Hacking SD specifications to match HDD on nintendont?

OriginalHamster

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I'm seriously thinking about get rid off of my second HDD which is used for Wii/GameCube/HBC loading, and store everything on a SD card, however I've read that would appear some issues when loading a GameCube from SD vs HDD, like lagging videos, and music. Is there any SD card able to match HDD in speed? I would stick to the HDD if not

Thanks!
 

julienbdes

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Well, i did always run my Gamecube and HBL from SD without issues. I dont think you need a super sd speed. If you run every GC as well from Nintendont the compatibility will be around 100% :)

For wii, just make sure that your settings are the best. An usb can even handle the speed for the wii games if you dont want to manage 2 HDD ( takes alot of space)
 

MattKimura

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Heey welcome to the world of SD loading! Thought I was the only user who does this. I'm able to load Gamecube games just fine, even Wii games.
I use CFG USB Loader to load Wii games (Since USB Loader GX has no USB support, Wii flow does but is buggy on vWii). CFG USB Loader can also load Gamecube games on Nintendont, BUT it seems to always reset the config and doesn't have every option available (Such as indivisual memcards for each game). USB Loader GX has good settings, but when I loaded the game I got a DSI exception error! These are the worst because you have to unplug the system. So I just resort to using Nintendont itself and loading the games from there. I use the latest MasterMod of Nintendont.

If you're looking to buy a good SD card, it always has to be class 10 (Which refers to the read speed of 10 MB/s). And the rest depends on the read speed (This is what you want the most, be sure it's at least 80 MB/s or more)

Basically when you shop for an SD card and you see it say xx MB/s, this is always referring to read speed. The write speed is always between 4, 6, and 10 MB/s (10 being the best).

Using the same SD card you can store your roms for use with both vWii emulators, and Wii U RetroArch. I mostly use Wii U RetroArch, it's amazing!
 
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fenderjaguar

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I don't think it's anything to do with the speed of the SD card, I think it's more to do with the loader, and how 'good' it is with SD cards.

Even the oldest, slowest USB flash drives have no difference in 'performance' vs a SATA III SSD with USB convertor, when it comes to loading wii and gamecube games.

I had trouble with running gamecube games (can't remember if it was nintendont or dios mios whatever). But I do remember formatting the SD card different and it suddenly worked just like through USB. Think it was 64kb cluster size in FAT 32 guiformat.
 

GerbilSoft

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The main limitation isn't the SD card; it's the slow SD interface on the system itself. I recall seeing some benchmarks showing the Wii's SD slot can't get more than 2 MB/s, whereas the same card connected to a USB reader works fine at more than 5 MB/s.
 

jefffisher

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ive never had any problems loading games with nintendont from SD just to be safe you probably want a samsung evo or a sandisk ultra, other brands aren't quite as trustworthy.
 

OriginalHamster

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The main limitation isn't the SD card; it's the slow SD interface on the system itself. I recall seeing some benchmarks showing the Wii's SD slot can't get more than 2 MB/s, whereas the same card connected to a USB reader works fine at more than 5 MB/s.
I remember you answer a similar question from me in the nintendont thread ages ago, I spent about one hor trying to find the specific post lol; if that's the case and SD speed is gimped by system interface should I go with a thumbdrive then? I want to streamline my setup, having 2 hdd wasting 4 USB slots is not optimal IMO, I have my Wii games on disc or Wii U eShop versions, so I just need a storing solution for my Gamecube games, a thumdrive would come handly IF it performs better than the SD.
 
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GerbilSoft

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A USB flash drive should be faster than SD, though I've heard that there are issues when using lower-quality ones.

Another option (which I use on Wii U) is a microSD card + "nano" SD reader.
 
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OriginalHamster

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Well I switched my HDD to a 64gb SDXC and the process went pretty smoothly, I haven't experienced problems with GCN games, there's no video delay or audio de-sync, with FMV intros.
 

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