What size SSD for HTPC?

Amraam · 9 May 2011 at 14:28

Have you considered a 10K drive? I'm out of the loop now so SSDs might have improved since I last read up on them.

Cleanthes · 9 May 2011 at 14:47

remy87 · 9 May 2011 at 15:03

40-64gb should be enough given that you are streaming from a fileserver or already have bigger drives availave.

Zarf · 9 May 2011 at 15:40

The 40GB Intel in mine is more than enough, I'm actually using less than 20GB on a Windows 7 install even with a sizable XBMC database (Indexed over 5TB of media stored on a NAS) so a 30GB drive would probably be sufficient.

I love it, it means my HTPC has no moving parts and thus is completely silent, I think you'd have to be insane to want a 10k drive screaming away in your living room. It also made a huge difference when browsing my XBMC database, which has thousands of thumbnails. Scrolling through is now buttery smooth.

wez1981 · 10 May 2011 at 10:19

i would recommend no smaller than 40gb for the primary OS. If its a media pc. chances are it would have an additional drive for the mass storage anyway so a completely silent solution would be costly for a media PC...

Cleanthes · 11 May 2011 at 20:22

Zarf · 11 May 2011 at 23:23

Cleanthes said:
Hey, I've been asking this question on another forum as well and opinion seems split on whether it'll be enough. What do people think of the Crucial m4? It seems like it might be a good in-between both in terms of capacity and price.

However, I was a bit wary of it because of the Anandtech review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4253/the-crucial-m4-micron-c400-ssd-review
apparently performance can degrade if you don't have enough sequential writes, which I presumably won't on a HTPC. I also really wanted good reliability - I don't mind tinkering with my own laptop, but since this is for everyday family use I want it to just work without having to interfere.

If not I'll go for the 80GB Intel - perhaps I can sell a couple of things to find the cash.

Your usage won't be enough to degrade it, especially with TRIM. Trust me that a 30-40GB drive would be plenty for a Win7 install and a few light apps. Even if there is a slight drop on benchmarks you wouldn't actually feel any difference in use.