What is an Appropriate External Drive Size?

OK, this is not specifically a MP question, but I beleive can still be answered here (hopefully). I've looked through the threads, but can't quite find the clarity necessary to make a good decision.
I have a friend running an older Mac (Desktop) not sure which model. He says he has 500GB running and older OS (not Leopard) He's at his GB capicity, his computer is giving him a capcity limit warning, so he needs to backup and clean up...What size external drive is necessary here?
Any help will be highly appreciated.
A.F

As said, 500GB and 750GB are the most cost effective, 500GB slightly more so than 750,
There may be 1TB external drives available, but these are unfairly expensive.
It would really help if we knew the Mac model, whether his 500GB disk is currently internal or external, and the version of the older OS X.
I think it was Mac OSX 10.2.3 that allowed disk capacities above 320GB. So if his Mac is PMG4 era, it may be an earlier OS meaning he's only using 320GB of his 500GB disk.
Further, if it's a pre-MDD PMG4 and the disk is internal, he'll be limited to the first 128GB of the disk.

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