Testing perf. of files vs. DNS?

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I admin a very small Linux-based network whose nodes use static IP address. 
I would like to test which method, DNS or /etc/hosts, returns the name
resolution the fastest.

The server for this network is quite old and slow.  It is low (and max-out)
on system RAM, which argues against BIND.  The 4200RPM hard disk is also
incapable of doing DMA accesses, which argues against file I/O
(/etc/hosts).

Rather than speculate which method is worse than the other, I would like to
test the relative performance.  Can anyone suggest a way to do this?

Thanks.

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