Hardware Doubts about Wii - Chip/Soft, GC, Homebrew

[abfullbr]

Hello everyone. I am thinking about getting a wii and got some really doubts of what to get.

I want a wii to runs Wii (Backups included), GC games (even, backups included) (these is very necessary, I am keeping 2 GC controllers, 1 mem card) and run homebrew (emulators, wiware and others). I am thinking about getting a HD in the future. I am not using internet or online play, so is gonna be a total offline console.

My doubts :

[1] What is the best in my case : Chip or Softmode? What are the best chips today?
[2] Is there a difference between a HD that powers itself in the USB and a HD that powers with a cable of it own?
[3] The games runs faster in the HD? How much faster? Is this noticiable?
[4] Can i install Homebrew in the HD? I say emulator, roms, games... apps... is these possible?
[5] How is the scene of emulation in the wii today? I saw a video of a guy running FFVII in a PSX emulator. Is these playable? What about N64 emulation? Something close to the original Xbox?
[6] The new games still need updates? Is there a way of not getting update and still playing? I saw a guy telling me that he deleted the update channel (something like it) and he would never update again. Is these safe/good/possible?
[7] Last thing. Is there any resource that came in the last years that I didn't said? I mean... original Xbox really get into something while the years was passing...

Thank you, if somebody answers me. Sorry about making too many questions, but I got to know this before I end up buying a new VG.
Sorry if there is some english errors too.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

[1] What is the best in my case : Chip or Softmode? What are the best chips today? Probably a softmod. It's free (unless you don't have an SD card or can hack it using methods like Twilight hack, Indiana Pwns, etc). Softmods are practically just as good as chips today and are a lot cheaper and don't require cracking open your Wii.
[2] Is there a difference between a HD that powers itself in the USB and a HD that powers with a cable of it own? Nope, the hard drive gets powered when you put it into the USB port. Like if you plug an iPod into the Wii's USB port, it'll actually start charging (I thought).
[3] The games runs faster in the HD? How much faster? Is this noticiable? There's no real difference, although generally hard drives have better compatibility and don't require you to buy so many discs.
[4] Can i install Homebrew in the HD? I say emulator, roms, games... apps... is these possible? Um... I'm not quite sure. Regardless, a 2GB SD card should fit most of your needs. The apps themselves are pretty small in file size, and most ROMs up to the Dreamcast, PSX, and N64 are quite small.
[5] How is the scene of emulation in the wii today? I saw a video of a guy running FFVII in a PSX emulator. Is these playable? What about N64 emulation? Something close to the original Xbox? The Wii emulates practically everything top-notch up to the SNES. The PSX emulator works well, but lacks fancy features (namely supporting multiple discs, which is needed for Chrono Cross, FFVII, etc). You can still play games like Spyro on it and run it up to the full, 60 FPS. The Wii64 one is a little slow, but it's very close in FPS speed. Considering it went from running 10 FPS to aroudn 30 or so, that's a big improvement. It's still an awesome console for all your more retro consoles and handhelds
[6] The new games still need updates? Is there a way of not getting update and still playing? I saw a guy telling me that he deleted the update channel (something like it) and he would never update again. Is these safe/good/possible? I'm sure pretty much all games don't need updates to run, they just usually come pre-packed with one to throw off pirates. If you load the game as a back-up, odds are it'll have the system menu update removed. And most of the time these updates are in Nintendo games only. You can even block updates on retail games through backup loader apps. Not to mention you can always keep your system menu up-to-date by using Waninkoko's updaters, which will upgrade your system menu without removing your homebrew stuff.
[7] Last thing. Is there any resource that came in the last years that I didn't said? I mean... original Xbox really get into something while the years was passing... What do you mean? Nowadays we have tons of methods to install the HBC, while before it used to be the Twilight Hack. Now there's Indiana Pwns, Smashstack, Bannerbomb, etc.

 

[AceLighting]

[1] Well soft-mod is free just that you need to download and install but theres plenty of good guides on this site, mod-chip can be cheap but if you want someone to install thats when it could get a bit more dear
I personaly i prefer softmod because its free wii on softmod is 99% of all wii games work on softmod, you may want to look at the list of what gamecube games that work (if theres ones you like but dont work) then decide what to do
[2]From what i experience no but make sure you put the data cable in the right usb and power left (from looking behind console)
[4]Yeah just different partitions use google to find a good program
[5]Its getting good the psx and n64 are currently working on a new release (beta 1.1) which will have lots of improvements from what i hear
[6]First i advise never downgrade because its isnt safe if you install priiloader you can skip disc updates i never had any problems
[7]I dont know what you mean by that question

