Internal or external card reader better?

nyxanna

Distinguished
Apr 16, 2011
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I often need to read those little cards but don't have any card reader at all so I end up having to put them into the digital camera or smartphone.

So I decided to buy a card reader. I saw that you can buy either an external or internal card reader.

Which one is better to have?
Personally I'd rather have an internal one and I assume that it would be faster since you connect it via sata (which is faster than USB?) directly to the PC.

I have a NZXT Phantom case in case that matters, so I don't have any space for card readers that are as big as floppy readers. There's only space for DVD drive sized readers.
 
Solution
Any would do, I prefer external readers because it is portable. I might bring my laptop elsewhere and in case it doesn't have a card reader I could well use the portable one.