Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Will a 60GB SSD be enough?

E

Evo-L

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 28, 2008
77
0
Im going to be using an SSD for a boot drive, as well as applications. I will have a 1TB 7200 HDD connected via FW800 for extra stuff, like music, movies, pictures, etc.

Im wondering from anyone with experience doing this if that will be enough, or should I go to the 90GB one for about $90 extra dollars. I figure I can get another 4GB of RAM for that $90, so Im bouncing the idea back and fourth.

I use photoshop, dreamweaver, and illustrator CS5, Lightroom, and obviously other programs not worth mentioning because of their small size.


Any suggestions as well regarding what to keep in the SSD, and what should be on the HDD are very welcome!


:apple:
 
I would get bigger, the 120GB is pretty good deal. Performance will decrease if you fill it too much
 
60GB is ample. I use a 25gb SSD for boot and all my applications and still have 13gb free.
 
Thanks for the insight. Im going to be getting a SandForce, either OCZ Vertex 2, or a G.Skill Phoenix Pro for other people who are debating on which to get. After doing tons of research, SandForce is the way to go for us OSX'ers.

I will not be using boot camp at all, just mainly storing applications and possibly my picture library since its only about 10GB.

So with my guesstimates, Im at 6GB (OSX), 10GB (Apps), and 15GB (Pics, Misc) which puts me at 31GB.

I will then use the symbolic link relocation to move programs files over to the 1TB.

Sounds about right? Any suggestions from SSD owners on files I would need to keep on the SSD, and files that can be run off of the HDD quickly?


Hopefully we TRIM pretty soon, that would be nice. :apple:
 
Hellhammer said:
I would get bigger, the 120GB is pretty good deal. Performance will decrease if you fill it too much
Click to expand...

This isn't true with an SSD. Nothing spins and there is no data "on the outta ring" so it's all the same speed throughout.

60GB good enough if you aren't putting music or photos on there really.
 
I had the original Macbook Air (60GB) for a long time, so 60 was enough to run, if you don't use a lot.
I recently upgraded to a Macbook Pro and got the SSD drive from OWC for it, it's 120GB, works great and very fast. I'm happy with it. It's got over-provisioning.
 
SpaceMagic said:
This isn't true with an SSD. Nothing spins and there is no data "on the outta ring" so it's all the same speed throughout.

60GB good enough if you aren't putting music or photos on there really.
Click to expand...

The performance is dependent on the amount of free blocks. The fuller it is, the fewer free blocks it will have which means decrease in performance. You won't need as much free space as with HD but you do want to have few GBs of free space
 
My 80 is half full at all times. I think a 60 would be a bit small..
I use the same programs, and I use Office. Those are my only big apps except Halo. I would shell out and get the bigger drive, you wont regret it.
 
SpaceMagic said:
This isn't true with an SSD. Nothing spins and there is no data "on the outta ring" so it's all the same speed throughout.

60GB good enough if you aren't putting music or photos on there really.
Click to expand...

Well I've heard the opposite. An SSD needs free space to perform wear levelling and other tasks like bad block replacement. All SSD's have a certain amount of free space you can never write to, but giving them some free space lets them move blocks around in a more efficient way.

Anecdotally, I get better Xbench HDD scores when I have 15-20GB free instead of 2-5Gb

This may help: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3690/the-impact-of-spare-area-on-sandforce-more-capacity-at-no-performance-loss

In terms of size, I went for a 60GB OCZ Vertez 2 in my MBP and it's brilliant. More then enough space for OS X, applications, Documents, Library and Downloads. Just have Movies, Pictures and other large folders on the original 320GB HDD which sits where the optical drive used to be.
 
Evo-L said:
Thanks for the insight. Im going to be getting a SandForce, either OCZ Vertex 2, or a G.Skill Phoenix Pro for other people who are debating on which to get. After doing tons of research, SandForce is the way to go for us OSX'ers.

I will not be using boot camp at all, just mainly storing applications and possibly my picture library since its only about 10GB.

So with my guesstimates, Im at 6GB (OSX), 10GB (Apps), and 15GB (Pics, Misc) which puts me at 31GB.

I will then use the symbolic link relocation to move programs files over to the 1TB.

Sounds about right? Any suggestions from SSD owners on files I would need to keep on the SSD, and files that can be run off of the HDD quickly?


Hopefully we TRIM pretty soon, that would be nice. :apple:
Click to expand...
Ive just replace my old 80GB Intel X25M in my MBP with a 120GB Phoenix Pro. Frankly, you wont feel any difference - Sandforce 1200 or not. The 160GB X25M in my iMac feels just as fast.
I wouldn´t go with smaller size than 80 gigs - but that´s just a personal point of view. I´m sure you will love the speed of a SSD.
 
