(Sorry! I forget to mention on the title. It's a slot-1 flash card discussion)
Recommended Flash cards / carts (simplified)
It's for people who can't read much texts.
The best budget-level card: Acekard2, or EzFlash V Plus
If cheaper is what you value more, go for Acekard2.
If you don't mind paying a bit more, go for EzFlsh V Plus.
The biggest bang for the buck: Clearly it's Supercard DS One.
The best of the best (no price concern): Supercard DS One or CycloDS, depending on what features you value more
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Don't recommend
I don't recommend the following:[*]R4 -- Bad. No MicroSDHC support. Don't have premium features. Currently unsupported. The price is not cheap and is not alright for such an okay card.[*]DSTT -- Bad. Very basic card. The OS is bad (eg no folder view, no logical sorting, hard to organize many ROMs). For such a price, you can go for Acekard2 unless you want to save every dollar.[*]Edge -- Okay. The philosophy is similar to R4 in that it won't see premium features coming. The price is again not cheap. For such a price, why not go for EzFlash V Plus which is cheaper and better.[*]M3DS Simply -- Bad. It's just another R4 clone. See "why not R4".[*]M3DS Real -- Okay. It has more features than the "Simply" card but it is dearer (~US$30), more buggy and less feature-rich than Supercard DS One. Go for Supercard DS One instead.Note: Price may change so does the recommendation.
Why not R4?
It has reached its prime and it's on decline.
Why not R4 flash card:[*]R4 doesn't support MicroSDHC[*]R4 supports up to 4GB of MicroSD. However MicroSD has max 2GB only on the market. [*]MicroSD is slow while MicroSDHC is faster. It's better to buy a MicroSDHC memory card.[*]MicroSDHC is the new technology. It's going to be better, cheaper and faster.[*]I like to get a bigger size memory card (my personal min is 4GB). It's because you can hold more ROMs, personal files, homebrew applications without the need of swapping so often. It appears it is not uncommon that transferring files via a non-decent card reader can corrupt your data. So if you have a very small size of memory card, the risk will be higher.[*]Continuous support and future updates are uncertain because Nintendo (and other companies) are taking legal action against them[*]There are many fake R4 cards on the globe(Just a note: When a memory card says it is 4GB. It doesn't express in binary data size that the computer uses. The actual (binary) size is smaller. What a shameless marketing gimmick
)
There is a so-called new card called R4-SDHC. R4-SDHC is most likely a fake card. The original R4 team says no word about this new card. That's a bad sign.
That means you may not be able to update the kernel since the original R4 team will try to brick the NDSL if you use a fake R4.
A fake R4 card can't accept new kernel.
Other cards which are based on R4 too and they are no good either (eg M3DS Simply).
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Built-in memory or not
If you appear to meet flash cards with built-in memory, I don't recommend built-in memory. Reasons are you have no choices on the brand/speed/size etc. of the memory. They are probably generic memory and is in poor quality. You can't upgrade the memory when you need it.
After all, I believe most flash cards with built-in memory are old techies. New trends dislike built-in memory too.
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Recommended Flash cards / carts (detailed version)
Here is a few good candidates (2008):[*]Supercard DS One[*]CycloDS Evolution[*]Acekard2[*]EzFlash V PlusThey are the new innovation/generation supporting new techies (eg SDHC compatibility, automatic DLDI patching, clean ROM support). You don't want to spend your money on (darn) old techies and ask for trouble.
Thus I prefer them rather than the (darn) old generation like DS Fire Link [Well, a rubbish card
].
My comments:
- All price references are taken in Oct 208. Prices will change and vary depending on where you get. So you should judge it based on the prices you can get.
- Acekard2 is prone to breaking (thanks to PharaohsVizier)
From http://gbatemp.net/index.php?s=&showto...t&p=1464655
OK. Now it comes to Supercard DS One Review.
It is too long so I put it into the next post.
Recommended Flash cards / carts (simplified)
It's for people who can't read much texts.
The best budget-level card: Acekard2, or EzFlash V Plus
If cheaper is what you value more, go for Acekard2.
If you don't mind paying a bit more, go for EzFlsh V Plus.
The biggest bang for the buck: Clearly it's Supercard DS One.
The best of the best (no price concern): Supercard DS One or CycloDS, depending on what features you value more
------------------------------------------------
Don't recommend
I don't recommend the following:[*]R4 -- Bad. No MicroSDHC support. Don't have premium features. Currently unsupported. The price is not cheap and is not alright for such an okay card.[*]DSTT -- Bad. Very basic card. The OS is bad (eg no folder view, no logical sorting, hard to organize many ROMs). For such a price, you can go for Acekard2 unless you want to save every dollar.[*]Edge -- Okay. The philosophy is similar to R4 in that it won't see premium features coming. The price is again not cheap. For such a price, why not go for EzFlash V Plus which is cheaper and better.[*]M3DS Simply -- Bad. It's just another R4 clone. See "why not R4".[*]M3DS Real -- Okay. It has more features than the "Simply" card but it is dearer (~US$30), more buggy and less feature-rich than Supercard DS One. Go for Supercard DS One instead.Note: Price may change so does the recommendation.