Posts merged

[1] What is the best in my case : Chip or Softmode? What are the best chips today? Probably a softmod. It's free (unless you don't have an SD card or can hack it using methods like Twilight hack, Indiana Pwns, etc). Softmods are practically just as good as chips today and are a lot cheaper and don't require cracking open your Wii.
[2] Is there a difference between a HD that powers itself in the USB and a HD that powers with a cable of it own? Nope, the hard drive gets powered when you put it into the USB port. Like if you plug an iPod into the Wii's USB port, it'll actually start charging (I thought).
[3] The games runs faster in the HD? How much faster? Is this noticiable? There's no real difference, although generally hard drives have better compatibility and don't require you to buy so many discs.
[4] Can i install Homebrew in the HD? I say emulator, roms, games... apps... is these possible? Um... I'm not quite sure. Regardless, a 2GB SD card should fit most of your needs. The apps themselves are pretty small in file size, and most ROMs up to the Dreamcast, PSX, and N64 are quite small.
[5] How is the scene of emulation in the wii today? I saw a video of a guy running FFVII in a PSX emulator. Is these playable? What about N64 emulation? Something close to the original Xbox? The Wii emulates practically everything top-notch up to the SNES. The PSX emulator works well, but lacks fancy features (namely supporting multiple discs, which is needed for Chrono Cross, FFVII, etc). You can still play games like Spyro on it and run it up to the full, 60 FPS. The Wii64 one is a little slow, but it's very close in FPS speed. Considering it went from running 10 FPS to aroudn 30 or so, that's a big improvement. It's still an awesome console for all your more retro consoles and handhelds
[6] The new games still need updates? Is there a way of not getting update and still playing? I saw a guy telling me that he deleted the update channel (something like it) and he would never update again. Is these safe/good/possible? I'm sure pretty much all games don't need updates to run, they just usually come pre-packed with one to throw off pirates. If you load the game as a back-up, odds are it'll have the system menu update removed. And most of the time these updates are in Nintendo games only. You can even block updates on retail games through backup loader apps. Not to mention you can always keep your system menu up-to-date by using Waninkoko's updaters, which will upgrade your system menu without removing your homebrew stuff.
[7] Last thing. Is there any resource that came in the last years that I didn't said? I mean... original Xbox really get into something while the years was passing... What do you mean? Nowadays we have tons of methods to install the HBC, while before it used to be the Twilight Hack. Now there's Indiana Pwns, Smashstack, Bannerbomb, etc.

You beat me to it took a while responding the questions

 

[abfullbr]

Thank you both for the answers.
So softmod seems to be the best option, right? But with the softomod some Gamecube games won't work, right? The chip runs them all?

Guild McCommunist, in the last question I meant things exacly like you said. I bought a wii to my sister like... 2 years ago. Something like it. In that time, at least in here (Brazil), all hacked wiis came with Chip. There was a rumor about soft...

I am pretty concerned about GC games. I am selling my GC, so I will keep games, controllers...

Thank you again.

Another thing, should I worry about what version my wii will come with? Or it will come with a default firmware version?

 

[Deleted User]

[1] What is the best in my case : Chip or Softmode? What are the best chips today?
I haven't much experience with actual chips myself, but softmod works good. Although new Wii's may not be able to read from backup discs so a hard drive would be needed for backups. (unsure if a chip would work with them, someone else here should know). Also GC backups need either a chip, or launched from a gc loader if softmodded. (if on a new wii that can't read backups, softmod won't do, again unsure about a chip)

[2] Is there a difference between a HD that powers itself in the USB and a HD that powers with a cable of it own?
USB loaders on the Wii read games at roughly 8x speed iirc (6x speed is what games read at on the disc drive itself). Not sure what the drop in speed is if you power the drive via USB, would need to try it on a PC and copy a file accross and see how fast it does it. (think 8x DVD speed is roughly 10MBytes/s)

[3] The games runs faster in the HD? How much faster? Is this noticiable?
It's only about 2MBytes/s faster read I think. (adding to what I said about it being about 8x speed, it's software limited due to some games not liking it going faster.) Although seek times probly are alot higher, but maybe only noticable in some games.

(note: softmod disc reading from backup DVD is 3x speed, so would be very noticable)

[4] Can i install Homebrew in the HD? I say emulator, roms, games... apps... is these possible?
Yeah you can just have a fat32 partition on the drive to use for homebrew.

(can run backups from fat32 too iirc, but I prefer to use a WBFS partion for that)

[5] How is the scene of emulation in the wii today? I saw a video of a guy running FFVII in a PSX emulator. Is these playable? What about N64 emulation? Something close to the original Xbox?
not a clue myself, someone answered it already.

[6] The new games still need updates? Is there a way of not getting update and still playing? I saw a guy telling me that he deleted the update channel (something like it) and he would never update again. Is these safe/good/possible?
I think when running from a launcher you don't get the updates screen, unsure really since I do have system 4.2 on my softmodded system.

Although if you have latest system already and it asks for an update from a disc, usually something like wii motion plus or wii fit driver (probly not right word, jus the thing which enables them to work, probly another way to get them on or something, lol).

[7] Last thing. Is there any resource that came in the last years that I didn't said? I mean... original Xbox really get into something while the years was passing...
derper derp... (not a clue :-P )


Well that's enough of my waffling.

 

[abfullbr]

Thanks alcaholjunkie

 

[VashTS]

Simple answer: get the Wii. Try to get an old one, so you can have the best protections and recovery methods, and be able to read DVD-R, not just for backups, but for movies. You can always replace the drive if you want to. Read some guides watch some movies and make sure you understand what you are doing before you do it.

There are a lot of features that are really fun to play with, emulation being one.

 

[abfullbr]

Thanks VashTS.