128GB M.2 for Linux Arch

[Nocte]

Hello,

 

Since abandoning my laptop I have only been running Windows 10, and while it is great for games and office usage I do miss messing with Linux for personal interest.

However, I cannot install HDDs in my desktop as I literally bring it on plane flights as a carry-on multiple times a year and I am afraid of damaging a mechanical drive during landing or car travel between home and the airport.

 

I am really on a tight budget right now and I am looking for the cheapest M.2 SSD I can find that is enough for me to use Arch comfortably (meaning that I still have space to install some extra-stuff). The cheapest non-32GB M.2 I found is the following one:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/kgfmP6/adata-su800-128gb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-asu800ns38-128gt-c

 

I am not too concerned about write/read speeds, as I was used to use Fedora on a 5400rpm drive and I was happy with it. What I am worried about is that I am going to run out of space really quickly with 128GB. I will be using Arch for some for-fun programming for now, and I will probably use it seriously if I get accepted in a Computing Science Master's I have applied for (fingers crossed).

 

Do you think 128GB is enough?

[BeepBoop.PC]

I'm just starting Linux now, specifically Arch, so take my word with a grain of salt. After watching a few vids on installation, most people laid out the drive partitions as such:

 

• At least 30g for boot
• 2g for swap
• the rest for files, etc.

All OS files and programs go into the boot partition, so as long as you have less than like 95 Gig of filespace, games, whatever you put on there, you're good. Otherwise, try to get a bigger drive.

In terms of price, yours is pretty good! $40 for M.2 SSD storage? I'll do you one better, though... I'll be running my Arch machine off of a 256g M.2 SSD ($60), thats NVME!!! How cool is that? I found that deal at the Micro Center where I live. But if all you can find is the standard Sata III, there really isn't much difference. If you need more space, however, that's the next step up from 120g is 256g.

[Nocte]

6 minutes ago, BeepBoop.PC said:

I'm just starting Linux now, specifically Arch, so take my word with a grain of salt. After watching a few vids on installation, most people laid out the drive partitions as such:

 

• At least 30g for boot
• 2g for swap
• the rest for files, etc.

That's great to know. I've always been using Fedora, so I had little knowledge about Arch space needs.

7 minutes ago, BeepBoop.PC said:

All OS files and programs go into the boot partition, so as long as you have less than like 95 Gig of filespace, games, whatever you put on there, you're good.

I am not really planning to install games as I have Windows 10 for that, would you increase the BOOT partition then for extra app space?

8 minutes ago, BeepBoop.PC said:

a 256g M.2 SSD ($60), thats NVME

That's a sick deal! Nice one on that.

[Sauron]

@BeepBoop.PC partitioning schemes are constant grounds of debate, in my opinion if you don't have specific needs there's no reason not to use the whole drive for your root partition (aside from swap). Either way a full arch installation (plus DE) only takes 2-3GB, so space requirements depend on how much data you want to store.

[Nocte]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

@BeepBoop.PC partitioning schemes are constant grounds of debate, in my opinion if you don't have specific needs there's no reason not to use the whole drive for your root partition (aside from swap). Either way a full arch installation (plus DE) only takes 2-3GB, so space requirements depend on how much data you want to store.

So if I give root 100-110GB + swap, I should be alright?

Do you think it is enough space if I am not planning to install games and co.?

[BeepBoop.PC]

1 minute ago, Eibe said:

That's great to know. I've always been using Fedora, so I had little knowledge about Arch space needs.

I am not really planning to install games as I have Windows 10 for that, would you increase the BOOT partition then for extra app space?

That's a sick deal! Nice one on that.

I figured, you'd keep games on Win10. You can make the boot partition anything you like, but I personally, playing around and trying to learn will probably end up installing LOTS of apps, so I'll be setting it to like 50g just in case. I would try to get a bigger drive, though. Unless you know that your stuff won't fill out a 120g drive, then I'd save up and try for a 256g.

 

Check out what it's gonna look like!

 

 

It's my old i5-5820k 6-core processor on my Gigabyte X99 board with a VRM/Mosfet waterblock! 8g of cheap ram, I'll upgrade soon. The drive has one of those EK heatsinks on it (Nickel). Aside from the PSU, all of the computational power is on the (pretty heavy) motherboard. The watercooling is all EK / Heatkiller Watercool, and I'm still looking for a neat testbench case for it, might make one myself!

