120 gb SSD, good enough?

DMKAlex · Nov 4, 2017

I'd just purchased a refurbished laptop that comes with a 120 SSD. I am wondering if I need to upgrade it to 250gb. I am going to add a 500gb HHD with a caddy as my data drive (D

so there is no need for the SSD to hold the pictures, video or documents.

I reviewed what I have in my current laptop. The system folders including all the programs I run would take up about 75 to 80 GB of space. But the AppData on my current laptop is huge (150gb).

I wonder why is it so huge? Is there something I can remove to make it more nimble?

Back to my 120gb SSD. If I load all the programs I use and start using that "new" machine, would it run into program because of short of room as the appData gradually builds up?

hotdog321 · Nov 4, 2017

I'm sure 120 GB is fine, but I would clone and replace it with a 250 GB SSD. In fact, my present desktop came with a 120 GB SSD that I replaced with a 1 TB SSD on day one.

My reasoning is that I simply don't want the constant headache to watching every GB of data and deciding what needs to go or stay. I'd rather just get on with my job and do occasional maintenance.

Just my two cents, others will feel differently.

DMKAlex · Nov 4, 2017

hotdog321 said:
I'm sure 120 GB is fine, but I would clone and replace it with a 250 GB SSD. In fact, my present desktop came with a 120 GB SSD that I replaced with a 1 TB SSD on day one.

My reasoning is that I simply don't want the constant headache to watching every GB of data and deciding what needs to go or stay. I'd rather just get on with my job and do occasional maintenance.

Just my two cents, others will feel differently.

hotdog321 · Nov 4, 2017

DMKAlex said:
hotdog321 said:

I'm sure 120 GB is fine, but I would clone and replace it with a 250 GB SSD. In fact, my present desktop came with a 120 GB SSD that I replaced with a 1 TB SSD on day one.

My reasoning is that I simply don't want the constant headache to watching every GB of data and deciding what needs to go or stay. I'd rather just get on with my job and do occasional maintenance.

Just my two cents, others will feel differently.

Click to expand...

Simon Garrett · Nov 4, 2017

hotdog321 said:
DMKAlex said:

hotdog321 said:

I'm sure 120 GB is fine, but I would clone and replace it with a 250 GB SSD. In fact, my present desktop came with a 120 GB SSD that I replaced with a 1 TB SSD on day one.

My reasoning is that I simply don't want the constant headache to watching every GB of data and deciding what needs to go or stay. I'd rather just get on with my job and do occasional maintenance.

Just my two cents, others will feel differently.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

ormdig · Nov 4, 2017

DMKAlex wrote:

Simon Garrett said:
Simon Garrett said:

Simon Garrett said:

I am putting a 500 gb HHD in as D drive to store data. The question is whether the 120 gb would be good enough to hold the system and program files.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

+1

It is possible to manage with a 120G C drive, but you'd need to spend a lot of time weeding stuff out of AppData and other places in C:\users that windows and other programs insist on putting there.

Another issue: when W10 upgrades itself to a new build (twice a year) it really needs around 30G of spare space in order to keep everything from the current build after the upgrade. It deletes that after about 10 days, but in the mean time you can always go back to the previous build. I start getting twitchy if there is less than 50G space on my C drive (a 240G SSD).

256G is much more comfortable.

DMKAlex · Nov 4, 2017

ormdig said:
DMKAlex wrote:

ormdig said:

ormdig said:

ormdig said:

I am putting a 500 gb HHD in as D drive to store data. The question is whether the 120 gb would be good enough to hold the system and program files.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

+1

It is possible to manage with a 120G C drive, but you'd need to spend a lot of time weeding stuff out of AppData and other places in C:\users that windows and other programs insist on putting there.

Another issue: when W10 upgrades itself to a new build (twice a year) it really needs around 30G of spare space in order to keep everything from the current build after the upgrade. It deletes that after about 10 days, but in the mean time you can always go back to the previous build. I start getting twitchy if there is less than 50G space on my C drive (a 240G SSD).

256G is much more comfortable.

--
Simon

Click to expand...

I agree with Simon, it isn't worth the hassle of constantly checking to see what is using up storage. Another thing 250GBs gives you is the ability to keep your current images on your C: drive. This makes for much faster downloading, loading and retrieval rates when you want to work on them. An HDD, especially a portable with it's poor connections makes for a frustrating experience waiting for these operations, especially big folders. When the images or folders are no longer current then move them to the HDD,

--
Pete

Thank you all for the advises.

