SSD Size for Windows

Going to buy a new computer and would like to install Windows 10 on the SSD and boot from there also. I would install all the apps on another Sata drive. Is 256 GB big enough for what I want?

JimClark wrote in post #19125880
Going to buy a new computer and would like to install Windows 10 on the SSD and boot from there also. I would install all the apps on another Sata drive. Is 256 GB big enough for what I want?

Depends on how many apps you want. It's certainly big enough for Windows and quite a few apps but I would minimally go with 512. By the time you load it up with all the apps and paging and such, you'll be pretty much close to full. Looking at both my PCs one has about 130g used and the other has 156g. The price difference between the 2 should be rather small these days. Heck, even a 1tb drive is not that expensive. Both my machines have 1tb drives.

1 TB SSDs are under $100 consistently these days. I just recently built a PC with 2 1TB SSDs. Given the price, I wouldn't go for anything under 1TB. These are for M.2 drives, but the regular SATA SSDs should probably be similar, I would think.

You can certainly run Windows and a reasonable number of programs on even a 128GB SSD.

In late 2012 I built a system with a 256GB system SSD and upgraded it through multiple OS changes, eventually to Windows 10. I had no problem having all my programs installed on that, however if you do any gaming keep in mind they can gobble space (big mainstream games are easy 50GB or larger, with many pushing over 100GB these days) and your system drive could fill quickly if you install games to it.

You can find great deals on 1TB SSDs these days though, if you can find one in your budget I'd say go for it. Doubly so if you can swing nVME without any issue (they've come down in price a ton).

Having your apps on an SSD is beneficial as well as they'll load faster too.

My new computer, which I built about a year ago, has a 512GB NVME system SSD and with Windows and all the programs I have installed to it I still have 160GB free. I could have easily had a 1TB drive for the same price then but I wanted a particular type/tier of drive for my OS and paid for it by having less space. I spent about the same amount of money on a second 1TB NVME SSD I use for some games, lightroom catalogs, and other things.

It is, and appears to still be the default for oems to install in desktops, like my recent Dell here at work.

As long as you have a 2nd drive, the 256 will do. When you first set up windows, you will want to relocate all of the default folders, documents, music, video etc. From the users sub-directory in the C: drive to your 2nd hard drive (usually D: )
You can do this with apps as well, but it's a little more difficult and might not be necessary.

That said, If I am building my own, or can spec it and afford it from a vendor, I'd go 500 instead.

JimClark wrote in post #19125880
Going to buy a new computer and would like to install Windows 10 on the SSD and boot from there also. I would install all the apps on another Sata drive. Is 256 GB big enough for what I want?

A consideration would be the actual make/model of computer and how easy it may be to do the upgrade yourself. Dell for instance charges an additional $400 to move from a 256GB to a 512GB drive (comparing an XPS 15). That $400 will easily cover a DIY install of a 1TB drive with about $200 left over. Consider doing the same with RAM.

If you post the exact make/model of what you are considering, many people here are in a position to provide some specific assistance.

This is probably what I am going for though it sounds interesting to build my own but I really don't know exactly which parts work well together. That AMD Ryzen 73700X looks interesting.
Initially I was going to load just windows on the SSD and all the other programs on a 1TB SATA drive.

Dell Outlet XPS 8930
Intel Core 9th Generation i7-9700 Processor (8 Core, Up to 4.70GHz, 12MB Cache, 65W)
Windows 10 Pro
1TB 3.5inch SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
256GB PCIe M.2 NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
16GB (2X8GB) 2666MHz DDR4 UDIMM Non-ECC
8X DVD+/-RW
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5

JimClark wrote in post #19125941
This is probably what I am going for though it sounds interesting to build my own but I really don't know exactly which parts work well together. That AMD Ryzen 73700X looks interesting.
Initially I was going to load just windows on the SSD and all the other programs on a 1TB SATA drive.

Dell Outlet XPS 8930
Intel Core 9th Generation i7-9700 Processor (8 Core, Up to 4.70GHz, 12MB Cache, 65W)
Windows 10 Pro
1TB 3.5inch SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
256GB PCIe M.2 NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
16GB (2X8GB) 2666MHz DDR4 UDIMM Non-ECC
8X DVD+/-RW
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5

Building a PC has never been easier. All of the parts have become pretty standardized. Just use a site like pcpartspicker.com or BuildmyPC.com. They do all of the work for you. I prefer the first one but both work about the same. Just pick your processor and it walks you through all of stages offering only the parts that are comparable. Also, they show you the best location to get the part from based on price. I just finished building 2, one for me and one for my son. Both builds went together perfectly without issue.

