New MacBook Air question.

DELETED_63174 · 31 Dec 2010 at 12:21

Hey everyone, Happy New Year!

I'm thinking of getting the new 11.6" Air but the one thing that's putting me off is the lack of storage, and I have a question about it.

I'm aware on HDD's you have to keep something like 10% of it's capacity free to allow it to work at it's full potential. If you don't, it slows down.

With SSD's (or whatever is in the new Air) can you use the full amount up with there being no moving parts? Or do you have to leave a certain amount free too?

Also I've heard some things about SSD's slowing over time and even loosing a small amount of capacity. Could anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks.

theheyes · 31 Dec 2010 at 12:53

You want to keep around 2 or 3GB free on a Mac regardless of disk size and technology in my experience. 10% is a nice rule of thumb, but leaving 6GB free on a 64GB SSD is a waste.

And the drive slowing down over time isn't much to worry about either. Apple have tinkered with the disk controller and the drive doesn't seem to significantly slow down with use.

DELETED_63174 · 31 Dec 2010 at 13:13

I'm a little confused, how is leaving 6GB free on a 64GB a waste? What would you recommend to leave on a 128GB Air?

theheyes · 31 Dec 2010 at 13:38

Applying the "keep 10% free" rule on a 64GB drive would equal around 6GB unused space. Which, when you only really need to keep 2 or 3 GB free, is a waste of around 3GB being kept spare for little reason. That's the point I was making, because 3GB is a lot on such a small drive. And don't forget, formatted capacity is less.

On a 128GB drive you have more to play with. Personally I would take it up to within 5 or 8GB of the limit before I started housekeeping. But that's not because of the mechanics of the drive, it's to keep some slack space for temporary files and updates.