Is 20GB enough?

[doodoo]

I mean, would 20GB be enough for 2 years to come?

[Dovaka]

i know some people that have 8 gigs and are happy my computer has 2 80 gig drives in raid that get pretty full most of the time buti design websites and graphics all day long and after im done it ends up on a cd but of course ive got about 30 gigs of mp3's as well as many simpson episodes and alot of other video stuff so it really depends on what you use your computer for

[MiKe85]

I'd say it's enough, of course that depends on what your doing with your computer. Most of my friends that have more than 25GB only have it for "bragging rights."

[DiscoLando]

It depends on what you want to install - Windows will take a minimum of 200M (more for NT or XP), applications can easily take 25-50M plus all the data for them, (For example, Photoshop 6 takes about 120M, but I have 2.5G of .psd files!) and finally games can easily take 200M or more (not counting full install on most games).

Personally, I have a 20g for my OS and applications, then another 40g, partitioned for data and games. This also creates another bonus, I don't have to backup anything whenever I must format and reinstall my OS and apps.

[doodoo]

Good point DiscoLando. Serious..

[emcron]

It really depends on what you do with your computer. If you download a lot of mp3, image, movie files then 20GB its going to go pretty quickly.

[rh71]

yes,... it all comes down to what speed your internet connection is http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[crazyray]

I'm ashamed to admit I currently have about 80 gb of MP3's. They are all legal of course.

[scourge]

I tackled this question recently before buying a 20gig IBM 60gxp from newegg. The 40gig was $30 more, but I decided that I wouldn't use it. However, the price difference gap has closed on this particular drive lately to about $15-$20 difference. With most everything running from CD now or hopefully DVD in the near future, I think that total space is taking a backseat to pure hdd speed. I also pride myself on a clean system though so I keep my hdd usage way down.

[frnkzks]

It really depends what you want to do. Installation of windows can take more than 400 MB; A complete installation of Diablo II takes 1.5 GB; MS Visual Studio can take more than 2.0 GB if you decide to install the docs on HD.
I guess it would also depend on the size of your pipe to the Internet. Since HDs are so cheap now days, why not go for a larger one? The price difference between 20 GB and 30 GB is less than $25...

[wahrez]

20 Gig, is no way near enough....I have got two 16 GB and I'm down to my last couple of gig...what with all my appz, mp3'z (25gig'z worth) and my filez.

I have been looking at upgrading and seen some nice 70GB 7200RPM for about £225 (UK Pounds).

[joerg]

I have a 40gig and i thought it would never get full then i got cable sense i got it i have doubled the amount of stuff i have i currently have over 25gigs in movies alone.
20gig is nowhere near enough in my opinion.
Im looking into 2 80gigs on my new system and another 40 for my current.

[doodoo]

Strangely enough, I'm the type of guy who only installs games(taking the OS installation process as an exception). Talking about productivity software other then Notepad and Wordpad, I have none.

Wanna know what's the maximum storage I "once" used? 10GB approx. 10GB as of where 3-4GB is of useless games I'd never play. Well, if one day I'd get into the habit of MP3s and downloading video clips, maybe I'd get another cheap 20GB drive.

Thanks for all of you who replied, and I'm really glad that you guys took part in this thread. I'm not ending everything right here. By no means, continue. I'd really like to read more about all this. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by doodoo (edited 07-20-2001).]

[This message has been edited by doodoo (edited 07-20-2001).]

[Cody]

I think it's plenty, but I have 30GB <<grin>>

[Cody]

You could just get a 30GB for about the same price for 20 too though.

[Eli]

I outgrew a four gig, then stretched out a nine gig. Now, with this forty gig drive, I haven't even checked to see how much free space I have left in months now. I'd say anything twenty or more gigs and you'll be set for a couple of years at least, unless you absolutely have to have every game and app you own installed at any given time. Then it might get tight regardless of the size.

[JacobM5727]

i have an 8.4 gb drive that hasnt gotten full after three years, its still got 3 gigs on it, and a few miles away my g\f is freaking out putting 2mb on her 35 gb drive, geez...

