Intel SSD Size
Last response: in Storage
Hi,
My friend has both the 80GB and 160GB X25-M SSD drives he's willing to sell me at a discounted price. The amount of savings are somewhat irrelevant, so the major deciding factor is size, really.
I just want to install the OS and frequently used programs (browsers, nothing huge outside of iTunes and Office), plus a few games if possible. Of course, I do want some spare room on the side (although I hear lots of SSD drives nowadays have a few GB of space allocated already) to increase optimization.
It would make sense that the 80GB would be all I need, but I hear lots of people who purchased smaller SSD drives wish they got larger 100GB+ SSD drives in hindsight. In trying to prepare for this, should I get the 160GB or is the 80GB more than enough?
On a side note, I know you're suppossed to install files that minimize write frequency to the drive, but don't drivers and program patches update frequently?
Thanks for the help!
My friend has both the 80GB and 160GB X25-M SSD drives he's willing to sell me at a discounted price. The amount of savings are somewhat irrelevant, so the major deciding factor is size, really.
I just want to install the OS and frequently used programs (browsers, nothing huge outside of iTunes and Office), plus a few games if possible. Of course, I do want some spare room on the side (although I hear lots of SSD drives nowadays have a few GB of space allocated already) to increase optimization.
It would make sense that the 80GB would be all I need, but I hear lots of people who purchased smaller SSD drives wish they got larger 100GB+ SSD drives in hindsight. In trying to prepare for this, should I get the 160GB or is the 80GB more than enough?
On a side note, I know you're suppossed to install files that minimize write frequency to the drive, but don't drivers and program patches update frequently?
Thanks for the help!
More about : intel ssd size
If one 80GB is not enough, you can buy another and put in RAID0 (would mean you have to backup and work with some imaging apps or use an Ubuntu livecd for this).
The 160GB is not really faster than the 80GB; while RAID0 can improve speeds quite nicely though.
What do you mean with "install files that minimize write frequency" ? You shouldn't worry on writes too much; Intel is one of the best SSDs for random writes. Just make sure the SSD has spare room, so create a partition smaller than the full capacity. You can reserve 5GB, 10GB or 20GB.
Remember that when using RAID, you can't use TRIM at the moment. You did not specify which OS you run, if you use Windows 7 you would have TRIM support if you use the Microsoft AHCI driver.
The 160GB is not really faster than the 80GB; while RAID0 can improve speeds quite nicely though.
What do you mean with "install files that minimize write frequency" ? You shouldn't worry on writes too much; Intel is one of the best SSDs for random writes. Just make sure the SSD has spare room, so create a partition smaller than the full capacity. You can reserve 5GB, 10GB or 20GB.
Remember that when using RAID, you can't use TRIM at the moment. You did not specify which OS you run, if you use Windows 7 you would have TRIM support if you use the Microsoft AHCI driver.
Best solution
I've never seen anyone post about having bought an SSD that was too large...
I went with a 160GB SSD because (a) I install a lot of applications, and (b) I'm expecting my system to last for 5 years or more. Long experience tells me not to undersize things.
Right now my OS drive is only 37% full. That sounds like a waste, but if I had bought the 80GB drive then it would be 74% full and at that point I would be starting to get uncomfortable considering my system is only a few months old.
It's true that there are a lot of patches, but in terms of the overall drive they're awfully trivial. The entire OS only uses about 10GB or so, and Intel has stated that their drives will last for at least 5 years even if you write 20GB to them every day. That's equivalent to two complete daily reinstalls of the OS! By comparison a few MB of patches every month is nothing to worry about. You'd have to go through something close to 1000 patch cycles to write as much as the OS install does.
I went with a 160GB SSD because (a) I install a lot of applications, and (b) I'm expecting my system to last for 5 years or more. Long experience tells me not to undersize things.
Right now my OS drive is only 37% full. That sounds like a waste, but if I had bought the 80GB drive then it would be 74% full and at that point I would be starting to get uncomfortable considering my system is only a few months old.
It's true that there are a lot of patches, but in terms of the overall drive they're awfully trivial. The entire OS only uses about 10GB or so, and Intel has stated that their drives will last for at least 5 years even if you write 20GB to them every day. That's equivalent to two complete daily reinstalls of the OS! By comparison a few MB of patches every month is nothing to worry about. You'd have to go through something close to 1000 patch cycles to write as much as the OS install does.
I have the 80GB(74.4GB in the OS) Version of intel's drive and using around 34GB's of it ![:)]( ":)")
I have Office XP 2007...visual studio, photoshop, a few games, and utilitary applications. Windows 7 is less then 8GB when installed. Just calculate how much space you use/need/want and get an SSD based on that and leave a good sized buffer for extras ![:)]( ":)")
I have Office XP 2007...visual studio, photoshop, a few games, and utilitary applications. Windows 7 is less then 8GB when installed. Just calculate how much space you use/need/want and get an SSD based on that and leave a good sized buffer for extras
I have been using 80GB intel g2 since it's release. I currently use about 40GB.
I have Windows 7 x64 sp1, adobe acrobat, photoshop cs3, office 2010, visio 2010, vmware 7.1, chrome, thunderbird, some small utilities, and ubuntu vmware image (5GB). I only have about 2 GB worth of music, and 8 GB worth of video files (lectures) on the SSD.
I'm sure if I had a 500 GB HDD, I would have had about half of it filled. I usually carry two external 320GB drives in one pouch, but don't use them often. One for backup of whole drive, and the other for software installation files.
So if you are going for the 80 GB SSD, you should keep in mind all time, about the storage space and try to manage what you keep on the SSD. If 160 GB SSD price isn't really that much of a hit, go for that. But prices will drop as time goes by. I wouldn't recommend anything smaller than 80 GB though.
I have Windows 7 x64 sp1, adobe acrobat, photoshop cs3, office 2010, visio 2010, vmware 7.1, chrome, thunderbird, some small utilities, and ubuntu vmware image (5GB). I only have about 2 GB worth of music, and 8 GB worth of video files (lectures) on the SSD.
I'm sure if I had a 500 GB HDD, I would have had about half of it filled. I usually carry two external 320GB drives in one pouch, but don't use them often. One for backup of whole drive, and the other for software installation files.
So if you are going for the 80 GB SSD, you should keep in mind all time, about the storage space and try to manage what you keep on the SSD. If 160 GB SSD price isn't really that much of a hit, go for that. But prices will drop as time goes by. I wouldn't recommend anything smaller than 80 GB though.
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