This is my poor man's upgrade to replace my 7-8 year old Toshiba Satellite L455 which is showing some age of sluggishness with the Pentium. I am not ready to spend $1200 up for a gaming laptop (for video editing) yet. But a $250 refurbish HP 8470p i7-Quad Core with 8GB DRAM and a 120GB SSD seems a good way to bridge me over. At the meantime, I am going to sell the L455. I think I would get around $75 for it. That would bring my cost of upgrade down to around $180. I think the performance of the i7 is far better than the 8 year old Pentium.

I am going to upgrade the ram to 12gb. I upgraded the other Toshiba i7 to 16gb DRAM from the original 12gb but didn't see any noticeable improvement. So I am going to switch the 4gb so both machines would have 12 gb.

I am going to buy a DVD caddy to swap out the DVD with a 500gb HHD as storage.

The idea is that this "new" machine would have very much the same power and capacity as my Toshiba i7.

I want to see if I need to swap out the SSD to something bigger. But if it can handle all my programs, I will probably wait and see.

Tom_N · Nov 4, 2017

DMKAlex said:
I am going to upgrade the ram to 12gb. I upgraded the other Toshiba i7 to 16gb DRAM from the original 12gb but did see any noticeable improvement. So I am going to put switch the 4gb so both machines would have 12 gb.

Be careful there. There are many kinds of RAM. Moving RAM from one laptop to another only makes sense if both have the same RAM requirements (type, speed, density).

DMKAlex · Nov 4, 2017

Tom_N said:
DMKAlex said:

I am going to upgrade the ram to 12gb. I upgraded the other Toshiba i7 to 16gb DRAM from the original 12gb but did see any noticeable improvement. So I am going to put switch the 4gb so both machines would have 12 gb.

Click to expand...

Be careful there. There are many kinds of RAM. Moving RAM from one laptop to another only makes sense if both have the same RAM requirements (type, speed, density).

Thank you for the advise.

I went to Kingston memory finder and both machines use the same spec on 8gb and 4gb:

DDR3 , 1600MHz , Non-ECC , CL11 , X8 , 1.5V , Unbuffered , SODIMM , 204-pin

I think they are interchangeable.

Mystery member · Nov 5, 2017

DMKAlex said:
I'd just purchased a refurbished laptop that comes with a 120 SSD. I am wondering if I need to upgrade it to 250gb. I am going to add a 500gb HHD with a caddy as my data drive (D so there is no need for the SSD to hold the pictures, video or documents.

I reviewed what I have in my current laptop. The system folders including all the programs I run would take up about 75 to 80 GB of space. But the AppData on my current laptop is huge (150gb).

I wonder why is it so huge? Is there something I can remove to make it more nimble?

Back to my 120gb SSD. If I load all the programs I use and start using that "new" machine, would it run into program because of short of room as the appData gradually builds up?

I recently set up a notebook that's intended mostly for online work, so I'm not worried about storage. It has a 128Gb SSD and a 2Tb HDD.

Win10 and Office 2016 came pre-installed on the SSD, and I installed a few additional utilities etc. I attempted to install the utilities on the HDD, but for some reason the installs failed. There was even an option in the setup to "Install new programs to the HDD"?

Anyhow, the SSD only has 40Gb used, while the HDD just has some backup data at the moment. I can't see the SSD ever filling up with the usage regime that I have planned which involves online marking of student assignments which stay on the university server. Having the Office applications on the SSD makes handling the sometimes disorderly student assignments a breeze (they often include excessively large graphics files).

Regarding your AppData, that may include stuff that you've forgotten, even your email with attachments (perhaps from programs that you no longer use). The AppData on my much-used Win7 computer only amounts to 20Gb.

SC489 · Nov 5, 2017

You could use Tree Size Free https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/ to see what is taking up the disk space then consider uninstalling the offending programs. You can safely delete all files in the temp folder at C:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Temp. I also use CCleaner to delete other temporary files.

120GB is fine if you plan to use an external HDD for data. Otherwise I suggest you consider a 500Gb+ SSD and keep everything on the SSD.

