Question Moving to full SSD system

Hi guys, Im planing on moving to a full M.2 NVME SSD system. I will also run 2x backup drives outside the PC (plus online backup) 1x HDD and 1x SSD (this last one for the most important data since the smaller size).

Question is, with Windows 10 and Windows 11 using about the same drive capacity (more or less), adding Office, some adobe apps + Browsers + AV program + some monitoring software (nothing huge capacity wise), Is there any reason to go with a bigger than 250GB for a system drive?

Im planing on getting another 1TB drive for documents and games which is more than enough for me (I never have more than 3~5 games installed, 3 of them been sim truck games that don't use more than 12 to 30 GB tops).

Im asking cause drive prices where I live kinda sucks, as with most PC components, and theres a big (at least for me) difference between a 256 GB and a 512GB drive.

I would rather get 2x fastest 250 GB + 1TB drives, than spend almost 50% more for extra 250GB that I won't be using anyways.


I thank you for any inputs and thoughts
 
I use a 256GB SSD for Windows 10, the space occupied by the OS and all the apps I need for my job never exceeds 60GB.

So a 256GB SSD is perfectly fine for me.

Thank you for your input

Yeap, Im using an old Kingston 240GB SATA SSD, and the space used is about that much.

Thats why Im thinking that even if I take in consideration windows updates and swap file the 250 GB drive should be more than enough
 

pmjm

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It really depends on what you plan on using it for.

My system/programs drive is constantly needing more space as I add more and more programs to my workflow. A lot of the new software coming out that I use has huge machine learning models that take up gigabytes of space so on my Windows machine I've added over 100GB to my C:\Program Files folder just this year. But if that's not a concern for you, stick with the smaller drive. You can also install large programs on other drives too if it becomes an issue.

Just be warned that you don't want your boot drive to fall below 10% free space if it's an SSD.
 
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It really depends on what you plan on using it for.

My system/programs drive is constantly needing more space as I add more and more programs to my workflow. A lot of the new software coming out that I use has huge machine learning models that take up gigabytes of space so on my Windows machine I've added over 100GB to my C:\Program Files folder just this year. But if that's not a concern for you, stick with the smaller drive. You can also install large programs on other drives too if it becomes an issue.

Just be warned that you don't want your boot drive to fall below 10% free space if it's an SSD.

You don't want any SSD below 10% free space, as for the boot drive I would recommend at least 20% free space, to account for system updates, etc.

And no, this is not my main work PC, this is my home-gaming PC. I do work every now and then with it but not very often, and I don't use large data base.
 
The biggest space hog after the OS and apps would be user generated files. But if you plan on saving those elsewhere, then I don't see a reason to get a bigger drive.

Though games will still store saves in your user folder. Depending on the game this can eat into the drive's space.
 
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The biggest space hog after the OS and apps would be user generated files. But if you plan on saving those elsewhere, then I don't see a reason to get a bigger drive.

Though games will still store saves in your user folder. Depending on the game this can eat into the drive's space.

Yes, user folders will be completely moved to another drive, the same will happend to Steam and Epic folders.
 
Thank you for your input

Yeap, Im using an old Kingston 240GB SATA SSD, and the space used is about that much.

Thats why Im thinking that even if I take in consideration windows updates and swap file the 250 GB drive should be more than enough
I would go with a 500-512GB If you run the full suite of MS Office apps. The crap that Windows keeps around for itself and Office apps (crap that you can't fully remove with disk cleanup or dism) just keeps on growing and growing through the years. Of course, if you are one to reload your OS every 1-3 years then this doesn't apply to you. However, if you want to install and keep your OS for 4+ years, just note that the extra crap CAN take up over 100GBs of space, eventually.
 
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If you do this, be very careful and deliberate. Moving the user folder destinations incorrectly tends to never go well.

Also some games store saves in the AppData folder.
Don't move the whole /Users/ folder. This will result in tears.

Steam and other game platforms, no problem.

Sorry my bad!, Yeah Im not moving the "user" folder per se, but the location of "Document", "Images", "Video", "Donwloads", etc. to the other drives, Those folders represent the biggest storage usage of my User folder.

I will never move the user folder from the default location, not even if someone offer money for doing it :p.
 
I would go with a 500-512GB If you run the full suite of MS Office apps. The crap that Windows keeps around for itself and Office apps (crap that you can't fully remove with disk cleanup or dism) just keeps on growing and growing through the years. Of course, if you are one to reload your OS every 1-3 years then this doesn't apply to you. However, if you want to install and keep your OS for 4+ years, just note that the extra crap CAN take up over 100GBs of space, eventually.