Why not R4?
It has reached its prime and it's on decline.
Why not R4 flash card:[*]R4 doesn't support MicroSDHC[*]R4 supports up to 4GB of MicroSD. However MicroSD has max 2GB only on the market. [*]MicroSD is slow while MicroSDHC is faster. It's better to buy a MicroSDHC memory card.[*]MicroSDHC is the new technology. It's going to be better, cheaper and faster.[*]I like to get a bigger size memory card (my personal min is 4GB). It's because you can hold more ROMs, personal files, homebrew applications without the need of swapping so often. It appears it is not uncommon that transferring files via a non-decent card reader can corrupt your data. So if you have a very small size of memory card, the risk will be higher.[*]Continuous support and future updates are uncertain because Nintendo (and other companies) are taking legal action against them[*]There are many fake R4 cards on the globe(Just a note: When a memory card says it is 4GB. It doesn't express in binary data size that the computer uses. The actual (binary) size is smaller. What a shameless marketing gimmick
There is a so-called new card called R4-SDHC. R4-SDHC is most likely a fake card. The original R4 team says no word about this new card. That's a bad sign.
That means you may not be able to update the kernel since the original R4 team will try to brick the NDSL if you use a fake R4.
A fake R4 card can't accept new kernel.
Other cards which are based on R4 too and they are no good either (eg M3DS Simply).
------------------------------------------------
Built-in memory or not
If you appear to meet flash cards with built-in memory, I don't recommend built-in memory. Reasons are you have no choices on the brand/speed/size etc. of the memory. They are probably generic memory and is in poor quality. You can't upgrade the memory when you need it.
After all, I believe most flash cards with built-in memory are old techies. New trends dislike built-in memory too.
------------------------------------------------
Recommended Flash cards / carts (detailed version)
Here is a few good candidates (2008):[*]Supercard DS One[*]CycloDS Evolution[*]Acekard2[*]EzFlash V PlusThey are the new innovation/generation supporting new techies (eg SDHC compatibility, automatic DLDI patching, clean ROM support). You don't want to spend your money on (darn) old techies and ask for trouble.
Thus I prefer them rather than the (darn) old generation like DS Fire Link [Well, a rubbish card
My comments:
- Supercard DS One -- premium, very feature-rich card with reasonable price. My recommendation goes with Supercard DS One (SDHC version). Make sure it's DS One and it supports MicroSDHC. I will explain later.
- CycloDS Evolution -- premium, very feature-rich but very expensive (twice as expensive as Supercard DS One). Both Supercard DS One and CycloDS has features that either side doesn't. I don't think it's worth the price when we have a much cheaper alternative which is also feature-rich. If price is not a concern at all, you may pick either one depending on what features are more important for you.
- Acekard2 -- it isn't feature-rich (so far) but it has all the basic/normal features that everyone needs. It has a price cut-off and it is much cheaper than Supercard DS One. Depending on the price you can save, if you know for sure you don't and WILL not need the extra features some other cards have, you may get it instead. However there are some concerns about its so-so build quality (I haven't confirmed it yet). But this card is really prone to breaking so handle it with care if you use it.
- EzFlash V Plus -- Similar to Acekard2 but slightly dearer. However, as other members pointed out, EzFlash V Plus team is active and they are working on adding premium features to their cart. So this may be a better candidate than Acekard2. You may be able to enjoy the premium features (hopefully not buggy) in the forseeable future.
- All price references are taken in Oct 208. Prices will change and vary depending on where you get. So you should judge it based on the prices you can get.
- Acekard2 is prone to breaking (thanks to PharaohsVizier)
From http://gbatemp.net/index.php?s=&showto...t&p=1464655
For this reason, use it with care if you buy this card.QUOTE said:Well Bri, I beg to differ. Perhaps it's because I've been using carts for a long time now, but when I buy one, the long term sort of thing is appealing for me. The AceKard 2.1+ has yet to be really spread out and still has yet to be tested well yet. I will be getting mine soon, and it will be then that I will make my judgement about the build quality.
But as it stands, I have an AceKard 2, and I have used it for a long time, and build quality is definitely an issue. I know there are some people that never take it out of the DS, and for them it is fine, but I take mine out all the time, whether it is to swap with real carts, or simply to take out the MicroSD card easier. Honestly, I can say that I am very careful with my carts, and of course my AceKards haven't actually died before. But I mean, I am REALLY careful with my cart, I know plenty of people who aren't, and you don't even need to be destructive or completely careless to break it, you just need to be one of those people who aren't 100% aware, just one of those people who aren't super protective of their things, and it breaks.
OK. Now it comes to Supercard DS One Review.
It is too long so I put it into the next post.