• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Wii U External SSD Thread (You Read That Right, Solid-State Disk): GOTTA GO FAST!

HUELEN10

HUELEN10

Member
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW!

You know, getting a spare, cheap SSD on black friday/cyber monday is awesome. Do you wanna know what's even MORE awesome? What if I told you that with a cheap enclosure, you could have the perfect companion for that 8th-Gen Nintendo system, making it into a quiet dream-machine. Seriously, once you go SSD, you won't wanna go back so let's get started!

WARNINGS AND PRECATIONS
The Wii U still holds secrets when it comes to how it handles data. We really don't know how it handles read-write cycles with USB Mass Storage and as far as Nintendo is concerned, only self powered (not bus-powered) HDD dedicated fully to the console are supported and endorsed. My recommendation to anyone who wants to enjoy the benefits is the following.

  1. Buy a modern SSD, older ones had shit garbage collection.
  2. Back that shit up! The more frequent, the better. personally, I duplicate my data by connecting a spare HDD (one that's kinda slow and noisy, yet reliable, making it good for backups) every 2 weeks and letting it chug while I'm doing shit outside.
  3. Make sure you connect your SSD directly to the console, not to a hub (powered on unpowered).
Now, I know what some of you are thinking...
  • What's the point? isn't an HDD cheaper?
  • Won't internal NAND still be faster?
  • Will less than a TB even be enough?
First of all, the time to get an SSD is NOW. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, you can score something decently sized at a great price. In fact, there are many stores offering 120 GB units for around 50 bucks (which is the perfect size for many of you for reasons I will get into later)! Second, and it surprised me to, there are cases in which even with the bottleneck of USB 2.0, the external SSD will load FASTER THAN INTERNAL NAND! Finally, I stand by the 120GB size for anyone that downloads quite a bit, yet only goes the download route for disc-based games rarely, or with a promo. Right now, all of my disc-based games are on disc but 3, and I am a medium to heavy downloader from the eShop. Even so, I have used 40 GB in the last 2 years. For full piece of mind, 240 might be recommended if you have the cash, but for most of us who are mostly disc-based gamers as opposed to disk-based gamers, 120 should be fine.

So what are we waiting for! Let's get started. You will need the following.

  • A 2.5 Inch Modern SSD (I'm using this one).
  • A no-frills USB 2.0 enclosure for a 2.5 inch disk (This is what I had lying around, but any simple enclosure will do fine. You can even make it a non-powered one; unlike an HDD, you should be fine with a non-powered enclosure and with the power from just one lead. In case you do run into trouble though, most of these come with the Y-cable in the package, so no worries!)
  • A computer
  • A Wii U
  • An HDD of similar or greater capacity (or the one you are using on your U right now!)
  • An egg cream (Gotta treat yourself afterwards, right?)

Let's get started. First, put the SSD into the enclosure. Next, you don't want any pre-installed junk on it to affect the Wii U's format process (again, we don't know all the details on how the system handles disks) so connect that sucker to a computer and format it (ZFS, FAT, HFS+, it don't matter, the U's gotta do it its own way after anyways.). Then, (while your Wii U is off), disconnect all hard disks from your Wii U, connect the SSD, and turn on the system to format it. After it's done formatting, turn the console back on again, connect your old HDD to it (while the SSD is still connected), and boot it up and go to settings. Now, copy ALL YOUR DATA to the SSD (yes, all of it, even stuff on NAND). This could be a while, so might as well make that Egg Cream. after the copy operation is completed, check to make sure all the data is on the SSD, and delete all the data off the NAND. Turn off the Wii U, unplug your HDD, boot up, and drag your shit back to where it was beforehand (moving from disk to disk always fucks up folder/icon order, so you might want to take a pic of everything if you are that picky); that's it, you're done!

