SD memory: what does everyone think?

Wombat

Wombat

CAGiversary!
Feedback
3 (100%)
I am currently on the fence with the SD memory. I will admit that my knowledge of it is minimal, so I am looking for my fellows CAGs to educate me before the next CAGcast.

Is this better for the Wii than say a bigger hard drive? Im assuming with the ability to dl full games and store photos you are going to need a good amount of storage.

And with SD cards not a 1st party item what does Nintendo stand stand to gain for this choice?

OK thanks
 
With only 512mb of internal memory the wii is extra light on memory.

I think the ability to use SD cards for game saves etc is great. However im not sure which brain scientist at nintendo decided that 512mb of internal memory was enough to start with. built into the system.

Doesnt that seem way to low?



I dont think nintendo will gain anything for making the choice to use SD cards for the system but i do think its a good idea.They just should of included a mini HDD as well.


A quick search reveals a 4gb sd card for 63.99 (newegg.com)

Great news that SD cards have been getting bigger and cheaper.

I'll buy a bigger SD card for my digital camera and use the smaller ones for my WII (if i was going to buy a wii but im not.)
 
yeah, the fact that they're an industry standard makes me happy. I got a 1 gig card for $18 late in the summer, and will probably invest in a 1 or 2 gig for the wii before it comes out. This will be way less expensive than proprietary memory (Sony's STILL charging $25 for an 8 MB card? Come on.). While a harddrive would be nice, my Xbox never even registered that I had used any memory on it, despite having about 3 CDs ripped to it and game saves for easily 100 games. As far as game saves go, I'm sure the internal will be fine. I'm just wondering how the VC games are gonna work out on it. With the right DRM on it, it shouldn't be an issue for them to allow storage of the games on the SD card.
 
I think they should have had more memory in it, more so at the cost they are charging, but SD cards are cheap and work.
 
Yeah I love the idea of a SD card great option and for internal memory 512mb is qutie a lot unless you plan on buying the whole n64 libary , cause I know a n64 game can be as little as 15mb to download and I know probably they have figured out a way to compress it even more and nes and snes games can be in the kb size to like 5Mb. If you do happen to buy tons of games SD card really cheap for a huge amount storage so I think it will be okay.
 
I think it's a smart move. Hard drives have several disadvantages: they give off more heat, are noisy, susceptible to failure, and consume more power. By the time the Wii is released I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a 4GB card for 50 dollars. That'll be more than I'll ever need for game saves.

I feel The 512MB of internal memory is adequate. I am not sure about the delivery system of virtual console games. But even if it stored the entire ROM on the internal memory there would be enough to store the entire NES library in half that space. I think more likely when you purchase a VC game it will be a bit stored in your Nintendo profile, and the game will then be loaded into RAM once you choose to play it. The only downside of this is you need to be online whenever you want to play VC games. The upside is you won't lose your games even if your your Wii breaks.

Nintendo has done a good thing here by providing a standardized memory solution, and people are no longer forced to buy expensive first party accessories. Nintendo is charging around 30 dollars for 16 megabytes of GameCube storage. Now you can easily find a 1 or 2 gigabyte SD card for the same price. This was a huge cash cow for Nintendo, and I was surprised that they went in that direction. But who am I to question their decision to lose a profit point since it's actually a good decision for consumers.

I'm not going to be using my Wii (or any other console for that matter) for media storage. That's what I have an HTPC for. I really don't see any reason the Wii needs gobs of internal/external memory.
 
[quote name='chodax']Boo. 512 mbs is hardly enough memory to hold all the VC songs, movies, and music. It needed more memory.[/QUOTE]

YEAH... oh wait.
 
[quote name='Wombat']

Is this better for the Wii than say a bigger hard drive? Im assuming with the ability to dl full games and store photos you are going to need a good amount of storage.

And with SD cards not a 1st party item what does Nintendo stand stand to gain for this choice?

OK thanks[/QUOTE]


Well 512mb isn’t that bad got internal storage to begin with, that’s plenty of room for game saves and some Games from the VC. Keep in mind the biggest SNES carts were only 32mb but there is better compression now and the ROMS you can DL are only a few MB’s each. I think Nintendo had a Good idea with the SD cards allow people to buy memory based on needs. Also I have no doubt a First Party 2 GB card would be at lest $100 if Nintendo had to sell them its win win for both Nintendo and the Consumer. Personally I’m going to buy a 2 GB card you can get them for 30ish on newegg now and that will be plenty of room..
 
[quote name='Kfoster1979']Well 512mb isn’t that bad got internal storage to begin with, that’s plenty of room for game saves and some Games from the VC. Keep in mind the biggest SNES carts were only 32mb but there is better compression now and the ROMS you can DL are only a few MB’s each. I think Nintendo had a Good idea with the SD cards allow people to buy memory based on needs. Also I have no doubt a First Party 2 GB card would be at lest $100 if Nintendo had to sell them its win win for both Nintendo and the Consumer. Personally I’m going to buy a 2 GB card you can get them for 30ish on newegg now and that will be plenty of room..[/quote]

Cartridge size was determined by megabits not megabytes. You have to do the conversion to get the storage in bytes. Eight bits in one byte, therefore, 32 megabits is equal to 4 megabytes.
 
