southwestform

Q: How much free space does an SSD drive need to run optimal?

I'm configuring an order of iMacs to be used in a work environment and my first choice is to get 256SSD and edit all photos/videos off of external drives and use the internal SSDs for only the OS and applications. How much free space do SSD drives need to run optimal?

 

Thanks.

Posted on Dec 4, 2015 1:55 PM

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Q: How much free space does an SSD drive need to run optimal?

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  • by Baby Boomer (USofA),Helpful

    Baby Boomer (USofA) Baby Boomer (USofA) Dec 5, 2015 8:21 AM in response to southwestform
    Level 9 (57,608 points)
    Dec 5, 2015 8:21 AM in response to southwestform

    Read the info in the following User Tip linkhttps://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6484

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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  • by Linc Davis,Helpful

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Dec 5, 2015 8:21 AM in response to southwestform
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Dec 5, 2015 8:21 AM in response to southwestform

    According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Dec 4, 2015 7:24 PM in response to southwestform
    Level 7 (31,893 points)
    iPad
    Dec 4, 2015 7:24 PM in response to southwestform

    Due to the nature of SSDs and either having TRIM enabled or not (as in OWC SSDs), they need extra space, not only for GC (garbage collection) as data are written/wiped in blocks. Below are some links; the first one suggested that at least 25% be kept available so the performance does not suffer:

     

    http://www.howtogeek.com/165472/6-things-you-shouldnt-do-with-solid-state-drives /

     

    SSD Maintenance

     

    http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/04/ask-ars-my-ssd-does-garbage-collection-so -i-dont-need-trim-right/

  • by southwestform,

    southwestform southwestform Dec 5, 2015 8:24 AM in response to babowa
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Apple TV
    Dec 5, 2015 8:24 AM in response to babowa

    Thanks for all of the replies.

     

    1. What I'm looking into now, is if individual programs, such as Adobe Premiere, After Effects, etc. benefit from additional space on the SSD. Anyone have any idea?

     

    2. We might also partition the SSDs and install Windows and some Windows programs on it. Overall, we calculated the storage space necessary for Mac OS, Mac programs, Windows and Windows programs and we have over 100GB free space on a 256GB SSD. Are there any Windows specific issues with needing more space or anything else we should be aware of?

     

    Thanks.

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Dec 5, 2015 8:58 AM in response to southwestform
    Level 7 (31,893 points)
    iPad
    Dec 5, 2015 8:58 AM in response to southwestform

    Can't answer the Windows question as I do not use it. However, the general recommendation for Macs (for spinning drives - not sure about SSDs, but the same might apply) is that if you do a lot of video/graphics editing and rendering, you should have at least as much empty space as the temp files in your project for the machine to be able to render efficiently. Since I can easily amass 100 - 150 GB of temp files for a one hour HD project, I keep much more empty space than average available. Not sure how well SSDs work with constantly erasing large files - which is what I do when I'm done with a project - and how it effects their longevity. You might want to address that with an SSD mfr. When I got a new iMac earlier this year, I decided to go with the "tried and true" and opted for a regular spinning 7200 rpm drive because of my video/graphics/arts work. I have an SSD on my MBP and have not found a measurable speed difference in rendering a video when I tried it - it is much faster booting up and launching apps though.

  • by Baby Boomer (USofA),

    Baby Boomer (USofA) Baby Boomer (USofA) Dec 5, 2015 10:19 AM in response to southwestform
    Level 9 (57,608 points)
    Dec 5, 2015 10:19 AM in response to southwestform

    Are there any Windows specific issues with needing more space or anything else we should be aware of?

    You may wish to ask and/or post in the Windows Compatibility forum area.  It's where the Mac/Windows users hang out.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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