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Booting off an SD card

pithball
By pithball
in Storage Devices
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Posted

Could I do it? I don't want to spend the money on a SSD and SD cards are cheap I will only put the OS on a 16 GB SD card because I heard that they were faster then a 7200 RPM HDD and I can buy one for like $15 CAD.

I just want to know if I could boot off one and if its actually faster then a HDD. Thanks in advance.

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My computers as of 2017/03

 

My Old PC

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Dell Vostro 260 $150 2010

CPU: i3-2120@3.3Ghz, GPU: Intel HD Graphics 2000, ATI Radeon X1300, RAM: 4GB Axevir Budget Series, SSD: 240GB Radeon R7, HDD: random 250GB and random 160 GB, CASE: Crap from Dell, OS: Windows 7 Enterprise

My Current PC

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Custom Build $1200 2016

CPU: i5-6600k@3.6Ghz, GPU: Sapphire R9 Fury, RAM: 16GB Geil EVO X, SSD: 240GB Radeon R7, HDD: Hitachi 500GB, CASE: Deepcool Kendomen, OS: Windows 10 Professional 64-Bit

Laptop

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ASUS F8S $1150 2008

CPU: Core 2 Duo T7500, GPU: ATI 2400 Mobility, RAM: 8GB Mushkins, SSHD: 1TB Seagate Hybrid Drive, OS: Windows 7 Ultimate N and Windows 10 Professional

HTPC

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MSi Cubi $200 2016

CPU: Pentium 3805u@1.9Ghz, GPU: Intel HD, RAM: 4GB Crucial DDR3L, SSD: 120GB Radeon R7

 

Other Laptop

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HP 2210b $400 2009

CPU: Core 2 Duo T8100@2.1Ghz, GPU: Intel GM965, RAM: 2GB Hynix, HDD: Hitachi 160GB, OS: Linux Mint 17.3 and Lubuntu

*All Prices in the Canadian Dollar

 

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Posted
Just now, Hydraxiler32 said:

Could I do it? I don't want to spend the money on a SSD and SD cards are cheap I will only put the OS on a 16 GB SD card because I heard that they were faster then a 7200 RPM HDD and I can buy one for like $15 CAD.

I just want to know if I could boot off one and if its actually faster then a HDD. Thanks in advance.

You can boot OS's like Ubuntu from a SD card, but not windows. 

*Risky click of the day*

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13 minutes ago, QueenDemetria said:

You can boot OS's like Ubuntu from a SD card, but not windows. 

oh..

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My computers as of 2017/03

 

My Old PC

Spoiler

Dell Vostro 260 $150 2010

CPU: i3-2120@3.3Ghz, GPU: Intel HD Graphics 2000, ATI Radeon X1300, RAM: 4GB Axevir Budget Series, SSD: 240GB Radeon R7, HDD: random 250GB and random 160 GB, CASE: Crap from Dell, OS: Windows 7 Enterprise

My Current PC

Spoiler

Custom Build $1200 2016

CPU: i5-6600k@3.6Ghz, GPU: Sapphire R9 Fury, RAM: 16GB Geil EVO X, SSD: 240GB Radeon R7, HDD: Hitachi 500GB, CASE: Deepcool Kendomen, OS: Windows 10 Professional 64-Bit

Laptop

Spoiler

ASUS F8S $1150 2008

CPU: Core 2 Duo T7500, GPU: ATI 2400 Mobility, RAM: 8GB Mushkins, SSHD: 1TB Seagate Hybrid Drive, OS: Windows 7 Ultimate N and Windows 10 Professional

HTPC

Spoiler

MSi Cubi $200 2016

CPU: Pentium 3805u@1.9Ghz, GPU: Intel HD, RAM: 4GB Crucial DDR3L, SSD: 120GB Radeon R7

 

Other Laptop

Spoiler

HP 2210b $400 2009

CPU: Core 2 Duo T8100@2.1Ghz, GPU: Intel GM965, RAM: 2GB Hynix, HDD: Hitachi 160GB, OS: Linux Mint 17.3 and Lubuntu

*All Prices in the Canadian Dollar

 

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Hydraxiler32 said:

Could I do it? I don't want to spend the money on a SSD and SD cards are cheap I will only put the OS on a 16 GB SD card because I heard that they were faster then a 7200 RPM HDD and I can buy one for like $15 CAD.