Keep in mind, cartridge size was determined by megabits not megabytes. You have to do the conversion to get the storage in bytes. Eight bits in one byte, therefore, a 32 megabits cart is equal to 4 megabytes.
 
I think it's a better solution than the proprietary memory cards that have been standard up to this point. As far as the hard drive, eh. If I was going to use it as more of a media center type system, then a hard drive would be beneficial, but for game saves, VC downloads, and demos (if I wanted to keep them for some reason), SD cards should be fine as they're pretty affordable and I can get the size I need.
 
[quote name='kaw']I feel The 512MB of internal memory is adequate. I am not sure about the delivery system of virtual console games. But even if it stored the entire ROM on the internal memory there would be enough to store the entire NES library in half that space. I think more likely when you purchase a VC game it will be a bit stored in your Nintendo profile, and the game will then be loaded into RAM once you choose to play it. The only downside of this is you need to be online whenever you want to play VC games. The upside is you won't lose your games even if your your Wii breaks.[/quote]

I'm pretty sure this is not true. From everything I have read, the VC games are stored completely on your Wii once they are purchased and downloaded.

Nintendo has clarified that if your Wii was to die, all VC downloads are tied to your account so they would be re-downloaded to your new Wii console without having to pay for them again, just like XBL.
 
Personally I'd rather have a HDD considering how much cheaper it would be storagewise but I guess I'll have to settle for buying a 2 or 4 GB. Ultra II Sandisk one. For everyone here why would you bother buying a regular one?
Has it been confirmed these are regular SD card slots or are they MiniSD one's? I really hope not Mini, they're overly expensive compared to the regulars and I don't see the point why Nintendo would use them instead.
 
[quote name='pop311']Would you reccomend this?[/quote]

Kingston is a good brand (they use Toshiba chips). I've had two of their SD cards that haven't had any problems with my PDA, laptop, or desktop. My gf had a lexar that fucked up.

Make sure to check newegg and zipzoomfly to get the best price, but as far as the brand I'd recommend it (and 1gb is a shitload of VC games and save files).
 
I already have a 2 GB SD card for my digital camera, so I'll be using that for any extraneous saves that the Wii requires. I see that the SD card is quite a good choice of memory just because Nintendo seems to be putting a lot of effort into making sure people know about the Wii's photo/video viewing capabilities.
 
Well that and it's cheapest Frisky, too bad it takes too long to get to bigger quantities. Case in point, look at how quick we're getting to 4 GB. MS Pro Duo in comparison, at least in price.
 
I know even less about SD memory than th OP, but my question is simply, "If I pretty much only use my internal hard drive for game saves (and maybe some oldschool titles on the VC), how much will that approximately hold?"

I mean, for music, movies, and pics there's always PCs. The Wii is primarily a game system, so being able to save my games without having to buy a memory card for awhile is all I care about.
 
[quote name='Mr Durand Pierre']I know even less about SD memory than th OP, but my question is simply, "If I pretty much only use my internal hard drive for game saves (and maybe some oldschool titles on the VC), how much will that approximately hold?"

I mean, for music, movies, and pics there's always PCs. The Wii is primarily a game system, so being able to save my games without having to buy a memory card for awhile is all I care about.[/QUOTE]
If my math is right, figure it this way.

The PS2 Memory Card is 8 MB, the Gamecube 59 card is 4 MB, and the 1019 card is 64MB. The internal memory of the Wii is 512 MB, so roughtly 8 1019 Cube cards, or 64 PS2 cards.

The average NES game is between .05 - .1MB. SNES / Genesis weigh in at 1-3 MB, and N64 come in at about 8 MB I think. You could fit every NES game ever officaly released on the Wii roughtly 6 times over.

Overall, I think the internal storage is going to be fine for my uses, but a SD card down the line would make it official. And I'd rather have a small SD card in the slot than an external harddrive plugged into the USB port.

EDIT: cleared up some goofs and fleshed it out a bit.
 
Using SD memory is great for the Wii. Once they announce exactly what kind of SD it will use I'll get a 2-4 GB stick, which should be more then enough for a long time.
 
I do not want internal memory whatsoever, because if I want to bring a game to a friends house, I dont want to have to lug a hardrive over there.
 
[quote name='Riyonuk']I do not want internal memory whatsoever, because if I want to bring a game to a friends house, I dont want to have to lug a hardrive over there.[/QUOTE]
Thus the beauty of a memory card smaller than a DS cart in the SD cards.
 
Without reading every post, I'm curious to see as to how they're gonna impliment security into it. For example, if you bought and downloaded a VC game, whats gonna stop you from copying to a friends SD card with a multi reader? I'm not advocating it per se, just curious. Also, how is it gonna stop trading game saves and stuff over the net. Of course, its cheap and easy to do that with Codebreakers and stuff now for the current gen. But in the end, I think its smart to go with something such as SD. It kinda seems that opens up new possibilities for the system. Good and bad...
 
