Size of SSD for Windows

[darksora269]

What would be a good size for an SSD JUST for booting up windows? I have a standerd harddrive and just want something really... Fast. My motherboard is sporting a 6.0gb/s sata.

Thanks.

 

[blazorthon]

Nothing smaller than 30GB is a good idea for just Windows. However, you're unlikely to find anything worth having under the 60GB mark.

Something like one of these would probably be ideal:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/ocz-internal-hard-drive-vtx425sat364g
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/mushkin-internal-hard-drive-mknssdcr60gb
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7pc064bww

 

[darksora269]

So you recommend something around 60 gigs or so, correct?
Thanks for the recommendations also.

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hello,

Choosing a SSD to hold Win-7 OS, and a few programs, you will need 128GB. That's actually larger than bare minimum but you need space for the pagefile, and about 25% for over provisioning. The ideal size is 256GB where you have plenty of room for your programs, My documents, and other files, and down the road a year or so, you won't have to begin looking for another one as your primary SSD becomes filled.

Also when you look at the specs, the 256GB SSD's are significantly faster than the smaller 60GB and 128GB ones.

Prices now are below $1/GB, which is very good.

So, my vote is 256GB!

 

[blazorthon]

Hello,

Choosing a SSD to hold Win-7 OS, and a few programs, you will need 128GB. That's actually larger than bare minimum but you need space for the pagefile, and about 25% for over provisioning. The ideal size is 256GB where you have plenty of room for your programs, My documents, and other files, and down the road a year or so, you won't have to begin looking for another one as your primary SSD becomes filled.

Also when you look at the specs, the 256GB SSD's are significantly faster than the smaller 60GB and 128GB ones.

Prices now are below $1/GB, which is very good.

So, my vote is 256GB!

Why would you put a paging file on an SSD (it increases wear and tear on the flash) and OP specifically asked for a drive that'll hold only Windows. Being faster than the 60/64GB models doesn't matter because it doesn't make much of a difference for a boot drive. Windows alone will not be a problem for a 60/64GB drive for a very long time, if ever. Even a 30/32GB drive can handle Windows 7 x64 without a problem while having plenty of extra space for over-provisioning and a 60GB/64GB model has more than enough for two Windows 7 x64 installations. I'm not saying that larger capacities are bad, but they're not what OP asked for.

 

[darksora269]

Thank you for your input. But I also have a 1 TB main harddrive for my standard files. I'm just looking for an SSD that hold the OS.

 

[dingo07]

Windows 7 with all the patches and updates is about 26GB

the problem is, once you accept the speed of the SSD, you'll want to put most progs on it.

A 256GB is a good place to start, if you KNOW a 120GB will not be enough

 

[blazorthon]

Windows 7 with all the patches and updates is about 26GB

the problem is, once you accept the speed of the SSD, you'll want to put most progs on it.

A 256GB is a good place to start, if you KNOW a 120GB will not be enough

Not everyone lacks self-control like that. If OP wants to get a higher capacity, then OP should get a higher capacity. However, OP should not be told that OP must get a higher capacity to do things that OP has specifically said that OP didn't intend to do.

 

[dingo07]

Not everyone lacks self-control like that. If OP wants to get a higher capacity, then OP should get a higher capacity. However, OP should not be told that OP must get a higher capacity to do things that OP has specifically said that OP didn't intend to do.

who said anything about "must"???

and for the record - if you read my sig, I use a 60GB boot drive, so you're barking up the wrong tree dude

 

[greddy23]

So its recommended to turn off the paging on an ssd? this i did not know, how do you do this, i plan on getting an ssd soon, so more info on this please 😀 thanks

 

[blazorthon]

So its recommended to turn off the paging on an ssd? this i did not know, how do you do this, i plan on getting an ssd soon, so more info on this please 😀 thanks

Right click on computer, click properties, in the upper left corner should have advanced system settings, you click it and click the Advanced tab. Click the performance option. Paging file options should show up in the advanced tab of this window. You click on the SSD's drive letter, click no paging file, click set, and click OK. You'll need to re-boot after this.

 

[dingo07]

So its recommended to turn off the paging on an ssd? this i did not know, how do you do this, i plan on getting an ssd soon, so more info on this please 😀 thanks

there's quite a few guidelines that should be followed if you want to squeeze the best performance from an SSD

read through the stickies at the top of the forum

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i just saw this was not in the SSD forum, so here's the link
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/270102-32-useful-articles-part

 

[misry]

I just put my page file on D: which is 2 Velociraptors in RAID0 and C: is a 60G drive for Windows only.

 

[zodicus]

i was thinking of a m.2 boot drive then a ssd as the main drive, would i still need to turn pagefile off on the main drive?