Use of SD card or EMMC

[Buttercup]

@Steeman: thanks so much for a clear and concise instruction! You are my hero!!!

 

By the way, I just want to check with you. There is no reason to run Armbian on emmc card, rite? Because the sdcard nowadays are much faster & larger than those that are available in the old TV Boxes? Thus there is no advantage to install to the emmc?

 

Thanks!

Edited December 21, 2023 by Buttercup

[SteeMan]

Emmc will be faster and emmc is more more reliable (i.e. supports more writes before wearing out) than an SD card.  Though as you point out, an SD card generally provides more storage.  Also the quality of SD cards varies tremendously.  With SD cards if you pay a premium you can get a good reliable card, but many are inexpensive and low quality.

[NicoD]

The speed of an sd-card is very dependent on the device used to read it. Most cheap tv-boxes have 20MB/s max. Some can do 70MB/s. I've not seen any go higher than that.
Highest I've seen on an SBC is 90MB/s. But the cards are theoretically able to do more. I just don't have a reader supporting it.
An eMMC is normally about 150MB/s to 350MB/s. Even the small 16GB eMMC will be faster than the best 256GB sd card. 
Just do read write benchmarks on both and make up your own conclusions.