Has anyone else noticed that the DSX fans are the only ones that really go tooth and nail in flame wars over their card? Sure, the R4 fans step in and incite some flames as well, but nowhere near the scale of the DSX fans. Has anyone else wondered why this is? Why are these people defending an inferior product to the death?
Maybe someone has a real explanation of this weird concept, but I think it's just brand loyalty. Much in the same way that there are still people who will swear that Internet Explorer is the best browser there is. It isn't even a matter of personal taste or preference, it's an inferior product in pure technical terms, and people will swear by its superiority. I really don't understand it, and I hope someone here can enlighten me.
Now, I don't really see someone being influenced by this thread (there's about a million others to sift through), but here's my opinion on the matter:
I own two DSXs, and two R4s (with 1GB cards each). In case you're wondering, I have pairs because of my girlfriend. I got the DSX first, not really knowing which to go for. After using it for a few months, I felt very satisfied by it. It did everything I wanted it to do, and more. But eventually, I saw more and more buzz going on about this new R4 card. I read up on it, and thought, "well, expandable media is nice, but it really doesn't do anything different, and it doesn't even have full download play". Then I saw the price. 3 times cheaper? (than what I paid for my DSX) And that comes with a 1 GB card... twice the capacity of the DSX. (granted, prices between now and then were different, but it's still significantly cheaper).
So I thought there must be a reason for it being dirt cheap. It must have no support, or be made very cheaply, or SOMETHING. Well, after someone I knew got one, and the non-stop flood of praise for it, I ordered one. After loading everything up on it (something I didn't need to do with the DSX), I popped it in and turned on my system. 3 seconds later, I'm at the game list. "Holy crap, my DSX takes at least 30 seconds to do that. Chalk one up for the R4". Then I started a game. About the same loading speed there. And compatibility is pretty much the same as well. The build quality is a little better on the R4, but nothing terrible. My DSXs are still in one piece. Ease of use was about on par, too. Drag and drop goodness for both cards. Skin support was about 100 fold better for the R4 as well.
At one point, one of my DSX cards died. It wasn't recognized by the DS, or my PC. After about 2 weeks of waiting, the DSX team sent me something to repair it. Well, it sort of worked (I had to mess around with it a bit myself), but that DSX is mostly back to where it was. 2 weeks. That's simply unacceptable support for your card. Any questions about it on their forums would only end in, "please leave a report on the support tracker". That's their "get in line and wait" system for fixes. After the 16Gb fiasco, that wait in line is even longer now.
As for the R4, I also noticed the much more frequent firmware updates, and the massive amount of community support. On the DSX side of the field, updates were not just few and far between, they were almost non-existent. I saw a total of 2 updates in the time I owned the card, one that simply broke the card if used under Vista (or any other still unknown reasons). Also, the DSX community was pretty much a bunch of bitter people who would argue with anyone over anything. (and they're on here, too) And the mods over there love to delete topics and ban people. Good luck getting any help there.
Well, small features and such aside, this is my take:
One card costs at least twice as much as the other, but with nearly equal compatibility.
The cheaper card has at least twice the storage space, give the price.
The more expensive card has nearly non-existent support.
The cheaper card is far less likely to break (expandable media vs. onboard)
The more expensive card does have a local (as in, the U.S.) team, with full english support... not that it helps.
It should be painfully obvious which one is "better".
