64GB or 120GB SSD ?

[envy14tpe]

I want to buy an SSD, but don't want to spend more money than I need to.
I want an SSD for my operating system, Photoshop Elements, Battlefield 3, and
2 more games, Microsoft Office.

What size is appropriate? It sounds like 64GB is good for operating system but I would need a lot more
if I want to put games on it. Is it worth putting games on the SSD?

Also, where I live there are no 90GB, its usually 60-64GB or 120-124+ range.

OCZ Agility 3 60GB: $66 120GB: $100
Crucial M4 64GB: $80 128GB: $116

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Get a 120 to 128 gb drive.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-147-163

 

[envy14tpe]

I live outside the U.S., in Taiwan (not Thailand where the floods were)
I haven't seen Samsung SSD here, plus that one is expensive.
I want to know how to calculate the space I will need.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

For what you listed you would need at least the 120gb.

 

[rdc85]

OS + Office and couple of program will use up to 20-30 Gb, No much room for big sized games..

Since as SDD perfomance will drop if inearing it's full capacity, it will better go with 120 Gb SSD ....

 

[dingo07]

Go bigger than 120 because you will definitely fill anything less.

 

[azathoth]

I own a 60GB Agility 3 drive, and it contains all my Applications and Battlefield 3, this alone leaves me with 12.1GB free left.

Seeing as you plan on installing some heavier applications, and two more games I suggest you go one step higher then a 60/64GB drive.

I've found the OCZ drives to be speedy, but i've also RMA'd 3 of them now. I have no personal experience with the quality of Crucial.

 

[envy14tpe]

RMA'd 3 of them! That sounds horrible.
I want reliability, and based on what you and others have said, Crucial is the better choice.

I know OCZ is fast but I don't want to deal with any failures. I've never owned a HDD that failed but imagine it be super annoying.

I wanted OCZ cuz of price, but more I hear about them the less likely to buy one of theirs.

 

[dingo07]

I had to RMA 2 x OCZ Octane 256GB (OCT1-25SAT3-256G) - big PITA, but super quick and plenty of storage for my XPS M1530 laptop

 

[jsrudd]

I could fit everything you mentioned minus games into 40gb of a 60gb drive. Games take up a ton of space so you should go with a 128gb drive.

Neverthless, I've got most of my games installed on a mechanical drive and am very happy with situation. Decide if you really want the games on the SSD because this will only effect load times.

 

[dingo07]

I want to buy an SSD, but don't want to spend more money than I need to.
...

Actually, this isn't normally in the frame of mind when purchasing an SSD. As mentioned, with regard to games, only the load times will be faster, so if you're tired of waiting 2 minutes for a game to load, then it being on an SSD might take only 35 seconds or so, give or take, depending on your other hardware.

The main reason for an enthusiast to get an SSD is for boot times. My laptop went from a 1:40 complete boot time with an HDD to roughly 0:28 on an SSD. Outside of that, program loads are faster.

You'll never run into an issue of degrading the drive performance if you go larger. Once you start filling the SSD with more than 50% data (in some drives) the performance drops. Always go larger. An old wise man once told me - if you have to think about how much it cost, you can't afford it!

 

[envy14tpe]

I bought the Intel 330 120GB for $100. To early to tell, but so far I like the snappyness.

Intel won out because of good speeds and reliability. Also, the recent price discounts helped push me over and decide.....yeah I deserve it.

 

[envy14tpe]

Best answer selected by envy14tpe.