How much space does Yosemite take up on a drive?

[Silly John Fatty]

I'm planning to get an SSD on which I'd like to install OSX Yosemite, Logic Pro X and third party plugins for Logic Pro. I need to carefully calculate how much space I'll need.

So I'm wondering, if you had an absolute new computer with nothing on none of its drives, and you would install Yosemite, how much space would it take up once installed?
Does the home folder take a lot of space the way it is after the first installation? Because I'll probably have the home folder on the HDD and not on the SSD.

Thanks a lot…

 

[Eithanius]

From my end 15.8GB up til DP5... Nothing else installed...

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Wow so much? I was thinking of something around 4-5, perhaps 8 GB in the worst case.
What's DP5? Digital Performer 5?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Wow so much? I was thinking of something around 4-5, perhaps 8 GB in the worst case.
What's DP5? Digital Performer 5?

DP = Developer Preview

And do you want to get a 128 GB SSD or a bigger one?

 

[Silly John Fatty]

DP = Developer Preview

And do you want to get a 128 GB SSD or a bigger one?

Haha oops!
Do you believe a single installation would take up less space? I believe not because the current DP always overwrites the last DP, right?

And about the SSD. Probably a bigger one. But basically that's the question, I'm unsure if 128, 256 or perhaps even 512 GB. I have to see how much space my Logic plugins take up, I'm making a list right now. I'll put Yosemite on the list with 16 GB then I guess.

 

[Eithanius]

240GB SSD here, ain't enough...

 

[Silly John Fatty]

240GB SSD here, ain't enough...

For doing what? Just daily use?

I've counted only a few Logic plugins now, with Logic itself and OSX I'm already at almost 100 GB. I'll probably go with a 500 GB SSD.

Alternatively I could also buy a 256 one and then buy another, I still have 3 bays left in the Mac Pro. But the price per GB is more expensive if it's smaller, and I also heard the smaller they are, the "slower" they are. The only advantage would be that if one fails, it's only one. But then again, I always do backups, so it doesn't even matter.

BTW at the moment I only have one HDD, but Time Machine can make backups of several drives at once right? Just to be sure.

 

[robkat]

it takes up just over 10gb on my external drive.

 

[iPhil]

Im on 10.10 Beta and I'm only using 20GB of my 500 GB SSD .. Soon as Yosemite goes Public aka GM ( gold master ) .. Im moving to my SSD as main boot drive ( Current OS 10.9 is on HDD@ 5400rpm) .. Before I trimmed / moved items around i was 180GB free left on my HDD, my 10.9 home folder is 73GB .. So I plenty of room to grow on my ssd after moving items around ...

 

[Silly John Fatty]

How come the size it takes is different for everyone, 16 GB, 10 GB and 20 GB? You'd think everyone has the same system (Yosemite) and that it would take up the same space on the drive.

 

[iPhil]

How come the size it takes is different for everyone, 16 GB, 10 GB and 20 GB? You'd think everyone has the same system (Yosemite) and that it would take up the same space on the drive.

Well Mine - is 20GB I did a Disk utility restore of my other 10.10 Beta and I installed some Mac apps from MAS on my other beta drive ... Default OS size should be around 12 -15 GB ... 5 GB download size on MAS is the smallest container that apple could use ...

 

[nikicampos]

I'm planning to get an SSD on which I'd like to install OSX Yosemite, Logic Pro X and third party plugins for Logic Pro. I need to carefully calculate how much space I'll need.

So I'm wondering, if you had an absolute new computer with nothing on none of its drives, and you would install Yosemite, how much space would it take up once installed?
Does the home folder take a lot of space the way it is after the first installation? Because I'll probably have the home folder on the HDD and not on the SSD.

Thanks a lot…

You shouldn't worry about that, even if it's 10-20 GB, what you should be worrying about is the type of programs and how big the files that you are going to use.

How big the OS is not as relevant as how many and how big your files are.

Also, I had 150GB left when on Mavericks, after I installed Yosemite I had 159GB free, and almost everyone in some thread had and increase in GB, so Yosemite occupies less GB than Mavericks.

 

[awests]

Why don't you get a 256 GB SSD for applications and such and put a larger HDD in another bay .o you aren't limited by the small capacity of the SSD?

 

[oMc]

You can also create your own Fusion Drive (it's really easy) and don't worry about that at all.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Finally I decided I'll be going with a Samsung 850 Pro-series with 256 GB. Seems to be a good choice
I actually already have one HD drive (2TB in the first bay), with the SSD I'll still have 2 more bays left.

Yes, I would only like to have a few things on the SSD. The OS, Logic Pro X and my third party plugins for Logic. If I want to have Logic on the SSD, I suppose the whole Applications folder would have to be on the SSD, right?

And yes I wanted to create a self-made "Fusion Drive" too, some members on here actually already linked me to some tutorials. What's complicated, however, is splitting all those things onto HDD and SSD. Such as Logic on the SSD, but not my other Apps like Safari & co. Or OSX on the SSD, but not the Home folder. (I know it's possible but I heard it makes problems)

I'll have to make a plan I think, to see what should go where and then perhaps someone will be able to tell me if that's possible at all.

 

[kappaknight]

Go for the biggest one you an afford, and one that is required for you to do your job. In a month, you won't think about this any more, but you'll be glad you did it if it's the biggest one you an afford. Also, as you've mentioned earlier, more storage = faster read/write. Depending on what you're doing, that may be worth it too.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Well, I read that the biggest difference in speed is between 128 GB and 256 GB. The difference between 256 and 512 apparently isn't that big.

And I'm not sure if I'd notice the speed difference. I just noticed that there's also a 512 GB version of the 850 Pro. On many benchmark sites, only the 128 and 256 GB versions are listed.

From what I've calculated, 256 GB should be enough for now. If the budget allows, I'll go for 512 GB, I will probably need the space in the future.

Also - what speeds do I need to look out for if I'm:

- Using OSX with Logic Pro X
- Loading virtual (real-time) instruments with big libraries

It sounds like the read speed is important to me, not the write speed. The 850 Pro has a similar read speed to its other, cheaper brothers, but I thought I'd go with the newer model, because apparently they're almost more consistent. (which is important when loading stuff in real time all the time I guess)

 

[oMc]

And yes I wanted to create a self-made "Fusion Drive" too, some members on here actually already linked me to some tutorials. What's complicated, however, is splitting all those things onto HDD and SSD. Such as Logic on the SSD, but not my other Apps like Safari & co. Or OSX on the SSD, but not the Home folder. (I know it's possible but I heard it makes problems)

This is the whole point of Fusion Drive : let the OS decide for you where to put the files you access frequently or not.

But of course, if you want full control, don't use Fusion Drive.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Yeah I don't want that, I need full control. I thought you meant simply mixing an SSD with an HDD. Some members mistakenly call this a Fusion Drive too haha.