SQL far and away needs more CPU. But it also needs ALOT more RAM than 192MB. This MUST be a small project, so I would just skip SQL (neither of those sysems would run SQL very well) and just use IIS ...

OK, I’ll admit it. I’m not a DBA, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t overseen databases and their performance. I was (and probably still am) the guy who installed a Microsoft SQL database by hitting Next ...