how big of a SSD would i need for OS and program files

it depends on the programs you are planning to install, as some are much larger than others. For just a boot drive with a few regular programs like microsoft office and visual studio 60GB is usually fine for me personally. 120GB is probably the ideal size to encompass most peoples needs for a boot drive and all day to day programs though, without having to worry about running out of space.
 
I think you might regret it if you go for a 60Gb drive. Go 128Gb to be safe.

I have a 128Gb drive with everything I need and Win7 on it and i've used 70Gb.
 
As above I have a 60GB SSD in my Netbook running Windows 7 and it's fine. I have disabled system restore and hibernation which saves quite a bit of space.
 
Yep a lot of people don't realise that hibernation is enabled by default and using up the same amount of space as your RAM. I've never found the need to use it so always disable it to save the space.

I'm running Windows 7 with several apps and have hibernation & pagefile disabled and its taking up 32GB

I do have a 256GB RAID0 though for all my games :)
 
I too am running a 60GB ssd boot drive which is about 55GB once formatted.

On it i have:-

Windows 7 home premium
MS office
Avs4u software suite (about 10 bits of software)
Data recovery software
Itunes

I still have 30.5GB free. Enough for a couple of games if i wanted.

Now they are cheaper i would get a 128GB drive if buying now though.
 
From my experience 60gb is always too small. Lots of time spent on keeping an eye on the space. 120gb is a minimum size for OS and average installs. 256gb will give you more sleep.
 
120GB is the minimum if you don't want to constantly manage it. Your OS can bloat a fair bit over time, so it's nice not to have to worry. I picked up a second 60GB for my progs on the cheap and that's been plenty. All my games are on a mech drive though (besides the few that I play very regularly and benefit from the SSD), can't afford to buy a 500GB SSD yet!
 
Devrij said:
120GB is the minimum if you don't want to constantly manage it. Your OS can bloat a fair bit over time, so it's nice not to have to worry. I picked up a second 60GB for my progs on the cheap and that's been plenty. All my games are on a mech drive though (besides the few that I play very regularly and benefit from the SSD), can't afford to buy a 500GB SSD yet!
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I'd agree - I have a 64GB SSD and it only has about 4GB free space. I have my Windows 7 setup with user accounts on a separate 1TB drive and any software I install goes there (if the installer allows me the option). Didn't realise the tip about disabling hibernate saves space so will do that and put off getting a bigger SSD for a while.
 
At current prices I would recommend at least 128GB. Many SSD controllers scale performance with capacity which is significant between small drives and larger drives. SandForce being an exception I believe.

I went the 256GB route and partitioned the Win7 O/S + programs to 70GB. Good practice for a consistent performing SSD is to ensure plenty of spare area i.e. not filling the drive to capacity.
 
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