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Has anyone filled up 256gb with just program files

td2243

td2243

Cancelled
Original poster
Mar 14, 2013
382
247
Santa Fe, NM
So, is 256 a reasonable amount of HD space if you only keep system files and programs on it? All music, photos and videos would be outside the can. Would 256 GB be enough for the inner workings and programs? I imagine it would be, but I'd like others' opinions.
 
I am not sure how others' opinions will help you, because it really depends on how YOU use the computer. Some may need to install lots of applications and others may not. I don't think of myself as someone who needs to install *lots* of applications, but my system files and applications amount to around 60 GBs. Then my bootcamp partition is another 100 GBs.
 
td2243 said:
So, is 256 a reasonable amount of HD space if you only keep system files and programs on it? All music, photos and videos would be outside the can. Would 256 GB be enough for the inner workings and programs? I imagine it would be, but I'd like others' opinions.
Click to expand...

That is way more than enough unless you have some kind of huge app I am not aware of. A standard OS X install with all the iLife and iWorks apps only uses about 20GB.
 
It really depends how you use your computer. I keep all my media files on separate external hard drives except for my documents of which I have a 100GB dropbox account which is half full of stuff. That folder as well as all my system stuff (including a 32gb windows 7 install through parallels) eats up >200gb on my 256gb ssd. When I upgrade I'm definitely going for 1TB.
 
Good to know. I'm thinking the 512gb should give plenty of extra space. After all, you don't want the system drive to be full, correct? That slows things down.
 
That would be too small for me.


It's fine if I have a classic MBP and switch the DVD drive out for a second hard drive, but I refuse to carry a spare drive around to hook up to a computer of that price point which should have everything included
 
I only use about 65gb on my boot drive but only have some adobe programs, aperture, office suite, and other random everyday apps. My storage drives are quickly running out of space though :X
 
td2243 said:
Good to know. I'm thinking the 512gb should give plenty of extra space. After all, you don't want the system drive to be full, correct? That slows things down.
Click to expand...
If it's full, you're in real trouble.
 
512 GB SSD
used 294 GB in total,
my $HOME tallies at 234 GB
of which the iTunes ƒ is 116 GB (all legal)

Well, I could do with a 256 GB SSD, but it would be a PITA to juggle with external storage. Especially once you get used to SSD speed, external HDD storage seems to be unbearable.
 
td2243 said:
So, is 256 a reasonable amount of HD space if you only keep system files and programs on it? All music, photos and videos would be outside the can. Would 256 GB be enough for the inner workings and programs? I imagine it would be, but I'd like others' opinions.
Click to expand...

Sure is. After all, the programs don't take up any more space on a Mac Pro than they do on any other Mac. My MacBook Air has a 128 GB drive with Mavericks, MS Office, Aperture, Parallels, a Windows Virtual machine, the Sims 3. About 27 GB of videos that are there temporarily and there's still 15 GB free.

That said, I'll likely go with a 512 or even 1 TB if I can swing it.

On a 15" MBP it costs $300 to go from 256 to 512 and $800 to go from 256 to 1 TB. On the educational store it's $230 and $680 for the same upgrades!
 
I read somewhere that bigger sized drives run faster than smaller size drives. Like a 1TB drive is faster than a 256gb if both drives have the same content. With flash SSD you probably need to also have a clone of that drive. Not sure with flash SSD if the files are recoverable
 
tomvos said:
512 GB SSD
used 294 GB in total,
my $HOME tallies at 234 GB
of which the iTunes ƒ is 116 GB (all legal)

Well, I could do with a 256 GB SSD, but it would be a PITA to juggle with external storage. Especially once you get used to SSD speed, external HDD storage seems to be unbearable.
Click to expand...

Depends for what - if I'm listening to a 3 minute song or watching a 2 hour movie, a fast drive isn't going to let me watch or listen any quicker. If I'm downloading media or ripping it from a blu-ray or CD, that process is going to take longer than copying it to a hard drive and once it's on the hard drive it doesn't make much difference.

Photos and videos you're going to edit, now that's a HUGE difference. But all my videos are stored on external drives and backed up.
 
Macsonic said:
I read somewhere that bigger sized drives run faster than smaller size drives. Like a 1TB drive is faster than a 256gb if both drives have the same content. With flash SSD you probably need to also have a clone of that drive. Not sure with flash SSD if the files are recoverable
Click to expand...

That's true for spinning disk drives, not for ssds - it has to do with the platter density on traditional hard drives.
 
256 GB is more than enough for program files. Of course, you can also (and should) use it for After Effects caché if you use it, and it might be handy for rendered files. But 256 GB is still enough for that.
 
td2243 said:
So, is 256 a reasonable amount of HD space if you only keep system files and programs on it? All music, photos and videos would be outside the can. Would 256 GB be enough for the inner workings and programs? I imagine it would be, but I'd like others' opinions.
Click to expand...

Two examples. I built a gaming PC this year and used a 256GC SSD. Way more than enough for Windows 8 and the few programs I use, I probably could have put a 128 GB disk in.

My main MacPro 2012 has a 480GB SSD. My program and library takes up 185 GB, plus the 40 GB bootcamp partition, and cache files for Aperture, PS and Bridge are about another 40 GB. Leaves about 200 GB free for scratch disk space for PS. I would not want any less.
 
jbg232 said:
That's true for spinning disk drives, not for ssds - it has to do with the platter density on traditional hard drives.
Click to expand...

Thanks for confirming that. :) At least now I know what my options are with storage as I'll be adding more SATA drives.
 
td2243 said:
So, is 256 a reasonable amount of HD space if you only keep system files and programs on it? All music, photos and videos would be outside the can. Would 256 GB be enough for the inner workings and programs? I imagine it would be, but I'd like others' opinions.
Click to expand...

I'm using about 80 GB on the OS drive in my Mac Pro set up as you are going to.
Anandtech recommends keeping 25% of an SSD free to prevent slowdowns but my laptop is noticeably slower even at about 55-60% full. I have Trim enabled.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6489/playing-with-op
This may be why some are stating that larger SSDs are faster. Looking at the Samsung specs for the 840 Pro the speeds are exactly the same. I'd buy as large as you can afford.
 
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