Obscene hds?

[xbreaka]

Iv been noticing alot that people are starting to thnk of 60 gig as the minimum for hds, i really dont even see how that could be anywhere near the minimum, most games need about 1 gig windows needs 3 gigs i think and lets say msic files 7 gigs
games-10 gig
misc files-7 gigs
windows-3 gigs

10 games, windows, and misc junk and not even a whole 40 gig hd is taken up. I'm not trying to be biased and i understand that for video editors and such 40 gigs would be a joke, but for the gamer/ casual user i have no idea how pcgamer,maximum pc to name a few are saying 60 gigs should be your absolute minimum.

Feel free to post your opinions on this, or try to explain this to me

Peace, xbreaka

[Vertigo Acid]

Well, first off 3gigs for windows is a bit... much. Secondly, you're figuring really doesn't include any multimedia files, which have become increasingly popular. It really depends on the game too. Unreal Tournament 2003, for example, takes 2.5 gigs, and 2K4 is slated to take >3 gigs. Also, consider the following:
When I bought my HP Pavilion in 1996, it came with a 1.2 gig hd. Great, I said, I should have plenty of room for anything. By 1998, however, I was nearly out of space and as a result windows cried about it's swap file and not having room. Even if ATM you can't fill 60 gigs, or even 40, I can almost guarentee you will be able to in the coming years. Think of it as future-proofing. Finally, the price differences between the drives is minimal enough that you should always get more space than you need. Come back in a couple years, and you'll thank me.

[corrosive23]

I have a 4x 80 gig raid array full. I have my main 160 gig drive full. its real easy to do this.

[darktiger]

I say if you are a power user/ or someone who reads this forum you need 120 minimum, but if you are just regular person who doesnt play games, burn music or just a regular user than 40-80 gigs should be more than enough.

[jamestime88]

its the only item in the computer that u pretty much have no limit to how much u can upgrade. there are servers that have terabytes of hard drive space, is that too much?

i mean if they made processors that went up to 10 ghz would you really buy the 2ghz model because "thats all you really need"

[kronchev]

i have 13 gigs of MP3's alone. plus 10 gigs of games is like 3 modern games.

[iGod]

Personally, I have 40GB of MP3s, 20 GB of games, and 11.5GB of uh... video. :p

[pbXassassinX1524]

wow man... you gonna listen to music for the rest of your life... continuously:p

[YoUnAn]

Well I only have a 60GB at the moment. (my other 60GB died). And I am using about 50GB right now. The only reason I am getting away with 60GB is because I've backed up most of my movies to dvd. I love my dvd burner.

So I agree that 60Gb is standard size people should get.

[Spewn]

I think a big part of it is the simple fact that big HD's are becoming so cheap, there's not really any reason to *not* buy one.

[Stiletto One]

Umm.

Windows + swap can take up 3GB, I guess.
Games, I say a gig or two easy, apiece.
Music, 10GB sounds reasonable.
Anime eats MASSIVE amounts of HDD. (I watch anime, sue me. :p)
Productivity software eats massive amounts of space too, although I don't really understand why. :(

Personally, I've got almost 200GB of storage, scattered around a Bunch™ of partitions. (For Linux/WinXP duties)

[jpnelson83]

Hokay, I am currently using like 25+ gigs on a main partition, that includes games and other programs that I use for drafting, video editing, manufacturing and a number of other things. I currently have ~15 gigs of Mp3's but I'll be getting ~120 from my boss when I get my RAID set up. I have ~50gigs worth of movies and then ~75-90 movies on disc that I would rather have on a hard drive. I also have ~20 gigs of raw footage from my sisters make-a-wish trip last summer and thats only 1/3 of the total footage. so lets see here 25+15+120+50+20=227. So now I currently have a 120 GB drive a 160 GB drive and I'm setting up a 40GB RAID 1 for a grand total of 320 GB of which I will be using like 71% of not counting all my movies that are currently on CD. So ya I think 60GB is a little small. Now that not being a norm for alot of people i.e. people that don't read this message board I think its okay if they have a smaller drive. Lets face it, my sister who uses the computer for school has no use for that much space so she doesn't have a large drive. It really depends on what your going to do with you computer so its really unfair to make a generalization like that.

