How Much Storage Do I Need For Programming?

How many GB does a programmer need?

When determining how many GB a programmer needs, we need to consider all the elements that go in a developer’s environment. These are the following:

• An Operating System
• A Code Editor or/and an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
• A Virtual Machine
• A Web Browser
• Total project files size

In the case of the Operating System, around 15-20 GB have to be allocated for system and configuration files. This is true for the most popular Operating Systems like Windows and Mac OS.

For Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), the required space changes depending on the programming language and the specific environment used. These environments can take a considerable amount of space. You can look at the following table to have an idea of the recommended space for the most popular IDEs.

Most IDEs can take around 5 GB of storage. However, Unity Game Engine and Visual Studio take more space. In addition, we have to consider that some programmers might need to use different programming languages at the same time, and would need to install two or more of these types of software packages. We can consider 20 GB to be a good approximation of the space required for IDEs for most programmers.

In the case of Unity game developers, you might have to install both Unity Game Engine and Visual Studio. This means that we would need to allocate around 40-70 GB only for IDEs.

To reduce the storage required by IDEs, you can consider code editors. These tools are lighter alternatives to IDEs because they take just a fraction of space. However, code editors have very limited functionality as they don’t have the same features as IDEs. The following table shows the amount of space required by some common code editors. We can see that code editors don’t require much storage.

Some programmers might also need to run Virtual Machines. Virtual Machines are used when it is necessary to test different configurations and setups. With Virtual Machines, programmers can try different scenarios and identify any configuration problems. These tools can be quite heavy, for example, an Ubuntu VM takes 2.3 GB of space. If we consider around 5 GB for data storage, we would need at least 7 GB to run a Virtual Machine.

For web developers, they might need to install two or more browsers to create and test their projects. However, these are light applications, and the most popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari can take 200 MB to 1 GB. We can approximate the space for web browsers to 2 GB.

Storage required for project files

The space required for project files depends on the type of project. For example, for web or mobile app developers, a project with high-quality images can take up to 500 MB. For a small project with very few images, it shouldn’t take more than 200 MB.

However, for video game programmers, the space required can be much higher given that there is a large number of graphics and sound files related to these projects. In small projects, a video game can take around 1 GB. On the other hand, large projects can take 50-100 GB or even more.

Considering all the different elements we have discussed so far, we can form a table with the amount of storage recommended for the different types of programmers:

Storage required for additional tasks

In addition to the storage required by the different elements that go into programming projects, we also have to consider any additional tasks that you might perform on your computer. For example, if you also use your computer to save personal photos or for gaming, you might need additional storage.

In the following table, you can look at the required storage for various additional tasks.

HDD or SSD for programming?

After determining the amount of storage recommended by different types of programmers, we also have to consider the type of storage. Depending on your needs, an HDD or an SSD will work best for you.

The hard drive disk (HDD) is a mechanical type of drive. This drive consists of a spinning disc that has actuators and a head to read and write data. HDDs are an older type of hardware and are cheaper when compared to SSDs. However, the disadvantage of these drives is their slower read and write speeds due to their mechanical parts.

The solid-state drive (SSD) is a drive that uses integrated circuits to store data. Given that these drives don’t have moving parts, they have higher read and write speeds. SSDs are a newer type of hardware and are more expensive than HDDs.

SSDs are recommended for programmers who are concerned with performance and want the fastest hardware to run their projects smoothly. Using SSDs means much faster performance, which in turn allows for faster app load times.

On the other hand, if you need to get the most storage at the cheapest cost possible, then opt for an HDD as these drives are cheaper than SSD. However, consider that you will be compromising some performance.

How to determine the amount of storage needed for programming?

Considering everything we have discussed, we can formulate the following concrete tips to choose the type and amount of storage for programmers.