All you'll want to do now is format your old HDD on your PC, then U (using the same method of removing all external disks first for safety's sake), and backing up as often as you'd like (by duplicating SSD contents when it is convenient). You will now enjoy the benefits of lightning-fast return to home menu, game boot-ups, and noise reduction.

BUT DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, HERE'S PROOF!

I don't have a capture card, but I did record some audio.

Donkey Kong Baja Blast
External HDD (1TB WD USB 2.0 My Book) Approximately 32.82 Seconds
External SSD (PNY Optima 120GB): Approximately 29.55 Seconds
Internal NAND: Approximately 32.66 Seconds

THE SSD WINS, EVEN WITH THE USB 2.0 BOTTLENECK!

So guys, what do you think? Ask away, post your own results, and let's play the console the way it was meant to be played: quiet and FAST!
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
For people with other USB devices (like the two-USB cable Gamecube adapter), why do you say not to even use a powered hub? Has Nintendo said something about it, or are there high risks of self-powered hubs somehow still corrupting hard drives?
 
T

Totakeke

Member
Interesting proposition. Need more data. So far this doesn't seem like worth the premium over a 1TB external hdd for like $50. But you don't really need a lot of space either.
 
O

OnionPowder

Member
I mean is it really worth the price difference for an extra 3 seconds off the loading from your example?

EDIT: especially if you already have an external
 
S

SatoAilDarko

Member
Considering the Wii U doesn't have disc installs and I'm a physical guy I don't need much extra space in an external hard drive.

I was thinking of two options:

One I replace the 250 GB laptop hard drive in my Super Slim PS3. Put the old one in an enclosure and use it for my Wii U.

The other option was SSD but only if it increased loading speed which I didn't think was possible because of USB 2.0

If multiple people report improvements in loading times across multiple games I'll definitely get one. Just need to see some more evidence.
 
HUELEN10

HUELEN10

Member
Blizzard said:
For people with other USB devices (like the two-USB cable Gamecube adapter), why do you say not to even use a powered hub? Has Nintendo said something about it, or are there high risks of self-powered hubs somehow still corrupting hard drives?
Click to expand...
Hubs sometimes cause bandwidth issues, and usually aren't smart. What do I mean by this? Let's say you plug in your shit to a powered hub, all your shit. You turn your console off and what happens? The disk stays on, that's what! Even with non-mechanical drives, do you really wanna leave a consumer disk running literally 24/7? Even SSDs can heat up a bit after all.

Currently, this is how I do my setup:

Front ports: UNUSED
Rear Port 1: SSD (bus powered enclosure, 1 lead connected)
Rear port 2: Powered 4 port- 2.0 HUB
HUB Port 1: Black lead of GCN Adapter 1 (you only need to connect the black lead if you are using a full-powered HUB)
HUB Port 2: Black lead of GCN Adapter 2
HUB Port 3: Disney infinity Base
HUB Port 4: Free for now, but at the ready for a second powered HUB connected to it, making the total number of available ports on the system, counting the hubs and the front, 10.
 
V

Vena

Member
Do we know how WiiU handles read/write cycles for the various drivers? I suspect the old sandforce drives won't be all that good without the firmware to keep them trimmed, and I doubt the WiiU has proper protocol to handle that.

Also, any idea how the internal memory is mounted? Is it soldered on or is it mSATA or SATA? If its either of the latter, I wonder if you couldn't do some creative mounting internally and just give yourself a new, beefer internal drive.
 
Windom Earle

Windom Earle

Member
Please wake me when I can install games on HDD like on Xbox 360. Constant disc spinning is very annoying and digital is out of the question for me.
 
P

peanutbutterlatte

Member
schennmu said:
Please wake me when I can install games on HDD like on Xbox 360. Constant disc spinning is very annoying and digital is out of the question for me.
Click to expand...

You still have to have the disc in though, and in my experience half the Xbox games didn't work/worked worse when they were installed to HD.
 
