Should I leave some free space on SSD?

[Cavea]

I have left about 10% (47GB) of space unused/free on Samsung SSD 840 Evo 500GB. Is it reasonably or can I use this SSD to almost it full capacity, let's say 10GB free? I ask because I heard that one should not use total capacity of SSD, to keep it in good condition. Is it true with recent SSDs? However now I run out of space on SSD (system/programs/games). My SSD is MZ-7TE500BW (Samsung 840 Evo 500GB not PRO)

 

[aaronrus]

Yes you should leave space on the SSD, The more space you use the slower it will be able to access the info. Other than that it has no negative effects that I am aware of.

 

[Astralv]

If it is your main drive, you need space for OS updates. Some operations use disk space for installations, temporary files and such. I also have about 40 Gb left. I am wondering if I was supposed to install some firmware that supposed to do TRIM and position data better on the disk.

 

[LordConrad]

Use Samsung's Magician software to set Overprovisioning on the SSD. Samsung recommends 10%, but you can change it to a different percentage if you wish.

If you want to go lower, I wouldn't go below 7%

 

[Astralv]

What is overprovision?

I was just installing audio sampler library on G disk (SSD). For some reason my C drive- 44 Gb that I had left all filled during installation at the same time as G, and then cleared after the installation. Not sure if it was using it as memory or what.

 

[LordConrad]

Overprovisioning is unused space on the SSD that is used strictly for housekeeping operations (like wear leveling and bad block replacement).

 

[Astralv]

Interestingly- today I installed Samsung 250 Gb drive because I ran out of space on 2 other SSds. Now my computer maxed on SATA ports- no more upgrades 🙁

So I installed Samsung Magician, and under Overprovisioning there is no button or anything to enable/disable or set size- just white space with message, "Using RAW partition may damage your data...." How do you enable it? Thank you.

 

[LordConrad]

Further down in that window you should see this (assuming your SSD is drive C):

OP settings for drive: C:

This is where you set the Overprovisioning.