[tdg]

And here I was today noticing my 324GB RAID5 array array was at about 90% capacity and becoming too small :) I'm an avid gamer, I rip all my game/app/music CD's and several DVD's for backups, use many business apps, lots of emails that I save, etc. All together I have 674GB of hard drive space across all machines and probably about 500GB of that is used :)

[Igthorn]

Small hard drives cost a lot compared to 80g drives. The cheapest 40g drives are $56 and 80g drives are $66 at NewEgg. It's almost pointless to get the 20/40/60g drives if it costs more per gb.

People are also packrats :p

[acetic]

I only have an 80g Harddrive, split into 2 partitions, and the second one is almost full, they both would be close to full, but i couldn't afford a monitor, so I'm stuck with a 14" S-VGA, that the resolution wont go any higher than 640x480:(, so I cant play games, and yes, i have tried;)

[Stanmanfoo]

I've about 200 gigs, and alot of that is futurama, family guy, dilbert episodes and mp3's (all legal, thanks). The only reason I see not to load up on HDD space is if you use SCSI as in my xeon machine. 36 gigs is all I can afford :(. I have an 80 gig in my shuttle, and a 40, 120, and a 30 in my main rig (hence about 200)

[jamestime88]

i think it really comes down to this needlessly simple mathematic formula

high speed internet connection = < 40gig
dial-up internet connection = > 40 gig.

ive had this computer for a year and i filled up 30gigs on dial-up.

i reformatted last week when i switched over to cable modem and i already have 40 gigs full. and thats just in 1 week.

[Cloud15x]

i feel cramped when my hdd has less that 70% empty

120 gig with a 40 slave cuz i dont wnat my 120 cluttered

40 is done with anime

120 has about 80gb left

[ilkka]

I have 71gb of video files. That basically takes up most of my harddrive space.

But even without that, I would like to have 80gb. I like to have all my games and game CDs on the harddrive. And remember, UT2k4 does not make UT2k3 obsolete, nor did UT2k3 make UT obsolete. You need to have all of them on your computer for LAN parties where not everyone has the newest version. So it would be rather easy to fill up over 20gb with games.

[Phoshious]

Most of my friends have > 500GB. I have a lowly 40GB, though...and it's filling up. :p

[Dark Assassin]

The #1 reason to have a LOT of hard drive space - LAN parties.

I have 2 Maxtor DM9 120 GB SATA's in RAID-0 and I already want to order 2 160 GB Seagate Barracudas for IDE storage.

It's amazing how you can walk in with about 80 GB's on your hard drives, then end up with about 60 GB's more when you walk out. Definitely acquired about 20 GB of MP3's to add to my 9 GB and another 20 GB of videos (Top Gear) the other night at a LAN.

I couldn't imagine having only 1 hard drive. I think I'd go insane.

Dark Assassin

[Anarchy]

Originally posted by Stiletto One
Anime eats MASSIVE amounts of HDD. (I watch anime, sue me. :p)

-> same here ...

lets's say bout 0.4-0.5TB :eek:

[Cactus Jack]

Some ask why have big hard drives, I ask why not. I have over 500gb of storage on my system and it is almost always full. 60gig hard drives? HA!

[spugnor]

Really, penny for penny, large drives are cheaper per gigabyte up to a certain size. I was thinking of an 80G for my new shuttle box, but the 120G was only a little more. So i had to buy the 120G drive. :)

[Polyphemus]

I have a 40 gig hdd, and its giving me a headache. I'm not the biggest gammer, i'm not the biggest filesharer, but the only way i can manage my hdd is to burn as soon as I download, and to remove and add games as I wanna play.

So considering this, I think that even 60 gig would be too small, and as everyone is saying, these days bigger hdd's are cheaper so it would be a good investement for the future to get a bigger hdd.