Bobthearch · Nov 5, 2017

I would upgrade. Even though My Documents and archived photo files are on separate drives and alternative storage, my C drive is currently using 134GB.

Not only does Windows OS require an obscene amount of space, I like to install and 'play' with a lot of different software titles. Additionally, current projects are in folders and sub-folders on the desktop.

hobo · Nov 5, 2017

DMKAlex said:
I'd just purchased a refurbished laptop that comes with a 120 SSD. I am wondering if I need to upgrade it to 250gb. I am going to add a 500gb HHD with a caddy as my data drive (D so there is no need for the SSD to hold the pictures, video or documents.

I reviewed what I have in my current laptop. The system folders including all the programs I run would take up about 75 to 80 GB of space. But the AppData on my current laptop is huge (150gb).

I wonder why is it so huge? Is there something I can remove to make it more nimble?

Back to my 120gb SSD. If I load all the programs I use and start using that "new" machine, would it run into program because of short of room as the appData gradually builds up?

Are you on Win 7? If yes, I can compare the above with my existing configuration.

To be in the comfort zone, I would replace the 120GB SSD to the bigger one (240/256GB and more, if cheap), play with the settings and use it for Win only. 500GB or 1TB laptop HDD is usually enough. You can easily map your TEMP folder to D: (HDD) and save some badly needed SSD capacity for Win updates and similar.

Possible issues during cloning the SSD incl. the licensing-related: see more e.g. here:

Loading…

www.tomshardware.co.uk

I have also found that many tools do not allow you to change the installation path and have many C: folders by default. Sometimes it can be fixed, but not always.

Other: the SSD life is limited, thus proper backup is a must.

Just my $0.02 .

DMKAlex · Nov 11, 2017

DMKAlex said:
I'd just purchased a refurbished laptop that comes with a 120 SSD. I am wondering if I need to upgrade it to 250gb. I am going to add a 500gb HHD with a caddy as my data drive (D so there is no need for the SSD to hold the pictures, video or documents.

I reviewed what I have in my current laptop. The system folders including all the programs I run would take up about 75 to 80 GB of space. But the AppData on my current laptop is huge (150gb).

I wonder why is it so huge? Is there something I can remove to make it more nimble?

Back to my 120gb SSD. If I load all the programs I use and start using that "new" machine, would it run into program because of short of room as the appData gradually builds up?

This is a follow up to this thread.

First, I have to say I am extremely happy, so far, with the refurbished HP 8470p I purchased from a third part thru NewEggBusiness.com. The third party supplier is a certified refurbisher and did a decent job with the machine. I had a couple of questions and NewEgg did a good job into resolving them promptly. My wait time on the phone is less than a minute, and the supporting staff was able to give me answer within a few seconds. Very impressive.

The 8470p is a HP Elitebook. My daughter had one when she was with Gap and I recalled it was an amazing solid performer. She had Windows 7 and was loaded with corporate apps. The machine was a total over kill for what she did (some Excel worksheet and logging in the corporate server). Mine came with a 3rd generation i7 (same as my Toshiha S855), 8gb dram and a 120gb SSD.

This original post was about my concern if 120gb is good enough (after I add the 500gb HHD for data storage in the DVD bay). I upgraded to the latest Windows 10 and then cleaned out the Windows.old folder. I installed/downloaded all the apps and programs I used. I had just completed the installations and I still have 69gb free, of the 117gb SSD. I think it is a comfortable margin at this point to leave the 120gb SSD alone without upgrading it. I will monitor the drive space as I started to use the machine progressively.

There was a pleasant surprise with this HP. I had a HP laptop quite a few years ago. When I sold it, I took out the HP Expresscard adapter (for CF reader). The 8470p still has that slot and I was able to put the old adapter to use. Now this machine can read my CF without me carrying any external adapter. Quite pleased.

The only shortcoming of this machine is the display. It is only 1366x768. I guess it is because this machine was meant for corporate warriors instead of photographer/videographer like me. But for $252, I can't really complain.

I had just imaged the SSD with all the updates and software loaded. My next step is to swap out the 4<->8 gb DRAM to make it 12gb total DRAM. I am awaiting the DVD caddy and putting the 500gb HHD in it.