[Sauron]

1 minute ago, Eibe said:

So if I give root 100-110GB + swap, I should be alright?

Do you think it is enough space if I am not planning to install games and co.?

Yeah, you should be fine. Just move any large files to your windows partition.

[BeepBoop.PC]

4 minutes ago, Sauron said:

@BeepBoop.PC partitioning schemes are constant grounds of debate, in my opinion if you don't have specific needs there's no reason not to use the whole drive for your root partition (aside from swap). Either way a full arch installation (plus DE) only takes 2-3GB, so space requirements depend on how much data you want to store.

But doesn't ALL app files go into boot? Like browser, file manager, music player, text editors, libre stuff, etc. That can't be just 2-3g, right? Maybe if files really are less than you say, then 30g should be enough for my, rather than 50!

[Sauron]

2 hours ago, BeepBoop.PC said:

But doesn't ALL app files go into boot? Like browser, file manager, music player, text editors, libre stuff, etc. That can't be just 2-3g, right? Maybe if files really are less than you say, then 30g should be enough for my, rather than 50!

You're confusing the boot partition with the root partition. In many cases the root partition is also used as the bootable partition, but /boot is a folder that contains the bootloader's files and generally when people say "boot partition" they refer to a dedicated partition mounted at /boot.

 

As for file size though, it's really not that large - if you just follow the guide for a minimal arch installation you'll end up with about 1gb of usage, after that adding a desktop environment and a few essential programs doesn't really add too much. Obviously it gets larger the more programs you install and some of it depends on which DE you choose, but I wouldn't consider those to be a part of the operating system. How much you need depends on your habits and how many programs you intend to install; 30GB is a little low in general, but if you'll only do a handful of things and save your files elsewhere you might be fine. Personally I would go for the 128gb drive or higher though, you don't really save that much by going for a 32 or 64gb model anyway.

 

For reference, my media server's arch installation with a reasonable amount of programs installed takes about 10gb on my root drive.

[BeepBoop.PC]

7 hours ago, Sauron said:

You're confusing the boot partition with the root partition. In many cases the root partition is also used as the bootable partition, but /boot is a folder that contains the bootloader's files and generally when people say "boot partition" they refer to a dedicated partition mounted at /boot.

 

As for file size though, it's really not that large - if you just follow the guide for a minimal arch installation you'll end up with about 1gb of usage, after that adding a desktop environment and a few essential programs doesn't really add too much. Obviously it gets larger the more programs you install and some of it depends on which DE you choose, but I wouldn't consider those to be a part of the operating system. How much you need depends on your habits and how many programs you intend to install; 30GB is a little low in general, but if you'll only do a handful of things and save your files elsewhere you might be fine. Personally I would go for the 128gb drive or higher though, you don't really save that much by going for a 32 or 64gb model anyway.

 

For reference, my media server's arch installation with a reasonable amount of programs installed takes about 10gb on my root drive.

Alright, I understand. Thanks! I still think it's better to be safe than sorry and I'd go for 20g for the root partition. That's like 100g left for files, which is plenty! I agree, though, just get the 120g drive, it's not really worth it to get a smaller one.

[Sauron]

6 hours ago, BeepBoop.PC said:

Alright, I understand. Thanks! I still think it's better to be safe than sorry and I'd go for 20g for the root partition.

There's a lot more chance to be sorry if you set fixed limits for your file structure, you can use the whole drive as a root partition and be just fine in 99.99% of scenarios. If you still want separate partitions, use LVM so at least you can resize them relatively easily later.

[BeepBoop.PC]

5 hours ago, Sauron said:

There's a lot more chance to be sorry if you set fixed limits for your file structure, you can use the whole drive as a root partition and be just fine in 99.99% of scenarios. If you still want separate partitions, use LVM so at least you can resize them relatively easily later.

Aaah. Okay. How do you set that up? The whole drive being root? The only partitions will be root and swap, then?

[Sauron]

2 hours ago, BeepBoop.PC said:

The only partitions will be root and swap, then?

Yes.