Will a 128GB SSD be enough for 2 OSes?

Question

Solid State Drives

I would like to buy an SSD for my laptop, I chose Plextor M6S, but I can't decide how much to take - 128 or 256 GB? On the one hand, you can buy extra RAM with extra money, on the other hand, with 256 GB you don’t have to worry about the size and amount of installed software. I plan to install Windows 8 and Mint, given the recommended amount of space, then 40-50 GB will already be occupied by the OS itself, my software folder on Windows takes about 65 GB, as a result, 10-20 GB remains, not to mention the programs in Mint, plus I once read that free space plays a role in SSD performance, so I would like to know different opinions on this issue.
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I think I gave not enough data.
So, there are 2 computers - a stationary and a laptop.
The stationary is quite old, even with sata2, there are 2 HDDs - Samsung 500 GB (6 years old, taken immediately) and WD 1TB (taken in 2010, after 2 years).
The laptop of 2013, taken in the fall, has a Toshiba 500 GB HDD, according to CrystalDiskMark tests, it is slightly faster than a hospital HDD.
I would like to take an SSD specifically for a laptop, since there is an i7, I would like to add another 4 GB later and get 8 GB. With an SSD, in my opinion, you get a good productive machine. (Notebook model )
The stationary one, of course, will have to be replaced later, so I think it will be used as storage for files.
As for the volume of programs - 65 GB - this is software from the hospital, collected over 3 years (Windows has not been reinstalled) on a laptop, the volume of software is 15 GB since the fall of 2013. Windows 8.1 itself occupies 16 GB there.
The laptop will be used for study, work, programming. I would like to have a place for several toys from Steam, due to a weak video card I doubt that they will be heavy (something like KSP, Space Engineers, eu4)
I think to keep movies, heavy games, photos and other content on a stationary device, especially if you take from there 500 GB hard it will turn out in general almost 2 TB.
Why choose between 128 and 256 GB? According to calculations, it turns out that 128 is basically enough, but I want to have a margin - on the other hand, if we take 256, then in the end it turns out that the margin will be in the amount of half or maybe more than the volume of the disk. In view of the limited budget, the ideas are as follows:
- take 128 GB and buy 4 GB of memory, having received a laptop, which can completely limit the hard paging file to the required minimum for a dump for both operating systems.
- take 256 GB, do not buy memory and get quite a lot of free space.
Now 118 GB is occupied on the laptop - of which Windows 16 GB, software 15 GB, Program Files - 4.71 GB. In general, the volume of folders with software and data (Users, Program Files/(x86), Soft, Windows) without extra files was ~39 GB (without games and other things, only software). As for Mint, I don’t know how much it will take if you take 20 recommended free and + 10-20, then it turns out in general about 80 for systems, as a result, ~ 30-40 GB remains for other files. Here, by the way, the question is - is free disk space initially reserved? That is, if ~ 119 GB is available, then it turns out that it is not required to leave it free? If you need another 10 GB of free space. then it turns out that 30 GB remains, which of course is not a little but not quite a lot. But if you take 256, then there will be a lot of space that is not clear what to occupy.
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Still, there is still a question - there is an adapter for replacing a dvd drive with a hard one - what if you buy a 128GB SSD + adapter + 4 GB of RAM for the place of one SSD for 256? In theory, there is just a place for 2 OS and software, and the HDD is also suitable for the rest. Someone wrote that it is "generally extremely unreasonable" to install only an SSD - I don't know what the reason is. In theory, such a bunch - 128 SSD + 500 HDD is quite suitable - on SSD Windows with Mint and software, and on hard, as an option, you can store backups and the rest of the content.

Answer 1

If you can bite your elbow, then take 128GB.

Answer 2

It really depends on the usage scenario, for example, I don’t store large files at all, not on a laptop, not on a computer, not on a tablet, I have a NAS server for this, in this scenario, 128 is enough, and it will still remain, in all other cases for today will not be enough.

Answer 3

At one time, 64 gigs was enough for me on Ubuntu + Windows 8. True, in the end it was no longer enough, so now there is no Windows.
Windows 8 with hibernation disabled and the swap file (RAM if 8 gigs or more. You don’t really need it, although depending on what you are doing) you will have 15-20 gigs (it can swell over time, depending on the settings, but you can periodically clean various things like restore points after updates, etc.) We add programs and it comes out something like 80 gigs on Win (with a margin).
On mint with software (although it depends on what you use), another 20-30 gigs are needed, the distribution itself does not take up much space. Total 10 more gigs of stock.
IMHO 128 gigs is enough, but it all depends on what you will do there. If your work is related to video / audio processing, I would recommend taking 256 gigs. In short, tell us what you are planning to do.

Answer 4

buy 128 GB SSD + adapter + 4 GB RAM for the place of one SSD for 256.