All and all, so far, a very happy camper.

bent christian · Nov 11, 2017

120 is large enough to hold the Windows OS. It won't be as fast as 256.

hobo · Nov 11, 2017

DMKAlex said:
DMKAlex said:

I'd just purchased a refurbished laptop that comes with a 120 SSD. I am wondering if I need to upgrade it to 250gb. I am going to add a 500gb HHD with a caddy as my data drive (D so there is no need for the SSD to hold the pictures, video or documents.

I reviewed what I have in my current laptop. The system folders including all the programs I run would take up about 75 to 80 GB of space. But the AppData on my current laptop is huge (150gb).

I wonder why is it so huge? Is there something I can remove to make it more nimble?

Back to my 120gb SSD. If I load all the programs I use and start using that "new" machine, would it run into program because of short of room as the appData gradually builds up?

Click to expand...

This is a follow up to this thread.

First, I have to say I am extremely happy, so far, with the refurbished HP 8470p I purchased from a third part thru NewEggBusiness.com. The third party supplier is a certified refurbisher and did a decent job with the machine. I had a couple of questions and NewEgg did a good job into resolving them promptly. My wait time on the phone is less than a minute, and the supporting staff was able to give me answer within a few seconds. Very impressive.

The 8470p is a HP Elitebook. My daughter had one when she was with Gap and I recalled it was an amazing solid performer. She had Windows 7 and was loaded with corporate apps. The machine was a total over kill for what she did (some Excel worksheet and logging in the corporate server). Mine came with a 3rd generation i7 (same as my Toshiha S855), 8gb dram and a 120gb SSD.

This original post was about my concern if 120gb is good enough (after I add the 500gb HHD for data storage in the DVD bay). I upgraded to the latest Windows 10 and then cleaned out the Windows.old folder. I installed/downloaded all the apps and programs I used. I had just completed the installations and I still have 69gb free, of the 117gb SSD. I think it is a comfortable margin at this point to leave the 120gb SSD alone without upgrading it. I will monitor the drive space as I started to use the machine progressively.

There was a pleasant surprise with this HP. I had a HP laptop quite a few years ago. When I sold it, I took out the HP Expresscard adapter (for CF reader). The 8470p still has that slot and I was able to put the old adapter to use. Now this machine can read my CF without me carrying any external adapter. Quite pleased.

The only shortcoming of this machine is the display. It is only 1366x768. I guess it is because this machine was meant for corporate warriors instead of photographer/videographer like me. But for $252, I can't really complain.

I had just imaged the SSD with all the updates and software loaded. My next step is to swap out the 4<->8 gb DRAM to make it 12gb total DRAM. I am awaiting the DVD caddy and putting the 500gb HHD in it.

All and all, so far, a very happy camper.

Good to know!

You can also add a good enough external display ... do not think that 14"/1366*768 is Okay for image editing and - more important - for your eyes.

DMKAlex · Nov 11, 2017

hobo said:
Good to know!

You can also add a good enough external display ... do not think that 14"/1366*768 is Okay for image editing and - more important - for your eyes.

I am using 2 machines with similar vintage .

The Tosihiba S855 has a 1920x1080 monitor and it’s plugged in to a 24” external monitor. That’s my main machine. Anything I do on the HP is temporary. Any serious stuff will be transferred to the main machine.

So I think the HP is good enough as it is.

Sranang Boi · Nov 11, 2017

Yes it is good and large enough. Just remember to reserve 10% of the drive as buffer stage. So don't cram it full with programs to above 100GB.

Simon Garrett · Nov 12, 2017

Sranang Boi said:
Yes it is good and large enough. Just remember to reserve 10% of the drive as buffer stage. So don't cram it full with programs to above 100GB.

And remember that Windows 10 needs around 30G or more free space when a new build is installed, twice a year. Without that, if anything goes wrong with the upgrade you're left with a bricked system (as there isn't space to keep roll-back information).

calson · Nov 16, 2017

With any laptop I partition the drive (hard disk or SSD) into two partitions, one for the operating system and the applications, and the other partition for all data files. This reduces driver fragmentation on the primary partition.

With Adobe applications in particular I have to regularly run Windows Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup to remove tmp files and gaps in the drive. SSD drive handle fragmentation better but more for reads than for writes. Good idea to run these two applications after installing a new program as many of them have very poor cleanup routines and can leave a lot of files behind that should have been removed.

120 gb SSD, good enough?

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