I usually tend to do a fresh clean install of Windows every 1 or 1.5 years, depending on the workload I have (or the free time if you wana see it the other way around).

In fact I do this with a full clean of the PC internals to. So basically is one full day taking everything apart, doing a full clean of every part, then put it all back togheter and start reinstalling windows (well I always do a boot to the "old" Windows one time to check everything was plugged correctly, and then start installing Windows from scratch).
 
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USAFRet

Titan
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Sorry my bad!, Yeah Im not moving the "user" folder per se, but the location of "Document", "Images", "Video", "Donwloads", etc. to the other drives, Those folders represent the biggest storage usage of my User folder.

I will never move the user folder from the default location, not even if someone offer money for doing it :p.
You don't even actually have to do that.

Applications and Windows have gotten really good at using locations on other drives.

Often/usually, save to drive "E", and the next time that application wants to save, it will default prompt to that same location.
All without the default Libraries being moved there.

Years ago, the Libraries were 'the place' to save to. Not so much any more.

If you DO decide to relocate the Libs, be careful there is a certain procedure.
Get it wrong, and tears will result from that as well.

Thusly:
 
Sorry my bad!, Yeah Im not moving the "user" folder per se, but the location of "Document", "Images", "Video", "Donwloads", etc. to the other drives, Those folders represent the biggest storage usage of my User folder.
I will never move the user folder from the default location, not even if someone offer money for doing it :p.
Even with that, if you slip up and move Documents to say D:\, you can't undo this. This is because when you set the destination, Windows will move everything in the old path to the new one. If you set it to something like D:/, it will try to move certain system files that can't be moved, realize this, abort, and the changes won't be saved.

It might be a pain at first, but either be deliberate about setting the right save location or periodically move stuff out of the user folder
 
You don't even actually have to do that.

Applications and Windows have gotten really good at using locations on other drives.

Often/usually, save to drive "E", and the next time that application wants to save, it will default prompt to that same location.
All without the default Libraries being moved there.

Years ago, the Libraries were 'the place' to save to. Not so much any more.

If you DO decide to relocate the Libs, be careful there is a certain procedure.
Get it wrong, and tears will result from that as well.

Thusly:
Even with that, if you slip up and move Documents to say D:\, you can't undo this. This is because when you set the destination, Windows will move everything in the old path to the new one. If you set it to something like D:/, it will try to move certain system files that can't be moved, realize this, abort, and the changes won't be saved.

It might be a pain at first, but either be deliberate about setting the right save location or periodically move stuff out of the user folder

Sorry for the delay in my reply, was coming back home from work.

Thank you guys for the warnings, @USAFRet that link is exactly the procedure I do for Windows, and I been doing the same thing for I can't remember how many Windows versions or how many years.
I always had a different "place" where the documents, images, music, videos, etc. where located. When I do a clean install of Windows all I do is (following the linked procedure) just link the "Document" folder to where the files actually are.

I been doing this since the time of D.O.S., I always used two or more partitions on my disk, one for the system that you can format without issues, and another partition where the user files are.

And every single time before doing anything like formating, I always do a backup of documents, images, videos, music, etc (backups I do anyways very often to).

The same procedure I use for all my clients for over 25 years (thats a lot of PC and laptops, like a lot), never had a single complaing or issue, in fact many of them love the fact that the system files are in one place and their data on another.

Of course now that we can have the luxury of having 2 or 3 drivers, instead of 2 or 3 disk partitions, I move the stuff to a different drive.


PD: everytime I get a PC/Lapton for repair/checking, the first thing I do as long as the disk is in good health, is a backup of all the important data for the client, (but they all know I don't backup movies or music).
 
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USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Of course now that we can have the luxury of having 2 or 3 drivers, instead of 2 or 3 disk partitions, I move the stuff to a different drive.
My current main system has 6x physical drives.
All SSD. 2x NVMe + 4x SATA III.

Each, with their own main purpose.

OS+applications
Video
Photo
CAD
Games
Random stuff


And no Library redirection needed.
 
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My current main system has 6x physical drives.
All SSD. 2x NVMe + 4x SATA III.

Each, with their own main purpose.

OS+applications
Video
Photo
CAD
Games
Random stuff


And no Library redirection needed.

Thats awesome!

What can I say, Im just used to this procedure. Maybe next time I do a clean install of Windows I would give it a try to your suggestion of letting the apps "remember" where they should save the files.
 
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