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The Wii U External SSD Thread (You Read That Right, Solid-State Disk): GOTTA GO FAST!
- Thread starter HUELEN10
- Start date
Don't bother with an SSD over USB - even looking at your numbers - you gained 3 seconds? Seriously? You can buy 4TB externals for $115 (Costco) - why get a ton less space when you gain minimally? Even still, the data sample is small. I am guessing if you did more tests you'd see that 3 second gain erode with more results.
Actually, not like PS4, at all. PS4 uses a SATA-connected drive, so you can actually reap the benefits of the SSD in a more substantial way. Wii U uses USB 2.0...even with USB 3.0 you aren't going to gain as much as you would with SATA and it is less reliable.
Actually, not like PS4, at all. PS4 uses a SATA-connected drive, so you can actually reap the benefits of the SSD in a more substantial way. Wii U uses USB 2.0...even with USB 3.0 you aren't going to gain as much as you would with SATA and it is less reliable.
In practice the nature of game data means there is very little gain from using an SSD even in the PS4. An SSHD works well there, for the price vs. storage size, and is likely to pay off here as well as Wii U games are typically smaller and more likely to sit in the flash read cache anyway.
Crimsonclaw111
Member
One day somebody will design homebrew to do that. I guess we'll wait until then.
Sorry, not sure if it is the right place to ask but you guys do seem like you know what you are talking about. I'm planning on buying a Wii U from Amazon UK (199 pounds for a basic model with Nintendo Land, Wii Party U, Mario Kart 8 and Super 3D World - which seems like a very good bundle, price-wise, from what I seen in Europe). My problem is that it is a basic model. I don't plan on buying any retail games from the eShop but I do plan to buy small indie games from eShop as well as download demos. How much space do I need? I was thinking about getting a 32GB SDHC card. Do you know any good ones that you will recommend? I know this thread is about external harddrives but I would prefer a card, if there is enough space for future eShop purchases like Shovel Knight etc.
For Wii U, SD Cards can be used for saving a picture of your Mii and QR Code patterns for your Mii, but not as an external storage device for Wii U software. SD Cards can, however, be used in Wii mode to save data for Wii games. This data is managed through the Data Management feature in Wii mode. SD cards are also used to transfer data from Wii to Wii U.
Why has this never happened on my 360? I've used a USB flash drive for storage for years without any issue except the low write speed which I recently upgraded. Nintendo says that flash drives are not recommended because they have limited writes. Which is true for all flash memory including the on board storage on the Wii U. I did some research and the Kingston/Sandisk drives I always use have wear leveling.
I've even seen USB drives that take microSD cards, what is the difference between plugging a microSD card into a adapter and using on a 3DS and getting USB adapter and using on the Wii U?
Nintendo isn't known for good OS development.
Ulysses 31
Member
(micro)SD cards can't be used to download Wii U games to.
HUELEN10
Member
Simple: we simply don't know how Wii U handles writes and reads on Wii U mode with USB storage; that's it!
And if you are equating the flash on a flash drive to the flash on an SD card to the flash in an SSD, you are doing it wrong.
So the Wii U flash memory doesn't have limited writes? I know there is a difference with the logic controllers.
USB 2.0 will not deliver much of a difference compared to an external hard disk drive. Save your money please! Just grab a 500GB external on sale. I had a 500GB laptop hard drive laying around that I shelled into an external drive and it works fine. You'd only be saving less than five seconds on an SSD in comparison because USB 2.0 can only transfer so much.
HUELEN10
Member
An ad for what? I don't know what gives you the impression, but this thread isn't an ad for anything.
I said no such thing.
I was comparing writes and how that is the reason Nintendo doesn't recommend flash drives in my previous post and you said that they can't be compared. I made no other comparison
None. Nintendo recommends against flash drives because they realize most uninformed people will just buy no-brand crappy drives which will be utterly slow, cause problems later and bother tech support down the line. The write patterns shouldn't be that different from a 360.
When the N3DS launches in NA, my old 3DS 64GB SDXC card is going to my Wii U via USB reader.
Might worth mentioning the MyBook used in the tests is a 5400 RPM Green drive. Using a drive that has better read/write speeds may net you similar results to the SSD without the premium price.
I'm using a 2.5" 500GB WD Black, running off a Y cable to a cheap USB3 enclosure (Not that it needs USB3). 500GB seems plenty for me.
I'm using a 2.5" 500GB WD Black, running off a Y cable to a cheap USB3 enclosure (Not that it needs USB3). 500GB seems plenty for me.
Dammit. Thanks for the reply though!
I'm curious to see how this works out. I'm currently using a 64GB Sandisk Cruzer on my Wii U and I'm out of space (darn holiday sales) I'm looking at going 128 something soon.
HUELEN10
Member
Though this is true, both are acceptable terms.
I have a question here. The slow mechanical drive I have hooked up to my Wii U currently is self-powered. The information I read from the OP states that a bus powered SSD in an enclosure should provide itself with enough power. Should I purchase a Y cable just in case? And what exactly is Y cable? I am not familiar with it.
HUELEN10
Member
A y cable simply is a piggyback to provide more power to the disk. SSDs usually don't need them.
Thank your for the quick reply. I ordered an enclosure for 120 GB SSD I have laying around and a Y Cable from Amazon. I'm looking forward to loading Xenoblade X onto this thing,.
Yeah like Huelen said you should be good without the Y cable since SSDs draw dramatically less power. Still for the price it's not a bad thing to have a spare of laying around. I had to harvest one from my Playstation gaming headphones a while back after I forgot to order one.
FWIW, I was completely unable to use a Samsung EVO 840 120 GB SSD with the Anker enclosure I got. The Wii U would format it and crap out. Worked fine everywhere else.
I ended up going with a high-quality Sandisk 64 GB stick instead, forget which model. That's been working well.
Smiles and Cries
Member
I searched Xenoblade X and found this thread
OP I wish I saw this last year did not realize the USB 2.0 bottleneck was not as restrictive
I was just going to try to store all of Xenoblade X on my internal space did not think about a cheap SSD
question is can the Wii U handle two external drives plugged in?
I don't want to transfer all of my digital games I have too many
but if I can run both external drives it would be worth it
OP I wish I saw this last year did not realize the USB 2.0 bottleneck was not as restrictive
I was just going to try to store all of Xenoblade X on my internal space did not think about a cheap SSD
question is can the Wii U handle two external drives plugged in?
I don't want to transfer all of my digital games I have too many
but if I can run both external drives it would be worth it
You can only run two drives to transfer data from one to another. Currently the OS only supports one drive for active use.
Smiles and Cries
Member
in that case I'll need a 500GB SSD to get done what the OP is suggesting
with the Wii U at the end of life I would have to get a good cyber monday deal to bite
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