Thanks guys!

What Im getting is most likely 60GB will be enough, since I have an external HDD as well.

If the 60GB is too small, Im sure I could sell it off and pick up a bigger one.
 
I use a 64gb SSD as by boot/app drive (in optibay) and a 320gb HD for all else for my macbook pro and it's awsome!

just make sure you move your "home/user folder over to the larger drive...
http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-move-the-home-folder-in-os-x-and-why/

I have my OS and apps (including the entire Adobe CS5 design suite) and iv'e only used 31.5gb of my ssd so you should be fine.

PS
you'll love the instant on and one bounce dock icons ;)... photoshop CS5 loads in 3 seconds!
 
Yeah, I use a 64GB SSD and its more than enough for the OS and apps and I could even fit some media on there as well!
signature_silverapple.jpg
 
Yakob said:
I use a 64gb SSD as by boot/app drive (in optibay) and a 320gb HD for all else for my macbook pro and it's awsome!

just make sure you move your "home/user folder over to the larger drive...
http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-move-the-home-folder-in-os-x-and-why/

I have my OS and apps (including the entire Adobe CS5 design suite) and iv'e only used 31.5gb of my ssd so you should be fine.

PS
you'll love the instant on and one bounce dock icons ;)... photoshop CS5 loads in 3 seconds!
Click to expand...

A lot of people would argue (me included) that there is a benefit to having your ~/Library folder on the SSD. SSD's are great at loading lots of small files incredibly quickly, and ~/Library contains loads of them.

If you're not aware, the Library contains all your user preferences, user cache, application support folders, startup items etc. When you launch an app, the app is loaded along with the preference & support files. If you've got the app on your SSD but all the support files on your other HDD, you're losing a bit of speed there.

Yes it gets a little more complicated having your user folder split across two drives, but it's not hard, just look up symbolic links if you want to do it.
 
Interesting might have to look into that... is there any good "how to"s out there?
 
Yakob said:
Interesting might have to look into that... is there any good "how to"s out there?
Click to expand...

Google's your friend.

Some similar posts which might help:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/10773733/ which came from https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/987597/

EDIT: I should also say that most things you can do without symbolic links. e.g you can tell iTunes and iPhoto where you put their libraries. It was things like Steam which put 15GB in my Application Support folder which I moved across to the HDD and linked back with a symbolic link.
 
I have an OWC 40GB and it is really fast. Customized my OSX install, put home, all applications , downloads (3GB) and still have 13 GB to spare. Of course I keep 125GB of iTunes and 6GB of iPhoto on 2nd drive. Use a large external for iMovie and large data files.
 
green86 said:
This is not true.

http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-WhyYouNeedMoreThanYouNeed.html

The slowdown occurs if the drive is trying to overwrite data that was deleted. This is what TRIM is for.
Click to expand...

I'll second with Hellhammer that I've read a lot about SSD performance decreases as you fill the drive. And it was from at least one very trustworthy source (Anandtech). Actually, I remember it differently than Hellhammer: from what I remember, some lower quality drives started showing decreased performance after they will filled even to just 50%.
 
tuna said:
I'll second with Hellhammer that I've read a lot about SSD performance decreases as you fill the drive. And it was from at least one very trustworthy source (Anandtech). Actually, I remember it differently than Hellhammer: from what I remember, some lower quality drives started showing decreased performance after they will filled even to just 50%.
Click to expand...

There is much FACTUAL information on this. From what you remember? How about some concrete evidence?
 
tuna said:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3690/...dforce-more-capacity-at-no-performance-loss/2

This page references a lot of those issues. You're welcome.
Click to expand...

Actually, I will thank you for proving my point :rolleyes:

If you actually took time to read the pafe you would have read:

This graph shows the percentage of new performance once the drive is completely full.

Once the drive is filled completely with information. What I said was:
"The slowdown occurs if the drive is trying to overwrite data that was deleted. This is what TRIM is for." The drives on the page you linked are trying to use free space... the entire page is on TRIM actually. So thank you for proving my point (once again).
 
Oh yeah I thought you were giving advice that was relevant to the OP's situation. Since OS X does not support TRIM, I was wrong. For that I apologize.
 
tuna said:
Oh yeah I thought you were giving advice that was relevant to the OP's situation. Since OS X does not support TRIM, I was wrong. For that I apologize.
Click to expand...

Wow. I was correcting wrong information given about SSDs which is relevant to this whole thread. It has nothing to do with the fact OS X doesn't support TRIM really, but that is a good point.. :confused:

Don't be sore.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back