7?

[itakey]

I'm considering an SSD for my new computer build (i5-2500K with 8GB or 16GB Ram). A little worried about the horror stories out there, but figured lots of people are happy with theirs so why not take the plunge.

What size drive is reasonable for Windows 7 Professional install? Right now on my current drive I'm using about 62.5GB give or take since I can clean some stuff up, but i'll probably end up installing more programs and what not.

What drive and size are at a sweet spot right now? I think I saw some deals on 120GB drives.

Brands to buy or stay away from? Anyone have a rock solid drive they recommend?

 

[Lonyo]

I've got Win 7 installed on a 96GB and I'm only using 2/3rds, and that's with some unnecessary stuff on there that I'm too lazy to move, and Starcraft 2 installed for speed purposes.

If you only want/need Win7 and maybe a couple of games or similar, 120GB is plenty.

Also, backing stuff up is sensible NO MATTER WHAT.
Whether you have an SSD or a mechanical drive, BACK YOUR STUFF UP.

 

[Zorander]

I allocate about 35GB for my Win7 install and usually have 3-5GB free space. The apps I install on that partition are pretty typical (Office, Firefox, torrent, etc). Games (Steam included) are installed in a separate partition.

The 35GB seems to be a sweet spot for me and has been working out fine for the past 2 years.

 

[Radeon962]

80gb Intel X-25M in both of my machines. One has Win 7 Home Premium the other Win 7 Pro with MS Office and the rest of normal programs. Games and data files are on a WD Black 640gb. I only use between 25gb and 30gb on both SSD's.

 

[Binky]

Just Win7 64 bit starts at maybe 17gb and grows from day one due to updates and other crap. Without programs installed, it might be difficult to grow larger than 30-40gb. My own very minimal Win7 install is pushing above 25GB after a few years, so I'd say that 30GB is the very smallest you could ever assume for the base OS.

 

[sygyzy]

I'll tell you definitely more than 40GB. I tried it and it was very uncomfortable even after taking many space saving measures.

 

[Charlie98]

I think anything in the 80-120GB range would be reasonable (I'm speaking from experience with my 60GB...) and take care of you unless you get silly with media or games.

Also, backing stuff up is sensible NO MATTER WHAT.
Whether you have an SSD or a mechanical drive, BACK YOUR STUFF UP.

^^^ THAT! I'm new to the SSD's and bought a nice SandForce-based OCZ... before I read about some of the reliability issues (that, thankfully, I have not had.) But I regularly make 2 separate backups of all my data (not just that on the SSD, but my HDD, too...) so I'm not worried.

 

[itakey]

Thanks for the suggestions. So I'm thinking a 90gb or 120gb.
Anyone have any brands or exact models you recommend?

 

[ctk1981]

Samsung 830 or Crucial M4.

 

[Shmee]

Also, keep in mind the hibernation.sys file and the pagefile.sys can get pretty huge if you have lots of ram. Since my 240 GB agility 2 died, I reinstalled with my 64 GB adata. Windows takes up about 13 GB, but the hibernation file was about 18 GB and the page file about 25 GB! Keep in mind I have 24 GB of ram. And get this, windows recomended a paging file of about 32 GB! but there was no room left on my ssd.

So, to save space, you can disable hibernation and edit the size of the pagefile, instead of letting windows managing it.

 

[DirkGently1]

160GB Intel 320's are bargaintastic right now. Great value and reliable. (I have two).

 

[itakey]

Going to check those out, thanks!
Question, could I use a program like Acronis to backup an SSD the same way I do regular hard drives? Could you then restore an image to an SSD OR a regular drive, or will that not work? I usually keep my OS, programs, and my outlook email profile files on one OS drive, and all my files on other drives. So it isn't a huge deal if not, but would be nice in case $hit ever hits the fan.

 

[Zivic]

Going to check those out, thanks!
Question, could I use a program like Acronis to backup an SSD the same way I do regular hard drives? Could you then restore an image to an SSD OR a regular drive, or will that not work? I usually keep my OS, programs, and my outlook email profile files on one OS drive, and all my files on other drives. So it isn't a huge deal if not, but would be nice in case $hit ever hits the fan.

don't know what deals are out there for the 160s currently, but a while back they were like 150 bucks AR. If you can pull that deal, they are a good buy.

IMHO stick to:
Crucial
Samsung
Intel

As far as size, 64 gig would be about as small as I would recommend... more preferably an 80 gig on the lower end. 128 is what I buy for my personal machines. Look at your current setup and space usage and go from there

I have been using acronis to image my drives. have done it numerous times.