[BillLeeLee]

I'd say that for any sort of power user, 80 GB is a minimum, and at least 120 GB or more would be considered good. A few years ago, 40 GB was good, but then Windows XP came out (taking up 2+ GB with it), and programs just keep eating more and more hard drive space.

The regular home user who justs types in Word, emails, and browses the internet probably won't ever need more than, say, a 20 GB drive, but we're the [H]ardForum people, computing is our hobby and if you're not doing things with your comp that eats through space, go join Dell forums ("Ahh, my font's messed up in MS Word"). Maybe a little drastic, but you know what I mean. :D

For the record, I have 320 GB of storage (160 primary comp, 160 file server).

After 2 weeks on this new comp, already about 20 GB on this comp, the other comp has 5+ GB of music, 90+ GB of anime (hey, it's a hobby too!), 10+ GB images and uncompressed pictures, 10+ GB games (current one has like 15 GB of games).

[Talonz]

well.. I have my 80 gb filled up. Mostly with CD isos that i can mount locally and i keep an archive partition for everything i download (patches, shareware etc...). Also keep a nice 15 gigs for music. I find myself needing more space.

[RagingSamster]

Nothing like a format and reload to clear out the cob webs...

my 120GB was sitting at 60% full, I backed up everything I thought I would need userdata-wise to one DVD (Thanks [H] for the [H]otdeal a couple of weeks back - 8X +/-RW for 90.00 @Staples)

Now I've installed the OS, MSOffice, and the few games I play, still haven't broken 10 GB yet


Prolly will in the next few weeks as UT2k4 and Doom III are due out shortly, and my AIW9700 is going to be doing the PVR thing when the HDTVwonder card comes out... lets see 120GBX1080i = one or two hours tops.... TIME FOR A NEW HD!:D

[Anthony.L]

high speed internet connection = < 40gig
dial-up internet connection = > 40 gig.

Bingo, a big part is how fast is your internet connection. I have a 1.5mb DSL and have over 200gb of random data from the net. Pictures, videos, pr0n, music, etc. When you are on 56k your "big" downloads are 4mb movies. When on broadband a big download is a 400mb movie. ;) Plus I have over 6gb alone of pics from my DSLR camera.

[Anarchy]

Originally posted by Anthony.L
When on broadband a big download is a 400mb movie. ;)


200MB -> small
500MB -> medium
2GB -> Big (1 day)
10GB -> 2-4 days

[O[H]-Zone]

I have 6 160GB Seagate Barracuds, total a little under 900GB. I have 13 hours of DV video to transfer to disk. Each hour of video is about 25GB, so 13 x 25 = 325GB of raw video. I want to be able to mix 4 to 6 DVDs at a time. Each DVD can be up to 4.7GB, so 4.7 x 6 = 28.2GB. Right now I have 51GB of backup files, and the partition with Windows and all my installed apps and games is 126 GB. So, 325 + 28.2 + 51 + 126 = 530.2GB current minimum need. Some future video, DVD, games/apps, and backup space, and 900GB doesn't seem so unreasonable. I used to have a 4 x 40GB RAID0 array, but it wasn't enough, and it was made of deathstars...one failure and all my data went bye-bye...not doing that again!

[havokator]

Just ask someone who has over 500gigs of storage. I have trouble finding space for new downloads because my 800gigs is almost completely filled. If you have alot to download, space is never enough.

[Stanley Pain]

Originally posted by havokator
Just ask someone who has over 500gigs of storage. I have trouble finding space for new downloads because my 800gigs is almost completely filled. If you have alot to download, space is never enough.

I hear ya. 750GB here, about 60GB free.

I wish I never had learned about APE/FLAC encoding :). Re-ripped 80+ GB of MP3s into like 400 someodd GB of FLAC/APE ;)


Cheers,

Mr. Pain

[Anarchy]

Originally posted by Stanley Pain
Re-ripped 80+ GB of MP3s into like 400 someodd GB of FLAC/APE ;)


Huh ?

why that ?

