SSD Size

I am considering getting an SSD drive for my desktop computer to use as my C drive for Windows 7 Professional 64 bit and my software programs. Documents and other data will be stored on a second hard drive of 1 TB capacity.

However - I am not sure what size SSD is required.

My present hard drive contains :
Windows 7 29.3 GB
Prog Files 1.2 GB
Prog files (x86) 9.3 GB
Prog data 16.4 GB
Users 10.1 GB
Other Folders 5.3 GB
Sub Total 71.6 GB

System Volume 228.7 GB
Total 300.3 GB

The biggest storage hog is System Volume - I cannot see what it contains but assume it is mainly system restore files.

If I bought a 128 GB SSD the available room for System Volume would be 57 GB - is this enough - or am I about to walk into a storage problem?

When you mention System Volume, are you referring to free space?

If you are only using 71.6 GB then a 128 GB SSD would be plenty big enough for you.

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My opinion is: get the maximum SSD you can afford....the bigger the better...a good rule of thumb for SSD purchases is $1 a GIG. I wouldn't go with anything less than 256 Gig SSD. I've seen some good deals on 256 gig ssd for $130 to $170. You just have to shop around.

There is a folder on my existing C drive named "System Volume" which contains a series of files with long meaningless titles. This folder occupies 228.7 GB which means that my 500 GB C Drive contains files totalling 300.3 GB.

My concern is that a smaller SSD drive will be occupied by approx 71.6 GB of OS and program files - leaving less space for the "System Volume" file.

Have you deleted your old restore points lately? That may recover quite a bit of space.

As Yodap points out, System Volume should mostly be backups, index storage, and restore points. If you run a disk cleanup and also clear out old restore points it should drop the size considerably.

Unless you plan to install lots of games or run virtual machines off your system then 128GB should be more than plenty. There are quite a few 128GB SSD deals for around $85 these days, including the Crucial m4.

I would go with Kougar's recommendation of 128 GB SSD. It's an excellent size and will not break your wallet.

I like the Samsung 830 series of SSDs. They get very good reviews.