Hard Drive and Solid State Drive (SSD) recommendations

[BanjoTom]

I have a Dell XPS 8700 desktop computer with Windows 10/64-bit OS, which -- right NOW -- has a 2Tb boot drive (C:\) and also an additional 1Tb internal storage hard drive drive (E:\).   

I'd like to upgrade my hardware, but wonder if any dedicated IMATCH users will think what I'm proposing makes sense, or will make other helpful suggestions, which I'd very much welcome!

In the very near future I will first replace the 1Tb E:\ drive with an internal 4Tb hard disk drive, and will then move all the current contents of the E:\ drive, and most of the data now stored on my C:\ drive, to that location. 

Once I've freed up sufficient space on the current C:\ boot-drive, I wish to replace it with an SSD, to improve the speed of my system for all basic Windows operations, and especially for my daily use of IMATCH.

How big an SSD will I need?  I could spring for a 1Tb SSD, but wonder if that's really needed; after all, Win 10 is supposed to require only 20 to 40 Gb, and my IMATCH database is much smaller than that -- about 2Gb right now.  All of my approximately 65000 images and documents that are indexed in IMATCH take up less than 300 Gb.  Can I get by with a 500Gb SSD?  Or can I reasonably store the images and documents on the new larger E:\-drive?

What other recommendations might more you experienced IMATCH and Win 10/64 users suggest?  I'll eagerly await any responses before I order new hardware! 

Thanks!

[Mario]

I have a 512 GB Samsung SSD as my boot disk (W10), with all applications (many), many IMatch databases, several large virtual machine / docker hard disk images (about 100GB!) and tons of other stuff on it. It is ~70% filled after 3 years of use.

For 'mass data' storage my PC has 2 x 2TB regular hard disks in RAID 1 configuration for safety.
A second 512 GB SSD for all my software development files (60% filled).

You should do just fine with a 512 GB SSD. It is affordable and will provide a massive speed boost.

[Jingo]

I mirror Mario's suggestion... 512 SSD is plenty of space because you really only should be storing programs, databases and the OS on this drive... all data can be stored on cheap HD's... I have about 40TB's worth of 7200 drives attached to my workhorse PC with 2 256GB SSD's ... couldn't be happier with performance and storage capabilities!

[jch2103]

I mirror Mario's suggestion... 512 SSD is plenty of space because you really only should be storing programs, databases and the OS on this drive... all data can be stored on cheap HD's... I have about 40TB's worth of 7200 drives attached to my workhorse PC with 2 256GB SSD's ... couldn't be happier with performance and storage capabilities!

Agreed. That's a 'sweet spot' at the moment re price/capacity as SSD prices have come down a lot. (I recently replaced a 256GB SSD with a 1TB one, but in most cases 512 should be more than enough.)

When you migrate data from your C drive, be sure to migrate your user folders to your data drive(s). It's pretty easy to do, although Microsoft could make it easier.

[Mario]

I would first check how large the user folder is. Moving it can be a nuisance and cause issues.
Even on my convoluted developer system the User folder has less than 20 GB...not worth moving it.

[Mees Dekker]

I am using an 8 year old (!) Dell XPS8100 and once upgraded that to a 1 Tb SSD as my boot drive. All my pictures are on my Synology NAS (5 bays with 2Tb hdd each, Synology RAID, so 8 Tb available to me). Works fine.

However: a lot of programs/apps that I'm using, greatly benefit from having their data on a fast SSD (like IMatch likes to have the database itself on SSD). My user folder is almost 200 Gb, so check that first, before deciding on 512 Gb of 1 Tb.