I just want to know if I could boot off one and if its actually faster then a HDD. Thanks in advance.

nope

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Samsung 850 EVO 500GB & 250GB - Crucial MX300 M.2 525GB / Fractal Design Define S / Corsair K70 MX Reds / Logitech G502 / Beyerdynamic DT770 250Ohm

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i5 2500k 4.5Ghz | Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P | Zotac GTX 980 AMP! Extreme | Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB 1866MHz

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@Hydraxiler32 Most SD cards will also end up being slower than an HDD (not to mention the fact that SD cards/Flash drives aren't designed to be written to a lot).

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Thread moved to Storage Devices.

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

"I didn't die! I performed a tactical reset!" - Apollolol

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Posted
4 hours ago, Dash Lambda said:

It would be way, way too slow. 

Yeah, whoever told OP that they are just as fast was lying, or completely full of shit. Fastest SD card I have is only rated for 80MB/s, and my HDD easily hits 150MB/s (which may be limited by the fact I tested the write speed with a USB 3.0 external HDD)

 

By the way, what is a good benchmark to actually test my storage speeds?

Screenaninator: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro

Procrastinator: AMD FX-8300

Stickaminator: 16GB Crucial Vengance DDR3

Powermathingy: Corsair RM850i

attachamajiggy: Asus M5A97 R2.0 f

Remembrerthing: 240 GB Crucial SSD, 2TB Toshiba HDD

 

 

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5 hours ago, JoePro87 said:

Yeah, whoever told OP that they are just as fast was lying, or completely full of shit. Fastest SD card I have is only rated for 80MB/s, and my HDD easily hits 150MB/s (which may be limited by the fact I tested the write speed with a USB 3.0 external HDD)

 

By the way, what is a good benchmark to actually test my storage speeds?

CrystalDiskMark.

It's the most reliable as far as I know.

"Do as I say, not as I do."

-Because you actually care if it makes sense.

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Just now, Dash Lambda said:

CrystalDiskMark.

It's the most reliable as far as I know.

Thank you!

Screenaninator: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro

Procrastinator: AMD FX-8300

Stickaminator: 16GB Crucial Vengance DDR3

Powermathingy: Corsair RM850i

attachamajiggy: Asus M5A97 R2.0 f

Remembrerthing: 240 GB Crucial SSD, 2TB Toshiba HDD

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Dash Lambda said:

CrystalDiskMark.

It's the most reliable as far as I know.

The most reliable is real world. That's what is going to tell you with real transfers. We can throw benchmark numbers around all day, but if the product fails to work well with a popular operating system or popular games, it's going to fail. 

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

"I didn't die! I performed a tactical reset!" - Apollolol

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1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

The most reliable is real world. That's what is going to tell you with real transfers. 

Yeah, I know. But, like I said, I'm going from an external to an internal. There are bottlenecks there that benchmarks don't get affected by.

Screenaninator: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro

Procrastinator: AMD FX-8300

Stickaminator: 16GB Crucial Vengance DDR3

Powermathingy: Corsair RM850i

attachamajiggy: Asus M5A97 R2.0 f

Remembrerthing: 240 GB Crucial SSD, 2TB Toshiba HDD

 

 

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Just now, JoePro87 said:

Yeah, I know. But, like I said, I'm going from an external to an internal. There are bottlenecks there that benchmarks don't get affected by.

Benchmarks are limited. They are synthetic with certain parameters set up. 

 

I'm not a fan of exclusively using synthetic benchmarks to determine how well a product performs. 

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

"I didn't die! I performed a tactical reset!" - Apollolol

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21 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

The most reliable is real world. That's what is going to tell you with real transfers. We can throw benchmark numbers around all day, but if the product fails to work well with a popular operating system or popular games, it's going to fail. 

The problem is that you don't get such neat numbers from real-world usage.

"Do as I say, not as I do."

-Because you actually care if it makes sense.

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