SD Flash Memory to IDE Adapter vs HDD

[xtacydima]

OK, so which do you all think will be a faster gig:

A PC with an 8GB SD Flash Memory connected via SD to IDE Adapter

Or

A HDD (also depending which kind), I was hoping to compare an older 8.4GB HDD, and also other lines of 5400rpm, 7200rpm, 10k rpm, and newer 3.0gbps SATA HDD types.

I wish I had the time to test and the spare equipment, but wanted to see what educated guesses and feedback everyone will give first.

I am thinking of throwing a simple PC together for the sole purpose of internet access in a summer house and it will need very trivial - basic WindowsXP, Office, Browser, antivirus, anti-spyware as a total list of installed apps.

[DiiZzY]

You would first need a copy of Windows that is made for flash storage and most flash cards only use PIO as transfer mode so they’ll noticeably slower (even SSDs are in general slow).
//Danne

[jwill427]

it really depends on what flash card you get, AFAIK the fastest ones peak at ~20-30MB/s but cheapies are way slower, anywhere from 5-10MB/s

for HDD speed comparisons, I have an old 4.3gb 5400rpm drive that (off the top of my head) has a peak continuous read speed of ~17MB/s with a min of ~6MB/s and an average of ~12 or so, I had xp installed on this drive at one point for a folding rig and it was painfully slow for booting and loading programs. I think it would be more cost effective and you would be much happier with the performance of a standard HDD, you can get 80gb sata drives for ~$40 these days, which would be about the same price as a cheapie 8gb flash card + IDE adapter

[DiiZzY]

Yes, it depends but very few cards supports UDMA or MWDMA.
I’d also go for a HDD, 2.5" probably if performance isnt important.
//Danne

[ckin2001]

No real benefit to using SD card, and performance hit as mentioned before.

[jwill427]

yup, if power consumption/noise is an issue a 2.5" drive would work well, albeit at a higher $/gb ratio than a 3.5" drive. the 80gb 5400rpm drive in my laptop runs xp surprisingly snappy, but vista is too much for it with all its precaching and what not