Hacking Gonna buy flash hardware. A bit confused

[sinful]

Im looking to buy a flash combo for my European DS light.
Have been reading up on some of the different products,
but all the speccs and different products are making me
confused.

So I'd like to turn to you for some expert advice

What I want to know is what is the best combo of
slot 1 and 2 device who workes with the most amount
of DS and GBA backups, and at the same time has no
problems running homebrew. The other important aspect
beeing storage. I'd like to carry as many games with
me on the two devices as possible.

What are your oppinions on this? Money is not that
important, I want the "best" solution

And what micro SD cards would you recommend.

If anyone would take the time to answer these
questions Id be very grateful

Thanks in advance peeps

 

[jargus]

For Slot 1 get an R4/M3 or Cyclo DS. Kingston and Sandisk seem to be the preferred micro SD brands. I'm not too knowledgeable on Slot2's.

 

[DEF-]

I can recommend my current combo.

Slot 1 = R4DS + 1GB Kingston MicroSD Japan (works with POR).
Slot 2 = M3 Lite + 1GB Sandisk Ultra II MicroSD (you can get 2GB too).

That gives 3GB of space, should be enough. Both solutions work great with DS games, and the M3 Lite plays GBA games very well (think its almost 100% compability).

Why only 1GB for the Slot 1 you may ask? The 2GB variants does not work with Castlevania: POR, only the 1GB Japan made one work.

 

[Sinkhead]

Im looking to buy a flash combo for my European DS light.
Have been reading up on some of the different products, but all the speccs and different products are making me confused.
Yup, there's lots of options nowadays. Just for the record, the DS is region free so it doesn't matter what region your DS is from.

So I'd like to turn to you for some expert advice

Yay I'm an expert

What I want to know is what is the best combo of slot 1 and 2 device who workes with the most amount of DS and GBA backups, and at the same time has no problems running homebrew. The other important aspect beeing storage. I'd like to carry as many games with me on the two devices as possible.
What are your oppinions on this? Money is not that
important, I want the "best" solution

For DS I would recommend the CycloDS Evolution or the R4. You say money isn't an issue so I would go for the CycloDS Evolution. It's more expensive but still only about the same price as a normal game!
For GBA I would recommend the EZ-Flash IV (4) Lite. I've never personally used it but I've heard that it's very good.

And what micro SD cards would you recommend.

Both these flashcarts use MicroSD storage which is fairly cheap. You can get a 1gb MicroSD card for less than $20 (£10) which will hold about 20-30 DS games or LOTS of GBA games. The very best MicroSD card is one with the serial number 'SD-C01G JAPAN'. If you can get it, that's the one you want! It's not even the most expensive but it is the fastest and works with all the games.

QUOTE(sinful @ Jun 25 2007, 08:46 PM)

If anyone would take the time to answer these
questions Id be very gratefulÂ

Thanks in advance peeps

No problem! If you need more help I'm sure other members will help you and I'll check back soon.

Here's some links to reviews on the flashcarts I've recommended:
GBAtempCycloDS Evolution review
GBAtemp R4 review
RomNet (my site's) R4 review
GBAtemp EZ-Flash IV Lite review

- Sam

 

[sinful]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Think Ill go for the Cyclo, but I have another
question.

I've tried to read up on this, and from what I gather
it would work as a bootdevice for slot 2 aswell. Right?
The question then, is the evolution compatible with all
slot 2 cartridges or just a select few?

Sorry if this is available in some guide or something and have been
stated here hundred times already

EDIT:
Boot to slot-2
This allows you to use the CycloDS Evolution as a PassMe (or if you're getting technical; a NoPass) and boot to a slot-2 device.
Unfortunately it does not support booting of GBA games. This option appears in the 'Settings / Misc' screen, and can also be achieved by holding Up on the dpad when booting the CycloDS Evolution.

From the evolution review on this site. Hmm, does this mean you cant play any gba games on your slot 2 device with the cyclo?
If this is the case its no good for my use :s

 

[Sinkhead]

Sorry if this is available in some guide or something and have been
stated here hundred times alreadyÂ

Yeah, we do get a lot of questions like this but yours was better because you told us a lot of details about what you wanted! Most questions like yours just go "which is the best flashcart" then we have to ask them a load of questions!

EDIT:
Boot to slot-2
This allows you to use the CycloDS Evolution as a PassMe (or if you're getting technical; a NoPass) and boot to a slot-2 device.
Unfortunately it does not support booting of GBA games. This option appears in the 'Settings / Misc' screen, and can also be achieved by holding Up on the dpad when booting the CycloDS Evolution.

From the evolution review on this site. Hmm, does this mean you cant play any gba games on your slot 2 device with the cyclo?
If this is the case its no good for my use :s

Yes you can boot a GBA flashcart using the Evolution. What it means is that if you have a proper (legit) GBA game in slot-2 the CycloDS won't boot it.

- Sam

 

[iwakura]

As stated, CycloDS is the best (slightly better/more expensive than R4, but if money's not a problem, its the obvious choice). R4's the best when money is considered.

I'd advise a M3 lite Perfect for a slot-2. GBA games work on it. and yes, the cycloDS evo will work to run all (i'm pretty sure) slot-2's.

 

[sinful]

After doing some more research and listen to the advice here I've made up my mind

Ill go with:

Cyclo Evo
m3lite perfect
2xSandisk Ultra II micro SD 2BG

This shouldnt be making any problems except maybe for Castlevania, right?

 

[4saken]

After doing some more research and listen to the advice here I've made up my mind

Ill go with:

Cyclo Evo
m3lite perfect
2xSandisk Ultra II micro SD 2BG

This shouldnt be making any problems except maybe for Castlevania, right?

Sandisk Ultra II micro SD 2GB do not exist. Look on their website/email them (I've been told this many times).

 

[Sinkhead]

This shouldnt be making any problems except maybe for Castlevania, right?

Castlevania Portrait of Ruin and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam

- Sam

 

[xcalibur]

I think that memory wise, you should just buy two 2gig memory cards(For your slot1 and slot 2 i premuse), doesnt matter what brand because the speed only matters for a select few games.
A taiwan manufactured kingston microsd or regular sandisk one's are ok.
And then you should buy a 1 gig Kingston 'SD-C01G JAPAN' memory card to hold speed dependant games. Thats what i am doing. You could store the memorycard in the little keychain that comes with the R4 if you're getting it.

 

[4saken]

A 2GB Toshiba in both (like currently in mine) will cover all games except Tony Hawk.

EDIT: To be honest, it's like a 1/30 chance if you try rush into a portal, and more like 1/100 if you wait for the animation to finish (the rock floating thing).

From personal tests btw.

 

[xcalibur]

I forgot to mention this but Toshiba japan manufactered ones are great also
Reportedly the Kingston microsd cards are OEM's of Toshiba

 

[sinful]

mkek, my bad on the ultra.
Seems like ill be buying 4sakens m3 and micro sd, and add to this a Cyclo and another sd from some retailer.
Happy time

Thanks for the tips guys ^^

 

[ssoccerh]

best option right now would be cyclo ds with a 1gb micro sd Kingston (Japanese)

 

[sinful]

Then its done.
Have ordered a Cyclo + 1GB kingston (jap)
And 4sakens m3lite perfect and 2GB Toshiba

Soon to join the homebrew crowd