SSD free space

[Wingfan]

I know its not good to fill a drive 100%, so whats a good percentage to have free?

Currently my boot drive has 26GB free. Samsung 850 Pro 128GB

[Sumsar]

Yea, I too want to know this. I have heard that one should not use up more than 80% of an SSDs capacity, but I do not think that it is true.

[Wingfan]

I really should know this, ive been using SSD's exclusively for about 4-5 years now

[Mark77]

There's no hard and fast number.  "Don't fill a SSD up" is more of a planning assumption, rather than a hard and fast truth that you have to obey operationally.  Especially with a SSD like the Samsung 850 Pro which has a severe excess of available read/write cycles.

 

If you were starting today with 102gb used on a system you were looking to upgrade, I would tell you to buy at least a 180gb (and these days, probably a 240gb/250gb SSD).  But there's nothing wrong with using your 128gb SSD until you get to the point where you've actually depleted the space.  Fortunately with SSDs, their high performance in random access scenarios handles fragmentation *very* well. 

[ARikozuM]

Personally I use one SSD for only my programs and OS and one for Skyrim (and modded games).

Although I don't abide by the "80%" mantra, I do consider an upgrade once I foresee myself passing 95% and then I'll buy the 2nd tier going up, i.e. 120GB will be upgraded to a 480GB.

 

Edit: I usually try to leave about 10% free so that "not enough space" doesn't occur.

[Wingfan]

2 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Personally I use one SSD for only my programs and OS and one for Skyrim (and modded games).

Although I don't abide by the "80%" mantra, I do consider an upgrade once I foresee myself passing 95% and then I'll buy the 2nd tier going up, i.e. 120GB will be upgraded to a 480GB.

Thats what im doing now. 128GB boot and a 240GB Steam drive, ive been swapping games which is a pain.

Getting a 1TB during the Holiday sales this fall, but wondering if that will even be enough.

[ARikozuM]

Just now, Wingfan said:

Thats what im doing now. 128GB boot and a 240GB Steam drive, ive been swapping games which is a pain.

Getting a 1TB during the Holiday sales this fall, but wondering if that will even be enough.

What I usually suggest is using a boot SSD that is small (enough for ALL programs) but fast and another SSD for games that benefit like Skyrim or HDD for games as many don't benefit from SSD's.

[ARikozuM]

Forgot to add that if you get a 1TB SSD, I would partition the drive into two separate drives for ease of installations.

[Wingfan]

1 minute ago, ARikozuM said:

Forgot to add that if you get a 1TB SSD, I would partition the drive into two separate drives for ease of installations.

Even if its just for games?

[DrMikeNZ]

I have had windows 8.1 and 10 screw up a few times where the windows update temporary files folder would fill up a 128GB drive completely crippling the system.

I would personally use at least 256 GB for an OS drive.

 

1 minute ago, Wingfan said:

Even if its just for games?

It can make things easier to keep partitions separate. Keep all data/documents and programs on a second partition, which reduces data loss if you need to fresh install the OS.

[ARikozuM]

3 minutes ago, Wingfan said:

Even if its just for games?

If you'll be using it just for games then no. I thought you might be selling the old drive as some people do.

[Wingfan]

The 240GB will hit the shelf or might give it to a friend. Its an M500 so its a little dated but still a solid drive.

The 850 Pro ill be keeping for awhile, plenty fast enough for a boot drive. With this ASRock board my systems boots really fast.

 

[Wingfan]

What about M.2 drives, can they be used for boot if so would it be a faster boot?

[ARikozuM]

20 minutes ago, Wingfan said:

What about M.2 drives, can they be used for boot if so would it be a faster boot?

I use a 950 PRO. It uses PCIe over M.2 for much faster speeds since SSD's are stopped by the SATA III interface. The only issue is that some of the 950 PRO's get toasty when under load.

 

Just make sure your board supports "M.2" over "PCIe" and not just M.2 over SATA III. Best way to make them your boot drive is to clone the OS.

[Wingfan]

6 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I use a 950 PRO. It uses PCIe over M.2 for much faster speeds since SSD's are stopped by the SATA III interface. The only issue is that some of the 950 PRO's get toasty when under load.

 

Just make sure your board supports "M.2" over "PCIe" and not just M.2 over SATA III. Best way to make them your boot drive is to clone the OS.

My boards M.2 slot is right under the socket, so it would have to look decent.

Whats a good price for the 950 Pro?

[ARikozuM]

950 PRO cost me about $200. There are other M.2 PCIe drives though. Kingston is the first that comes to mind.