I have a Lenovo laptop with 1920x1040 display and with only 256GB C: drive, and having only Windows 10 and Office 2003 loaded on it (I use it only for web surfing during TV commercial breaks) only 58GB are filled.

Windows with plenty of productivity and development software, photography software, takes about 60GB. 120GB is comfortable. Gamers need larger disks.

I prefer one smaller SSD for OS and programs, another SSD for any data I want fast (I'd make that my fastest SSD), and spinning disks for bulk data. OS SSD doesn't need to be the fastest, once it's booted it's barely used, and doesn't really matter if it takes 10s or 20s to boot a computer.

Here is the system I built a couple of months ago. Putting it together took a couple of hours.

It is a dual boot system with Win 10 and Linux.i put each OS on one of the two M.2 drives.

I didn't get a video card because the onboard graphics on the processor was sufficient to drive two 2560x1440 displays. I don't play games.

Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K - $400
Motherboard: MSI MPG Gaming Carbon WiFi Z490 - $270
DRAM Memory - Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2x16GB) 3600MHz - $130
Intel 665p 1TB M.2 nVMe SSD - 2 drives - $105 x 2
Seagate Ironwolf 6TB Drive (256 MB cache, 7200 rpm): $160
NZXT H510 Case: $60
650W Power Supply: $120
Cooler Master CPU Cooler $30
I had a license for Windows 10 and Linux is open source, so no cost for software.

Grand Total: $1380.

Pretty good deal for a blazing fast system.

JimClark wrote in post #19125941
This is probably what I am going for though it sounds interesting to build my own but I really don't know exactly which parts work well together. That AMD Ryzen 73700X looks interesting.
Initially I was going to load just windows on the SSD and all the other programs on a 1TB SATA drive.

Dell Outlet XPS 8930
Intel Core 9th Generation i7-9700 Processor (8 Core, Up to 4.70GHz, 12MB Cache, 65W)
Windows 10 Pro
1TB 3.5inch SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
256GB PCIe M.2 NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
16GB (2X8GB) 2666MHz DDR4 UDIMM Non-ECC
8X DVD+/-RW
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5

I see a similar machine on Dell's website at $900, supposedly for 72 hours. Elsewhere it says 9/21 expiration.

You can find the service manual at https://topics-cdn.dell.com …_service-manual_en-us.pdf. If you examine the sections covering RAM and hard drives you'll find it very easy to add RAM or change the SATA hard drive to SSD. To add 3rd party RAM, like Crucial, should be easy, if even needed, but I would wait until you have the machine. See around page 50 (PDF numbering) for the section on RAM. I install MemInfo on most client machines, and even with heavy surfing, photo processing, large Excel spreadsheet, etc. the machines are often only using 8 or 9 GB of 16 GB total. I mention Crucial, because they have the online tools to determine what will work best with your specific machine. See https://www.crucial.co​m …upgrade-for/dell/xps-8930. But "out of the box" that machine likely will be fine.

tim wrote in post #19126133
Windows with plenty of productivity and development software, photography software, takes about 60GB. 120GB is comfortable. Gamers need larger disks.

I prefer one smaller SSD for OS and programs, another SSD for any data I want fast (I'd make that my fastest SSD), and spinning disks for bulk data. OS SSD doesn't need to be the fastest, once it's booted it's barely used, and doesn't really matter if it takes 10s or 20s to boot a computer.

I do something similar but the OS drive is the fastest drive, (in my PC, it's the M2 drive) You would be surprised at how often the C drive gets touched, it's almost constant. Just bring up the task manager, go to "performance" and select the C drive. Some process is reading or writing almost constantly and the more programs you have open, the more the access. All the other drives get hit only if I load or save something. I have 2 SSDs set up a a RAID0 for my data drives where all my files, music and such sit. Then one 1tb SSD for a video drive where I do all my video editing, then 2 4TB spinning drives also in a RAID0 for picture/scans/video storage. I'm thinking of putting in the second M2 for paging and PS temp file space.

John from PA wrote in post #19126181
I see a similar machine on Dell's website at $900, supposedly for 72 hours. Elsewhere it says 9/21 expiration....

Really? I just went to the Dell site and clicked i7 and 32g mem and their cheapest machine was $1700

gjl711 wrote in post #19126244
Really? I just went to the Dell site and clicked i7 and 32g mem and their cheapest machine was $1700

It’s here... https://outlet.us.dell​.com …2&l=en&s=dfh&br​andid=2202

But once at that site, in the “Model” field, pick the XPS 8930 at the bottom of the drop down list. Then pick the one with the green circle reading 72 hour sale. Then three versions are shown, the one at about $900 seems to be the match.