X200: How much hdd space do I need?

[Synthetickiller]

I didn't know where to post this question, so I figure this is the most appropriate place. If not, could either a mod move it to the correct forum, tell me and I'll repost or something?

So I've seen a few people on here post that they are running win 7 / ubuntu / osx. I like the sound of that.

I just ordered an x200 w/ the stock hdd (160gb 5400rpm hitachi). This will be replaced.

I've decided that there are two options for me:
1. Buy a ssd that is 120gb, probably OCZ vertex or agility.
or
2. Buy a hhd that is 320gb or 640gb, probably the WD scorpio blue series. Not sure if 7200 rpm would be necessary, and if not the 640gig 5400rpm drive work.

USAGE:
I plan on tri-booting Win 7 Pro x64, Ubuntu 9.04 x64, and OSX Kalaway 10.5.2. I believe Win 7 will require 15 gigs upon stock install, Ubuntu is 6 to 8 gigs and I'll round that to 10 gigs to be safe, while OSX as I remember took up about 6 gigs, so round that to 10 as well. That's about 45 gigs, so that sounds right, right?

More USAGE:
1. I also plan on running virtual machines in all 3 OSes.
I do NOT need to run virtual machines in win 7 if I am learning how to run them in OSX or ubuntu.
I can just install and reinstall as needed.
2.I will also use the laptop for spread sheets, word docs, stream itunes.

Not doing:
1. Gaming
2. Crunching

Considering all of these things, is 120 gigs truly enough or will I need a fair amount more to get the job done?

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any help!

[killer]

No idea on your questions ... but a great choice of user name.

[qviri]

Considering all of these things, is 120 gigs truly enough or will I need a fair amount more to get the job done?

That depends what you'll be using the VMs for.

For some reference, my setup of WinXP base + target application on VM is easily comfortable with 16 GB VM "hard drives" for each of: 1) Photoshop VM; 2) Visual Studio '08 VM; 3) Office 2007 + OpenOffice 3 VM.

So just take how many VMs you plan on roughly having, add them all up for drive space, add the 50 GB required for your three OSes. You didn't say anything about storing audio or video, so the largest space eaters are hopefully not an issue here.

If you are using the same virtualization software in all three OSes, you would be able to share the VMs between them and save on drive space. I'm not sure if you were accounting for that.

The 120 GB drive, accounting for the gigabyte/gibibyte conversion and the three stock OSes, would leave you with around 60-70 GB free. That's probably three to six VMs depending how thrifty you are.

[Synthetickiller]

No idea on your questions ... but a great choice of user name.

Ha, thanks!

That depends what you'll be using the VMs for.

For some reference, my setup of WinXP base + target application on VM is easily comfortable with 16 GB VM "hard drives" for each of: 1) Photoshop VM; 2) Visual Studio '08 VM; 3) Office 2007 + OpenOffice 3 VM.

So just take how many VMs you plan on roughly having, add them all up for drive space, add the 50 GB required for your three OSes. You didn't say anything about storing audio or video, so the largest space eaters are hopefully not an issue here.

If you are using the same virtualization software in all three OSes, you would be able to share the VMs between them and save on drive space. I'm not sure if you were accounting for that.

The 120 GB drive, accounting for the gigabyte/gibibyte conversion and the three stock OSes, would leave you with around 60-70 GB free. That's probably three to six VMs depending how thrifty you are.

Well, here's the deal. I've always been a hardware guy. I plan on going into IT and I always like to tinker with things. Virtualization is great and I want some experience as well. I may just deploy some at home (I actually would have uses). So I don't really know, but I'd assume 2 OSes running virtually inside of win 7 or linux or osx at any one time MAX, but not in each OS at the same time, so I wouldn't need to dedicate more than 32 gigs at any one time on top of the 50 gigs, maybe 48 max, so that's still under the 120gig limit.

I'm leaning towards the ssd simply because its hard to go back to a slow hdd after using an ssd, although it would be tolerable. If 120gigs really won't cut it, I could deal with a 320gb or 640gb drive since SSDs over 120 gigs are $500+ easily.

I won't be storing audio and video on the drive. I can stream everything from my other computers at home.