Help with DS Flash Carts. Which are best besides the OG ones?

[Rexomus]

I'm really sorry, I'm sure that this has been asked hundreds of times but I really need help deciding.

Spoiler: beeg complainy

All these posts I'm finding here and on other sites are a little old and just say the same damn things. "Just get this one," "no that one sucks, get this one," "this one's okay but it'll eat your dog."
The good ones I mainly see are the OG ones that are going for hundreds if not thousands and at that point it'd be way cheaper just to buy the overpriced games.
Then with the chinese ones I'm gettin' real tired of all these fakes, figuring out which is or isn't a fake, deciding which fake is the lesser of each evil, finding out all this terminology and nonsense like timebombs, etc.
Some fakes are even calling each other fakes and I'm getting bamboozled so hard I'm losing my mind.

I just recently bought this knockoff R4 card, the "R4 SDHC GOLD Pro" because it was shiny. I'd been blissfully unaware of being scammed until I saw posts about some carts having issues with games like Pokémon Conquest and B2/W2. Then I stumbled upon the "R4i 3DS Gold Plus," touted as being mad decent. There's also buzz about the new EZ-Flash Parallel, expected to improve with kernel updates.
Is the R4 SDHC Gold pro an okay flash cart? Are there carts I'm unaware of that are way better? What would you do for a Klondike bar?

tldr
Rexy needs good flash cart that isn't a thousand dollars or he's gonna eat his own pants.
If any of you tell me to just use my 3DS with twilightmenu I will eat your pants.
Please and thank you.

 

[master801]

Depends on what DS you're trying to use this on.

If it needs to be compatible with an unmodded 3DS, then all of the R4i SDHC / Ace3DS flashcarts are pretty much all the same bullshit.

To be exact, there are 2 variants of the R4i SDHC Gold Pro. The r4isdhc.com version, and the r4isdhc.co.hk version.

The co.hk version will immediately brick if YSMenu is attempted to be loaded, iirc, while the .com version can use YSMenu, but has a timebomb unlike the aforementioned flashcart. There is a patch to remove the timebomb, but I don't think it works currently.

If using a DS Lite and/or modded 3DS, then I'd suggest going with a DSONE. The stock kernel is pretty decent, has actual RTS (probably won't care / need this feature), and even if you don't like it or a game doesn't work, then YSMenu can be used. There are some issues with it, however. It may come DOA due to PSRAM failure. YSMenu can sometimes be used to bypass this, but it's an issue worth mentioning.

Ace3DS flashcart is pretty much the same as the R4i SDHC co.cn flashcart, albeit maybe without the ntrboot switch. These two use the same B2LCK kernel.

 

[Rexomus]

snip

Exactly the type of answer I was hoping for.
Thank you for your help, friend. I'll take your insight into consideration.

I'm currently using the original Phat DS I nabbed from a nice retro store since some select few games need that GBA slot.

 

[Esdeath]

ez flash also released a DS Flashcard recently, might be worth to look at it. It sits around $25USD though.

 

[Sinrion]

ez flash also released a DS Flashcard recently, might be worth to look at it. It sits around $25USD though.

Please, stop recommending or even mentioning that crap of a card lmao.

There's just a few threads below a EZ one (testing new EZ...) which shows so many flaws that the card should not even be released in it's state that it is.

For overall compatibility, just get a Ace3DSPlus Clone and you're good to go I guess. Works on all consoles, has decent Game Compatibility without extra AP Patching (mostly just Pokemon Black/White 2) and that's about it.

 

[master801]

ez flash also released a DS Flashcard recently, might be worth to look at it. It sits around $25USD though.

As much as I'd like to recommend the EZ-FLASH Parallel, it's not a mature flashcart as it is right now.

Maybe in the future if and when EZ-FLASH finally push out updates to fix the current bugs (closing the lid causes power strobes, doesn't work on DSi XL - unconfirmed?) and add more AP patches for games it can be recommended.

