For some organisations, choosing the right size SSD can be overwhelming, but Crucial NZ says it doesn't have to be.

Most companies look to largest capacity drive as the most preferable, but the storage manufacturer says you simply have to balance your needs, gigabytes (GB) and budget.

Mathew Luu, group marketing manager of Micron Consumer Products APAC, says just like storing physical items in your house or apartment, you need enough digital space to account for what you currently have.

“Along with room for new data that you'll naturally and constantly accumulate over time,” he explains.

“At a minimum, most people need at least 240GB to store enough data now and into the future.

To help with the process of finding the right size SSD, Crucial has come up with five quick questions:

What's the approximate total capacity (in GB) of your current hard drive or SSD?   Luu says this really matters as an SSD needs to be at least as big as your current drive to hold all of its content and there are simple ways to find this out.

“For Windows users, click Start, then click Computer to find out, for Mac system users, click the Apple logo on the left side of the menu bar at the top of the screen, then click About this Mac to find out,” he says.

“Typical capacities are 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and more than 1TB.”   How many GB are you using on your current hard drive or SSD?   “You need enough space to transfer everything over to your new drive without having to decide what you will keep or delete,” explains Luu.

“For many people, that's at least 240GB to maintain all their old files and accommodate some new ones while not spending too much money.

How frequently do you add new media to your computer i.e. upload photos and videos from your phone, download movies and games, etc?   Luu explains that media files are inherently large, so the more you're adding new media to your drive, the more storage you'll need.

“An SSD is a long-term investment and the number of photos, songs, videos, games, renderings, and files you'll add is ever-growing – and so are the sizes of those files,” he says.

“It's critical to remember that your primary drive holds all of these types of media in addition to the other files, apps, documents, and your operating system that keeps things running.”   The fourth revolves around apps and activities that consume a lot of storage

Why? Luu says that gaming, photo editing, and video editing all require more system resources and can greatly benefit from larger capacities and faster performance.   What's your budget?

Luu agrees that the largest capacity drive is always preferable, but if it's not always practical for your budget, why pay for more than you need?

“Stick to what you can afford and make it work for you. With storage the aim is to get the right drive for you and by asking these five questions, you can easily find the size SSD for your needs and budget,” he explains.

“In other words don't just buy big - buy right.