Windom Earle

Windom Earle

Member
MasterBalls said:
You still have to have the disc in though, and in my experience half the Xbox games didn't work/worked worse when they were installed to HD.
Click to expand...

Yes, it checks for the disc once and then it stops spinning. Same on PS4 (And Xbone?) for that matter.

The bolded is not true at all I think. I only remember Crackdown, Halo3 and GTA having worse streaming.
 
HUELEN10

HUELEN10

Member
SatoAilDarko said:
Considering the Wii U doesn't have disc installs and I'm a physical guy I don't need much extra space in an external hard drive.

I was thinking of two options:

One I replace the 250 GB laptop hard drive in my Super Slim PS3. Put the old one in an enclosure and use it for my Wii U.

The other option was SSD but only if it increased loading speed which I didn't think was possible because of USB 2.0

If multiple people report improvements in loading times across multiple games I'll definitely get one. Just need to see some more evidence.
Click to expand...
Here some more proof of the SSD benefits on Wii U.

http://www.nicofinder.net/watch/sm19687217

I expect more stories once more people get SSDs.
OnionPowder said:
I mean is it really worth the price difference for an extra 3 seconds off the loading from your example?

EDIT: especially if you already have an external
Click to expand...
For me, the lack of noise, smaller size, faster loads, no need for a power adapter, no need for a Y-Cable, and lower heat combined is what makes it worth it, specially if you grab one in this time of cheap SSDs.
Vena said:
Do we know how WiiU handles read/write cycles for the various drivers? I suspect the old sandforce drives won't be all that good without the firmware to keep them trimmed, and I doubt the WiiU has proper protocol to handle that.

Also, any idea how the internal memory is mounted? Is it soldered on or is it mSATA or SATA? If its either of the latter, I wonder if you couldn't do some creative mounting internally and just give yourself a new, beefer internal drive.
Click to expand...
As for the first part, we just don't know. I plan to do regular backups and if I notice things going slow, do a format and mount the backup (not zeroing out of course)! That is the plan anyways. As for the latter part, I wouldn't do it, but I think it's soldered.
 
V

Vena

Member
HUELEN10 said:
As for the first part, we just don't know. I plan to do regular backups and if I notice things going slow, do a format and mount the backup (not zeroing out of course)! That is the plan anyways. As for the latter part, I wouldn't do it, but I think it's soldered.
Click to expand...

Meh, I checked. Its a 20-pin solder.

I was planning on getting my WiiU an external SSD (with a black mount) and building a mount into the side of the WiiU to house it, so I will likely keep a monitor of it regularly as well once I get it set-up and formatted. I'll probably be using the newer, more durable drivers if I can find deals on them. I wonder if some nice V-NAND will go on sale.
 
finalflame

finalflame

Gold Member
Someone just did a video comparison and posted it to /r/WiiU a couple of days ago:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xw9533_peformance-comparison-of-wii-u-media_videogames

Verdict is SSD provides a very slight advantage. Hardly worth the money IMO. I have a 320gb 5400RPM external drive + 32gb internal NAND and I'm fine. Load times are never a burden. I have no idea why anyone would want to pay $50 for 120gb of storage, when most of the benefits of the SSD are nullified by the limitations of USB2.
 
Windom Earle

Windom Earle

Member
victor.m said:
Someone just did a video comparison and posted it to /r/WiiU a couple of days ago:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xw9533_peformance-comparison-of-wii-u-media_videogames

Verdict is SSD provides a very slight advantage. Hardly worth the money IMO. I have a 320gb 5400RPM external drive + 32gb internal NAND and I'm fine. Load times are never a burden. I have no idea why anyone would want to pay $50 for 120gb of storage, when most of the benefits of the SSD are nullified by the limitations of USB2.
Click to expand...

Sorry OP, but I agree with this.
 