But as it stands, EZ-FLASH Parallel is currently not recommended unless you're okay with dealing with the aforementioned (and possibly more) problems, pricing (2 to 3 times more expensive than something that doesn't have as many problems), and EZ-FLASH potentially abandoning development like their other flashcarts (Junior and Omega DE).

Who knows, maybe later down the line an opensource kernel replacement (NOT based on WoodR4) can be developed.

 

[Rexomus]

I realized something else in deciding which flash cart to get if you all would be so kind to aid me again,

What would be the best speed for the microsd card?
As I peruse around, everyone's worrying about size and price but I'm more concerned with speeds. It would seem unanimously that a basic cheap Class 10 is great but would it be better if you get something with 30 mb/s, 60, etc?
I saw one post saying it could cause instabilities, another post saying DS Flash Carts don't even utilize speeds faster than v10 so it doesn't even matter while another post said getting one with up to 100mb/s helped run the infamous Castlevania game.

 

[Sinrion]

I realized something else in deciding which flash cart to get if you all would be so kind to aid me again,

What would be the best speed for the microsd card?
As I peruse around, everyone's worrying about size and price but I'm more concerned with speeds. It would seem unanimously that a basic cheap Class 10 is great but would it be better if you get something with 30 mb/s, 60, etc?
I saw one post saying it could cause instabilities, another post saying DS Flash Carts don't even utilize speeds faster than v10 so it doesn't even matter while another post said getting one with up to 100mb/s helped run the infamous Castlevania game.

That should be true, since Flash Cards usually cap out around 6-10mb/s in read / write.

The EZ Flash Parallel even was worse, with just about 2mb/s from testing a while ago (don't think that has been improved either).

So a Class 10 Card should be enough, considering pricing nowadays tho for 32GB Cards, you can also just buy a UHS 3 (?) Card which is 30MB/s, that's atleast a bonus at your PC if you write them completely full.


Usually the faster cards have better IOPS too, which might make a difference (as you said for the Castlevania Game, but tbh, I don't think so).

 

[Rexomus]

That should be true, since Flash Cards usually cap out around 6-10mb/s in read / write.

The EZ Flash Parallel even was worse, with just about 2mb/s from testing a while ago (don't think that has been improved either).

So a Class 10 Card should be enough, considering pricing nowadays tho for 32GB Cards, you can also just buy a UHS 3 (?) Card which is 30MB/s, that's atleast a bonus at your PC if you write them completely full.


Usually the faster cards have better IOPS too, which might make a difference (as you said for the Castlevania Game, but tbh, I don't think so).

Thank you, thank you! I went ahead and ordered two to test for myself, a 30mb/s 64gb and a 10mb/s 32gb.
I'll update if our findings are correct.

 

[Sinrion]

Thank you, thank you! I went ahead and ordered two to test for myself, a 30mb/s 64gb and a 10mb/s 32gb.
I'll update if our findings are correct.

I mean, with the prices of a Class 10 and a UHS 3, both 32GB as example, there isn't really a reason to go Class 10 anymore I guess unless it would make complications within a certain device.


Remember to use GUIformat for the 64GB Card and 32kb clusters.

 

[4d1xlaan]

If any of you tell me to just use my 3DS with twilightmenu I will eat your pants.

don't threaten me with a good time

also, can we have a picture of this card you got? it would help to figure out if this is the kind you could run ysmenu on, or if it isnt

because if you could just run ysmenu, it would solve all your problems I think without having to go through all that trouble to find something else

 

[Rexomus]

don't threaten me with a good time

also, can we have a picture of this card you got? it would help to figure out if this is the kind you could run ysmenu on, or if it isnt

because if you could just run ysmenu, it would solve all your problems I think without having to go through all that trouble to find something else

I can and will.

And don't worry, it's a bit too late as Rexy's already done hours of research. I've now gotten a much better flash cart that's an Ace3DS Plus clone and I've slapped Wood on it and everything, just need to test the games out. So far Castlevania's runnin' smooth.
But thank you for your concern! The first one I got had YSMenu on it natively but it was certainly a timebomb. Even if I used updated kernels to avoid the timebomb, I'd rather have a flashcart I know will work with the more demanding games.