[kleptophobiac]

I have ~750GB of fileserver space on my home network, and it still isn't adequate. What do I store? Uncompressed DVD rips for my theater upstairs. Why would I want to have to stand up and swap discs when I can serve them over the network? :P

[JTY]

The question is... how many people that are using that much space aren't filling it with illegal copies of movies/music/anime/tv episodes?

[kleptophobiac]

Yonder DVD collection (points to shelf) is on yonder rack (points to rack). Do you take offense?

[jamestime88]

Originally posted by kleptophobiac
Yonder DVD collection (points to shelf) is on yonder rack (points to rack). Do you take offense?

huh?

[kleptophobiac]

It was in response to the guy above me.

[jen4950]

I have 54GB of legal MP3's alone.

And 15GB of digial pics (>50,000 over the past 5 years)- with my new digicam, I'm filling 0.5GB on every upload- and have been uploading once a week for the past month with various projects.

Then you add documents and programs.

And I am interested in archiving all of my DVD's - in the process of building a 2TB array.

[kleptophobiac]

Originally posted by jen4950
And I am interested in archiving all of my DVD's - in the process of building a 2TB array.

I order you to make good use of that digicam and post pictures! Construction and finished product.

[Phantum]

Windows *needs* about 3-4gigs, Windows *should* have about 6-7gigs. I have 70+ movies totally a hair under 50GB's, my music is just under 8GB's. Then I have games, a software folder (beats finding my office CD's and whatnot), a backup folder, video projects, etc. I was looking at RAID'ing two 160GB drives. I already have a 20GB for Windows, 250GB for all the stuff stated above and a 60GB for backup. I'm a space hog. Sew me.

[kleptophobiac]

Originally posted by Phantum
Sew me.

Sue

I don't think either is pleasant to be honest. Pokey needles or a courtroom, hmmm....

[Stanley Pain]

Originally posted by Anarchy
Huh ?

why that ?

Because lossless > lossy :p

I can hear a difference with my stereo system between MP3s and lossless.

Still have about 40+ GB of MP3s that I didn't feel like re-ripping and couldn't really notice a difference in them when I ABXed them in Foobar (Mainly Trance/Techno stuff).

All my classical, aucoustic, ambient stuff sounds loads better on my audio equipment in FLAC/APE though :)

Cheers,

Mr. Pain

[jen4950]

Originally posted by kleptophobiac
I order you to make good use of that digicam and post pictures! Construction and finished product.

My PC-76
http://neubauer.tv/images/Computer/2X_1/PC76/DSC00012.jpg

Construction and purchasing has commenced.

It's a semi- long term project..

Ordering one of these in the future: Escalade SATA-12 RAID Card (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=16-116-024&depa=1) Still finializing research on that one. (Haven't confirmed RAID50 on it- heard both ways; I've done 5 and 50 before on my Adaptec 3400S, I like the 50 setup better..)

Bought My Soundcard ( Audigy :D (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-102-164&catalog=57&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1) ) and a Plextor 708A last week, waiting on them..

2TB you ask? 12 SATA 350GB drives on a seperate power supply, in RAID 50. 3/2*350GB * 4 Sub-Arrays - Overhead, losses etc. ~2TB. Depends when I buy the drives.

But wait! There aren't any 350GB SATA drives out there! Yeah - I know; again, this is a long term project. It's early March- they have 300GB EIDE drives out; I'm planning on buying them in about July or August- And why SATA? Designed for the home/desktop crowd => quiet, reliable, and not as hot.

I've already screwed around with SCSI- I've got 7 X-15's that I'll be using for a swap/scratch drive in an external enclosure- and will be using the onboard SCSI for my boot drives.

