How much space for Windows 7 Bootcamp?

[peanutismint]

In an effort to speed up my Macbook Pro, I've just bought a 60GB OCZ SSD from the lovely folks at OcUK and am thinking about dual-booting Windows 7 alongside OS X.

System requirements of Win 7 seem to think a minimum of 20GB is required, but for an OS I'm only going to be loading up once in a blue moon that seems like a large proportion of my meagre 60GB. Does it really take that much space or could I get away with a smaller partition?

Also, the other option is, I'm planning to remove my optical drive and install my current 500GB HDD in its place - could I feasibly install Win 7 on this drive instead? I'm guessing it would need its own partition? It's obviously not going to run as fast as from the SSD but I'm hardly ever going to use it.

I'll also add that I've tried Windows under a VM and under Boot Camp and I'd much rather run it with its full system potential under boot camp than in a virtual machine....

 

[peanutismint]

Cost is a big factor, I'd have gone for a bigger drive without a second thought but couldn't afford it

Agreed there!!

I'll only be using Windows every once in a while for video editing as I've yet to find any decent mid-range video editing programs on Mac. I suppose I could do without dual-boot but if it's only a 15-20GB partition it shouldn't be THAT bad.....

 

[peanutismint]

Boot Camp will let you install Win7 on the optibay drive if you like - you're probably better off doing that.

Cool - will most probably do that! Thanks for the suggestions!