Newbie question: minimum size for base system

[RTM]

Hi there, i am new to archlinux arm, so please bare with me, if i ask silly questions

I have just gotten myself a stack of pogoplugs (2 P21's and 2 of the new V4's), and for now i intend to install archlinux arm on the P21's.

When trying to install, i can't help but notice that it is not mentioned in the installation guide, how much space i should expect the base system to consume.
Thing is, i have a low capacity (256MB) USB stick that i would like to use, but since my regular Arch linux installation takes up around 3GB on my HTPC/Media server i realize that's probably not enough.

So i am looking at buying a couple of USB sticks and some SD cards (for the v4's), but i would like to know if i could make do with what i have.

A bonus question: would it be worth it, to buy faster USB sticks and SD cards, or would it be fine with just the cheapest stuff?
I intend to use a setup, that will be running MiniDLNA and Samba, where the base system is on a usb flash stick and the data on USB HDDs.

[WarheadsSE]

I would say a 1GB would be a good minimum, but the minimum, I can't say for a specific.

[mopeyjoe]

I second the speed question. I have bench-marked each of my drives and they all just seem so slow. (15-20 MBps seq, ~5 rnd Read)

[WarheadsSE]

Remember when it comes to speed, that the all factors need to be taken into account. Samba, while the most used, is also not a performance beast.

On disk from SATA I get ~ 40-60MB/s, yet over the network the best I can do on 128MB is around 20MB/s