How much memory should I keep free?

[nph]

On the 128 SSD how much space should I leave free to make sure the MBA runs as efficient as possible. Is it 10%?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

10% should suffice.

Btw, "memory" is not the same as "hard drive capacity":
What is Computer Memory? RAM vs Hard Drive
RAM vs. Hard Disk

 

[h00ligan]

You May have some idea if how much it makes my teeth curl to read/hear all storage referred to as memory. Good link.

 

[Macbookair2011]

Sorry I've only just recently taken an interest in computers...so don't know much at all. With the SSDs on the new 2011 airs, does the speed of the SSD decrease as you fill it up with stuff? So would the SSD be faster if I had only 30GB of stuff on the 128GB SSD, than if I had 100GB on the SSD? Or is the difference not noticeable? I want to keep the SSD as fast as possible and dont really need much storage space at all.

 

[scarred]

Sorry I've only just recently taken an interest in computers...so don't know much at all. With the SSDs on the new 2011 airs, does the speed of the SSD decrease as you fill it up with stuff? So would the SSD be faster if I had only 30GB of stuff on the 128GB SSD, than if I had 100GB on the SSD? Or is the difference not noticeable? I want to keep the SSD as fast as possible and dont really need much storage space at all.

Depends on what you do with your computer. I tend to save a good 50GB so I can handle any last minute burst of data and never have to worry about needing to delete stuff (like a bunch of movies for a plane ride or something). If you are always pushing the limit on disk space, your computing experience is going to be annoying at times as you try and find space for the extra program or pile of pictures or whatever.

Performance is secondary to that. You won't notice.

 

[accessoriesguy]

0% SSD's with trim support (which apple native SSD's have) do not slow down as they fill up. It is one of the many benefits of SSD's. I am a SSD Expert

 

[jackrv]

Sorry I've only just recently taken an interest in computers...so don't know much at all. With the SSDs on the new 2011 airs, does the speed of the SSD decrease as you fill it up with stuff? So would the SSD be faster if I had only 30GB of stuff on the 128GB SSD, than if I had 100GB on the SSD? Or is the difference not noticeable? I want to keep the SSD as fast as possible and dont really need much storage space at all.

Solid State Drives don't have seek times like a standard HDD with platters and read/write heads. Fragmentation is one of the leading causes of slowdowns on HDDs, to which SSDs are not susceptible to, since SSDs are reading memory addresses, not physical blocks.

TRIM will also help speed up a drive, by kicking off erase cycles ahead of time, but should not be affected by how much space the drive has.

The one thing that free space WILL help you with on both HDDs and SSDs is the swap file. As you near full use of your RAM, the OS will start using diskspace as additional memory. You'll want to keep at least the amount equal to your physical RAM free (around 2-4GB).