SSD: Is 60GB enough to load Windows 8 OS?

[QuantumComputer]

Hello!

This might be an odd question, or one that may be more opinionated than others.

I am looking for a small/mid sized SSD to use in my computer, alongside my Seagate 2TB Barracuda.

My initial choice was this Mushkin 60GB, which is quite fast for it's $60 price, but small in capaticy.
Max Sequential Read: Up to 560 MB/s
Max Sequential Write: Up to 495 MB/s
4KB Random Read: Up to 92,000 IOPS
4KB Random Write: Up to 85,000 IOPS
Mushkin: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226352


What are your opinions on this, or suggestions? Thank you!

Quantum

 

[ss202sl]

60GB really isn't enough for the OS. Everyone that I know that has a 60GB ssd for the OS is constantly deleting stuff.

 

[QuantumComputer]

60GB really isn't enough for the OS. Everyone that I know that has a 60GB ssd for the OS is constantly deleting stuff.

Are you sure they they only have the OS stored on it?

 

[Onus]

For just the OS, 60GB would be enough. Most people put programs on the boot drive as well, and 60GB will fill up almost immediately. I recommend not less than 120GB for a system drive.
I've bought a few Mushkin drives. None ever gave me any grief, and are all still in service.

 

[ahnilated]

60G would work for the OS and if you shift the swap and hiberfile.sys file off of it you would have tons of space.

 

[SuperAdithya]

The best SSD I prefer is the super, the ultimate beast: OCZ Vertex 4 256GB: http://ocz.com/consumer/vertex-4-sata-3-ssd with the following specs:

Sequential Reads-560 mb/s
Sequential Write: 510 gb/s
Random 4k Read IOPS: 90,000 IOPS
Random 4k Write IOPS: 85,000 IOPS
Maximum IOPS: 120,000 IOPS.
Sata 3 - 6GB/s
DRAM cache upto 1GB
5-year warranty
Product Health Monitoring: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) support
Power Consumption: Idle: 1.3W, Active: 2.5W

 

[Dereck47]

A 60GB drive has 55.8GB of capacity after formatting.
A Windows 8 install takes approximately 20GB. So after you install the O/S your drive is nearly half-full and you will have around 35GB to install any other programs/software.

It's really not worth it to buy a 60GB drive. Save up until you can afford a 120GB or larger SSD.

 

[Onus]

60G would work for the OS and if you shift the swap and hiberfile.sys file off of it you would have tons of space.

I disagree. You'll still have only 54GB (what 60GB formatted looks like). You won't need hiberfil.sys, which is as large as your total system RAM. With a SSD, I'd make the swap file small (but still have one), e.g. 1GB-4GB rather than the usual 1.5x system RAM.

 

[nukemaster]

Only the OS and a few programs will be fine on a 60 gigabyte drive. Just do not expect to have lots of space leftover.

I recommend turning OFF hibernation of small drives. SSD's are so fast I see little point to hibernation(just save and shut down). Removal of hibernation from Windows 8/8.1 systems removes the quick startup feature, but you will not miss it.

I would put an average users system without games in the 30-40 gigabyte area(smaller if you keep things to more of a minimum.). You want to keep some space for the drive to do its thing too(wear leveling and stuff).

A base Windows 8 installs with just a few programs ran about 14 gigabytes(page file off for imaging).

ALL personal files should be kept on a hard drive to save SSD space.

 

[ahnilated]

60G would work for the OS and if you shift the swap and hiberfile.sys file off of it you would have tons of space.

I disagree. You'll still have only 54GB (what 60GB formatted looks like). You won't need hiberfil.sys, which is as large as your total system RAM. With a SSD, I'd make the swap file small (but still have one), e.g. 1GB-4GB rather than the usual 1.5x system RAM.

Yep and the swap file can be put on his 2TB drive very easy. This should leave him 40G+ of space.