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Could someone share his/her experience of using USB flash drive over HDD?
I know that the only purpose of both is to store the OS. I am going to use Ubuntu 13.10 which I believe will fit 8 GB USB since it is said to required 5 GB free space.
I am looking for best practices of choosing USB flash drive since like storage and speed requirements(brand may be) and is there any factors (like not enough storage for update/performance/burn/block that can make it clever to chose the HDD instead.
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Assuming the rig is dedicated to mining, it is best to use a USB flash drive because it is much less expensive than a hard drive, making your mining rig much more profitable.
It also uses less power and generates less heat, both of which also make your rig more profitable.
Then there's always the point of having no moving parts, making breakdown less likely. Again, that relates to profitability.
Again, all of this assumes that you're going to use the rig exclusively for mining. If you want to use the rig for other purposes, such as occasional gaming, then using a hard drive might make sense.
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It's best to choose the HDD because it's easier (all computers should have one), and faster than the USB drive in most cases. But it shouldn't really matter.
Why it doesn't matter
Mining is not storage intensive, you aren't storing massive amounts of data when mining. You aren't even storing data when mining. It's all stored in computer memory, think RAM. A faster storage could only help with downloading the block chain in faster time, which won't improve your mining as it is only done once and finally.
But don't go buying up RAM as well. You mainly mine Scrypt coins with a graphics card and those have plenty of on-board memory. And if you are CPU mining you shouldn't be.
How can HDD and USB be related? One is a physical computer component and the other is a peripheral protocol. Mind clarifying? – John T – 2014-02-10T07:40:45.490
@JacobTorba Yeah, you are right - I mean USB flash drive. The question is corrected. – gotqn – 2014-02-10T07:44:42.657
2This question appears to be off-topic because it is about OS storage and hardware; probably better asked/moved to a different SE. – dchapes – 2014-04-02T02:30:52.750
@dchapes it is about which is the better one when you are mining - this is the right SE. – gotqn – 2014-04-02T05:51:24.387