[CrimandEvil]

I have a Western Digital 120 gig (single) partitioned three ways: 20g for Windows/ Apps, 10g for Music (99.9% legal), and 90g for Videos.
I find 20 gigs for programs alittle small (and I don't even game much), I would love to get a dedicated 40gig for music since I have 7gig out of 10 filled and I still haven't ripped all of my CDs (and few from my friends), and I download alot of anime (fansubs only) and have ripped a few DVDs (7 and I had to encode them into Divx) but I still have to burn the anime to CD (easily over 150 CDs of it) since they tend to fill up fast, out of that 120 gigs I have 56g free and thats after I just got (partial) done some "house cleaning." God I love DSL...

Coincidencely I've started to have "erotic" dreams about building a 2TB server.
Gee..I wonder what that means..:confused: :eek:

[codename47]

100gig house file server--centralized area for common files
320gig HTPC--movies, music, etc...
70gig raptor raid with 160gig removable rack storage--performance machine with back up
120gig--SFF... gaming and sharing files at Lan parties

total = 770gigs total in house ---about 60% used. With bit torrent that % free is decreasing by the second!

It is really easy to do with high speed internet and nerdy friends!

[RocketFast321]

in my system i have a
80gig WD
40gig WD
20gig WD
20gig Maxtor <$100 at c city 2 1/2 years ago

When i got my 20 i thought i could never could fill it up, then i got cable internet. The 40gig is full of iso files,I have only 2.97g of mp3s 628 files

[Apple]

Meh, I use a single 36GB Raptor and it's more than enough for me. I'm not big into 'archiving' crap, once I'm done with something I delete it.

[rballantyne]

Like others have said it simply depends on what sort of things you tend to use your comp for. My 280GB is about 1/2 full all the time. I also have around 2TB in files on DVD. Uncompressed video editing can do it REAL quick. Then again, I never delete anything. If I was still the warez addict I was back in college I'd probably have 10x that much. T3 line + too much time on your hands = bad! :D

[HiTech-Hate]

I can barely keep my 480gB Raid0 (4x120gB WD) from being full, at the moment I have like 1gB free if i'm lucky.

[emorphien]

My main rig has two 120gig drives and an external firewire 120 gig drive.

I have over 30 gigs of unique edited images (my own), and all the crap stuff has been burned and put away. The images on my computer are just what's left after filtering the garbage.

My film scanner will produce a 130mb file roughly at 4000ppi w/ 16 bit color. I can easily scan away several gigs without even thinking about it.

[EnderW]

porn

[Godmachine]

lets see i have the following

4x74 gig Raptors RAID0
4x250 gig no raid strickly backup ...

second computer ...

2x250 gig RAID1
2x36 gig Raptors RAID0

oh ya my wife ...she thinks i am completely nutz MUHAHAHAHAHA:D

[EnderW]

Originally posted by Godmachine
lets see i have the following

4x74 gig Raptors RAID0
4x250 gig no raid strickly backup ...

second computer ...

2x250 gig RAID1
2x36 gig Raptors RAID0

oh ya my wife ...she thinks i am completely nutz MUHAHAHAHAHA:D Nice. How are those 74GB Raptors treatin' ya?

[Zepher]

I store a bunch of movies and music on 2 of my machines and I edit videos on the other main one (the one with the Matrox), so I need as much as I can get.

[Godmachine]

74 gig raptors are incredible .. fast as hell,quiet and fast as HELL ... they have cut my divx reenoding time in half nearly ..and mutitasking is faster than ever .. games also load speedy and having all the space is one huge advantage for people that encode movies or mutitask alot :)

[kleptophobiac]

80GB is inadequate for anybody even considering video.

[CrimandEvil]

Damn I think I'm going to have to get an 80gig for just Windows/ Apps and my MP3s.

[Godmachine]

Klep i have 4x 74 gig raptors raided ..and 2x250 drives for stroage of the Video

[kleptophobiac]

Originally posted by Godmachine
Klep i have 4x 74 gig raptors raided ..and 2x250 drives for stroage of the Video

That'll do it.

That is rather pricey though... I'm a rather thrifty mofo. I try to buy hard drives for cheap after rebate. I got a WD 200 for $80 about four months ago from kompussr.