[Wilan Wong]

I think 20gb is plenty, as I have two computers with 20gb each, the net one usually gets filled up very quickly, while my non-net one doesn't even use much of the 20gb! But I would say, get around 30-40gb, since it doesn't cost that much more, and could come in handy for future software that require more disk space.

[JohnC]

If all you have is "local" storage you need at least 30 or 40 Gig. I'd really recommend two 30 or 40 Gig drives. One for programs and OS. The other for data, pics, etc.

I'm currently running 2-20Gig drives on my PC. Both drives are about 75% full with another 34-Gig available on my NT4.0 Server.

[jansson_markus]

I bet it depends upon how much porn you download... http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

No, seriously! I havent seen a computer which would have installed programs that would take 20GB of space. But MPEG:s, MP3:s, games, etc. take a lot of space.

[CoNeSsIuS]

I have to agree with CrazyRay and Rh71. My cable modem is sweat considering all the Legal downloads I do. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif Now on those MP3's. Must be that there are no Metalica ones. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

I too agree that it completly depends on what you are doing with your computer. I use mine primarily for Photoshop, Flash, Website Design, Games and I have started to play around with 3D Studio.

I remember when I first got this pc and how I thought my 13GB HD would never run out of space. Then, 2 years and a cable modem later I added a second HD ( 20GB Western Digital ) to handle all my games, documents and downloads. Then a few days ago I replaced my 20Gig with a 60Gig since it was starting to fill up.

It never hurts to plan ahead if you can afford it. That seems to be my motto with both storage & RAM http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Just to give you an idea how how this breaks down on my setup:

Drive C: ( 13GB IBM )

1.2GB Windows directory
1.4GB Programs
3.0GB Go Back bin file

Drive D: ( 60GB Maxtor )

1.5GB worth of Backups
9.1GB of Documents ( photoshop files, videos, MP3's, websites, downloads, drivers, program updates )
7.3GB Games
320MB Fixed Swap File

[unfguy]

I have noticed that with lots o' space, people tend to get sloppy. File management is a problem. Most folks say they need a larger drive but what they really need is to clean up the files they have. I though an 8 gig drive a couple of years ago would last me forever-- it quickly filled up because I was a sloppy file keeper http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif I learned that organization is the key-- and it is more important with a speedy net connection!

Of course with drive prices so low you should buy the largest drive you can afford. But remember that a single large drive means there is more data to lose should something go wrong.

[Joe03]

Currently, the best value ($ per GB)is a 60 GB drive. If you have anything faster than a 56K modem you won't have any trouble filling it over two years.

[Warthog]

If you have anything faster than a 56K modem you won't have any trouble filling it over two years.

That just about covers it...lol http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I had a 10gb Quantum drive that came with my computer. Soon I bought an - evil - tv tuner card. I started to record a lot of videos from the TV and VCR....made me require a much bigger hard drive, hence the word "evil". I bought an IBM 75GXP 7200rpm 45gb hard drive for $150 in December with free shipping (still a decent deal overall).

Now I have 2 hard drives, 55gb of space. I've used about 16gbs of that space so far. That includes the 4gb of backup files on the 2nd 10gb hard drive - btw, that is EXTREMELY handy. I mean, at 30mb+/sec transfer rate, it beats any CD-RW on the market http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif (of course I use that too for backup).

But see, besides storing mpegs, mp3s, installed games, etc. a big hard drive ALSO means you can do really cool things like have Office 2000 Premium cd copied onto your hard drive. Want to install something that it says is on the cd? No problem http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Other cd required apps like Encarta that are animation intensive (as in, CPU intensive), I also have copied on the hd so it runs SUPER fast.

Organization? I am really organized. In fact, having the large hard drive made me even more organized. The 45gb is divided into three 15gb partitions, plus the 10gb original hard drive. Drive C is my Windows install and other basic files (mp3s, videos, apps, etc.), this drive is more full than the rest; Drive D is my backup, secondary hd; E are Music Videos; F are the copied cds; (why not, I'll go further) G is my CD-RW and H is my DVD drive http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

If I had more 5 1/4" bays (will on next computer), I'd have a super fast CD-ROM drive - like a 72x - for normal, every day use. Then I'd have a drive I!
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
Warthog

PS - ****, I wrote a lot (you still reading, doodoo?)