How much free space does an SSD need to run ideally?

[stanw]

I'm configuring an order of iMacs to be used in a work environment and my first choice is to get 256SSD and edit all photos/videos off of external drives and use the internal SSDs for only the OS and applications. How much free space do SSD drives need to run optimal? The iMacs will be used with Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects and there will also be a Windows partition on the SSD.



Thanks.

 

[ScorpionT16]

Ideally between 10-15% minimum, 20% for optimum performance.

So for a 256GB drive, 26GB free minimum, and a good 50GB for optimum performance.

I have a 256GB SSD on a new 5k iMac, for design/photo editing. I've got photoshop, illustrator CC, Rhino 3D installed, with 130GB to spare on OS X side. That's with a 90GB partition for Windows 10 (that uses a lot more I find, windows 10 alone took about 40GB).

256GB works well, I've paired it with 500GB external SSD, and a 1TB HDD.

 

[twilexia]

I've been using my 256 gb ssd MBPro for 3 years at around 90-95% capacity and never had any issues. It's a champ.

 

[maflynn]

I think 20% is a safe number to ensure that things don't bog down. Of course if they do bog down, will you really notice given the speed of the SSDs in the first place?

 

[Max(IT)]

20% at least.