HUELEN10

HUELEN10

Member
victor.m said:
Someone just did a video comparison and posted it to /r/WiiU a couple of days ago:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xw9533_peformance-comparison-of-wii-u-media_videogames

Verdict is SSD provides a very slight advantage. Hardly worth the money IMO. I have a 320gb 5400RPM external drive + 32gb internal NAND and I'm fine. Load times are never a burden. I have no idea why anyone would want to pay $50 for 120gb of storage, when most of the benefits of the SSD are nullified by the limitations of USB2.
Click to expand...
There are benefits other than speed, but you are right; an SSD is a luxury. It's not something you need, but if you find a good deal on one and need some storage, yet are mostly a disc-based gamer as opposed to a disk-based gamer, choosing an SSD over an HDD might be a smarter, better-value, and even more economical choice!
 
C

Canis lupus

Member
I'd choose a 128GB SD card, those were also cheaper than usual. I like having things all internal but can you store anything on it like the SSD?
 
P

Persona7

Banned
This seems like a massive waste of money due to the Wii U being limited to USB 2.0.

Even with a super deal I would gain much more by sticking a second SSD into my computer.
 
finalflame

finalflame

Gold Member
HUELEN10 said:
There are benefits other than speed, but you are right; an SSD is a luxury. It's not something you need, but if you find a good deal on one and need some storage, yet are mostly a disc-based gamer as opposed to a disk-based gamer, choosing an SSD over an HDD might be a smarter, better-value, and even more economical choice!
Click to expand...

Yah, I can see the noise/quietness factor, although I literally sit right next to my WiiU at my desk when I game, and can never hear my external HDD over Netflix/games.

It's just unfortunate Nintendo chose to go with USB 2 that has a maximum transfer rate of ~40-60MB/s, as opposed to USB 3 which would really take advantage of SSD random read speeds.

Either way, thanks for taking the time to put the post together for anyone who might wanna splurge on an SSD for their WiiU.
 
V

Vena

Member
victor.m said:
Yah, I can see the noise/quietness factor, although I literally sit right next to my WiiU at my desk when I game, and can never head my external HDD over Netflix/GAMES.
Click to expand...

If anything, I'm planning it for the platter-free aspect. I move the WiiU around a lot at uni for game nights and such. Would prefer to not even entertain the thought of hearing clicks from my drive.
 
U

uncredited male

Member
I ran some numbers before. It is close to the internal memory which is faster than external mechanical and discs. I would say smaller loads have the greatest difference but also have the least benefit to the end user due to already being fast.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=137837044&postcount=667

The advantages as I see it:
-Slight speed improvement
-Larger capacity than internal memory without speed loss
-No mechanical noise
-Lower power requirements and no wake-up issues
-A sense of elitism you can lord over your fellow Wii U owners with

If you are adding an external drive the first thing you should do is hook it up to a regular computer and make sure its firmware is up to date.
 
HUELEN10

HUELEN10

Member
Vena said:
If anything, I'm planning it for the platter-free aspect. I move the WiiU around a lot at uni for game nights and such. Would prefer to not even entertain the thought of hearing clicks from my drive.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's kinda the reason for me too. Sometimes, my father likes me to bring the U over so we can play Kart, but I don't want to move the HDD.

Having a solid-state solution fixes this possible accident waiting to happen.
 
C

Crimsonclaw111

Member
Canis lupus said:
I'd choose a 128GB SD card, those were also cheaper than usual. I like having things all internal but can you store anything on it like the SSD?
Click to expand...
Tbh I didn't know the Wii U could even use the SD card until Smash saved a screenshot to it. You can't install anything from the Wii U, just the backwards compatible stuff it seems.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
How fast does Sonic Boom load on an SSD? ;)

Seriously though very nice topic. I actually have a 80GB SSD lying around I can try I think. Didn't know Wii U got benefits from that
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
victor.m said:
Someone just did a video comparison and posted it to /r/WiiU a couple of days ago:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xw9533_peformance-comparison-of-wii-u-media_videogames

Verdict is SSD provides a very slight advantage. Hardly worth the money IMO. I have a 320gb 5400RPM external drive + 32gb internal NAND and I'm fine. Load times are never a burden. I have no idea why anyone would want to pay $50 for 120gb of storage, when most of the benefits of the SSD are nullified by the limitations of USB2.
Click to expand...
What could have been if Nintendo used at least one USB 3.0 or the cheap eSata connector.

The comparisons need more tests to be conclusive. For example one big sequential read and the optical could fare a lot better, in some cases what's making the differnce are the seek times. It was surprising how close the internal Nand was in most of the test in the video linked.

You mentioned a speed of 40 MB - 60 MB for the USB 2.0. At least in PC's in real world tests i havent seen the standard reaching those speeds, averages are around 25/29 more or less.

There are some marginal benefits but in the end given Nintendo's choice of drive interface and how they handle accounts on the eShop, i would try to stay away from digital, specially for important releases that are big on size. Even if you go with a 128 GB SSD, the 2 Bayonetta games are over 34 GB i think.

What would be really convenient for people even considering an SSD on the Wii U is if Nintendo would allowed SD card use for the Wii U part of the console. SO you can just stick one in there and be done with it. i know about the durability concerns but after all its the method of storage in the 3DS.
 
O

OzPinoy

Banned
120 GB ssd isn't enough. I have over 220+ GB of Wii U Digital content. At this rate of games purchase I think 512 GB ssd will barely last me till the end of Wii U lifetime.

It will cost me 260+ AUD to get a 5xx GB ssd with Vantec 2.5" usb 3.0 enclosure right now. It isn't economical in the grand scale of Wii U data storage.

I think I will stick with my seagate 2TB hdd until 5xx GB ssd is at a sub 100's price point.
 
Bucket-o-roadkill

Bucket-o-roadkill

Member
Christ, for all that process and just a small amount of space, 3 seconds doesn't seem that much of a big deal.. Or are there greater gains to be had in different games?
 
C

CouchMaster

Member
How does it compare to say, a class 10 high speed SD card? I have couple of them 32GB ones lying around from my older DSLR, might use them instead of a dangling external drive.
 
Neff

Neff

Member
schennmu said:
The bolded is not true at all I think. I only remember Crackdown, Halo3 and GTA having worse streaming.
Click to expand...

Bayonetta had noticeable frame drops after installing, don't know if it was ever fixed.

Also Nintendo disc drives are ridiculously quiet and durable, negating most of the problems console drives usually suffer.
 
finalflame

finalflame

Gold Member
Nintendojitsu said:
I wonder if there is a way to mod the Wii U to have USB 3.0 ports. One at least.
Click to expand...

Nope. USB 3.0 would require an entirely new chipset and controller, which would mean drivers tailored specifically to the WiiU's OS and architecture, and a host of other unsolvable roadblocks. Won't ever happen unless Nintendo releases a new WiiU hardware revision with USB3, and let's face it, that isn't going to happen.
 
T

Ty4on

Member
Small SSDs (like the internal storage in the WiiU) can be much slower than regular HDDs. That was the case with the 12GB PS3. Skip to the part where they delete stuff to see how slow it is. SSDs by design need to shuffle a lot of data to keep going which slowed the first gen SSDs to a crawl.
Neff said:
Bayonetta had noticeable frame drops after installing, don't know if it was ever fixed.

Also Nintendo disc drives are ridiculously quiet and durable, negating most of the problems console drives usually suffer.
Click to expand...
The games were made before installing them became an option. I think Halo cached data to the HDD which made it much slower when everything was suddenly on the HDD.
 
M

Mailenstein

Member
Nice OP and I agree that from a technical standpoint a SSD it would make sense as an external drive for the Wii U, but due to the price difference and the minimal improvements overall when used, it's not really a game changer. If money doesn't matters tho, go SSD.
 
Z

zigg

Member
So, some time ago, I built an external from a Samsung EVO 120G SSD and an Anker enclosure.

I never really got to test it because the Wii U swore I disconnected it every time I tried to copy files to it.

I ended up going with this stick instead, based on recommendations in another thread. It apparently has the same chipset as SanDisk SSDs. I mostly convinced myself it wasn't the same as the Flash drives Nintendo warns against (because honestly, those cheap sticks *are* crap), bit the bullet, and it's been working pretty well. YMMV though.
 
M

Madao

Member
for speedrunners, SSDs should be the way to go since those extra 3 seconds become a big deal.

a game like Mario Kart 8, saving 2-3 seconds per load time in each track adds up a lot when doing 32 VS races speed runs. you can save like 1-1.5 minutes in load times alone.

i got an external SSD that is very small and it was external from the get-go (no internal SSD + enclosure)

here's a link to what i have
 
P

PotionBleue

Member
Madao said:
for speedrunners, SSDs should be the way to go since those extra 3 seconds become a big deal.

a game like Mario Kart 8, saving 2-3 seconds per load time in each track adds up a lot when doing 32 VS races speed runs. you can save like 1-1.5 minutes in load times alone.

i got an external SSD that is very small and it was external from the get-go (no internal SSD + enclosure)

here's a link to what i have
Click to expand...

So, is there any proof that it's faster than internal NAND? Because again the MH3G comparison video posted above shows SSD is on par with internal NAND so it's a pointless investment regarding loading times.
 
T

TSM

Member
Or you can just go the simple route and buy a reasonably fast USB 3.0 stick. I bought a 128gb stick that will probably last me the life of the Wii U.
 
M

Madao

Member
PotionBleue said:
So, is there any proof that it's faster than internal NAND? Because again the MH3G comparison video posted above shows SSD is on par with internal NAND so it's a pointless investment regarding loading times.
Click to expand...

well, i did speed runs of Mario Kart 8 on both the internal NAND and the SSD and the run made in the SSD gained about 2 seconds each time a track loaded over the other one.
 
HUELEN10

HUELEN10

Member
I think it's safe to say that the SSD will be faster than the internal NAND at least 90% of the time, if I had to toss a number that is.
 
R

Rich!

Member
TSM said:
Or you can just go the simple route and buy a reasonably fast USB 3.0 stick. I bought a 128gb stick that will probably last me the life of the Wii U.
Click to expand...

You shouldnt use a stick with the Wii U in Wii U mode. Sooner or later, it will fuck up and get all the content deleted.

Nintendo advise against it for that reason.
 
J

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
great thread, i'm good on space on my Wii U for now but once Splatoon hits i plan on getting an SSD
 
blu

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
richisawesome said:
You shouldnt use a stick with the Wii U in Wii U mode. Sooner or later, it will fuck up and get all the content deleted.

Nintendo advise against it for that reason.
Click to expand...
That depends largely on the flash controller on that stick

On a tangent, I seem to remember that the WiiU optical drive goes over SATA internally. I keep hopes we could get that SATA routed out (via a mod, naturally) once we get wiiU homebrew'd.
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
blu said:
That depends largely on the flash controller on that stick

On a tangent, I seem to remember that the WiiU optical drive goes over SATA internally. I keep hopes we could get that SATA routed out (via a mod, naturally) once we get wiiU homebrew'd.
Click to expand...
What connection type is the SD card port using?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

SSD failure
8
909
nkarafo replied
PS5 Expanded SSD and external Hdd at the same time
24
5K
Hyperborean replied
Warning - Wii U console *could* die by itself if not used
Hardware 2 3 4
190
25K
Sleepwalker replied
Ser 5 Max an example of the future of the PC?
49
2K
Topher replied
Is the Meta Quest a Wii U-sized flop? Software numbers suggest it might be - Arse Technica
Sales-Age
46
4K
Reallink replied
Top Bottom