512MB of built-in storage is quite a lot for getting people started. USers who don't go in for much VC usage may never need much more for their saves games.

Keep in mind, the biggest ROM ever shipped on a Nintendo platform was Resident Evill II on the N64 at 64 megabytes. Super Mario 64 was all of 8 megabytes. The biggest SNES game was 48 megabits or 6 megabytes.

Users will be able to get a fair number of VC games on their system along with numerous game saves before running out of space.

Historically, this is the most any platform has included without using a hard drive. Most included no memory at all.

PS1: Memory card required
PS2: Memory card required
N64: Memory card required for many games
Dreamcast: Memory card required
Saturn: Some memory included but required an untrustworthy battery and was very limited in capacity. A memory cart using flash was really needed for dependable longterm storage. The same was true of the Jaguar CD and Sega CD.

Nintendo could easily have gone with no onboard storage at all, or just a few kilobytes for system functions.

SD prices are coming down rapidly. Fry's has recently offered 1GB cards for $10 AR. By this time next year you see deals on 8GB units for under $100. Not as capacious as a hard drive but more than adequate for Nintendo's intended offerings without breaking the wallets of most.
 
[quote name='Riyonuk']I do not want internal memory whatsoever, because if I want to bring a game to a friends house, I dont want to have to lug a hardrive over there.[/quote]

Couldn't you just transfer your data from you internal memory to your SD card, thus making your data portable?
 
[quote name='HumanSnatcher']Without reading every post, I'm curious to see as to how they're gonna impliment security into it. For example, if you bought and downloaded a VC game, whats gonna stop you from copying to a friends SD card with a multi reader? I'm not advocating it per se, just curious. Also, how is it gonna stop trading game saves and stuff over the net. Of course, its cheap and easy to do that with Codebreakers and stuff now for the current gen. But in the end, I think its smart to go with something such as SD. It kinda seems that opens up new possibilities for the system. Good and bad...[/QUOTE]

SD stands for Secure Digital. This was created as an extension of the MMC standard to offer DRM features and compete with the Sony Memory Stick, with offers Sony's Magic Gate DRM scheme.

VC games on SD cards will be DRMed. In addition, it is very likely they'll be bound to a specific Wii console by an internal unique ID. Whether Nintendo will offer portability of WiiConnect accounts and associated content remains to be seen. Further, VC games might randomly phone home to Nintendo to verify that they were pruchased for use with the account present on the Wii. Nintendo has its reasons for wanting every Wii to be connected to the internet 24/7. Don't be surprised if their WiiConnect EULA reserves the right for them to preform audits at their whim.

Everyone should read this Wikipedia article if they have SD card questions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SD_card
 
[quote name='daroga']If my math is right, figure it this way.

The PS2 Memory Card is 8 MB, the Gamecube 59 card is 4 MB, and the 1019 card is 64MB. The internal memory of the Wii is 512 MB, so roughtly 8 1019 Cube cards, or 64 PS2 cards.

The average NES game is between .05 - .1MB. SNES / Genesis weigh in at 1-3 MB, and N64 come in at about 8 MB I think. You could fit every NES game ever officaly released on the Wii roughtly 6 times over.

Overall, I think the internal storage is going to be fine for my uses, but a SD card down the line would make it official. And I'd rather have a small SD card in the slot than an external harddrive plugged into the USB port.

EDIT: cleared up some goofs and fleshed it out a bit.[/QUOTE]

I thought 512mb sounded big, but your post confirms it.

I think this is great news! With the current gen consoles you have to spend a good $20+ for a decent sized memory card (and even then you'll eventually need two of them), and I think I heard that the 360's mem cards are $50 each. The amount one saves from not buying a mem card more than makes up for the Wii being $50 higher than expected.

Edit: I guess 512mb might be a bit small if you were trying to store all your music on it, but it's not like the Wii is meant to replace computer's (unlike Sony's arrogant PS3 claim), but rather exist mostly as a game system with a few added freebie bells and whistles. At least that's how I think of it as.
 
[quote name='Purple Flames']Couldn't you just transfer your data from you internal memory to your SD card, thus making your data portable?[/quote]

Well yeah I guess, but I would rather not have to do that.
 
The 512 MB internal flash is very nice, in that it doesn't require an investment in an external card for a while. Currently, SD is cheap, and it's been getting cheaper at a pretty steady rate. Last Christmas I bought a 512 stick for my sister's digital camera and it cost me about $35. The same stick now could be gotten for probably $15 or so.

Also, I don't know if it's ruled out that external harddrives can be used. I vaguely remember either Iwata, Reggie, or Perrin Kaplan mentioning last E3 that USB storage devices may be used - after all, it's not like the two USB ports are likely to be extensively used. Then again, maybe the sensor bar is USB based...
 
Yea reading this whole thread makes me realize 512 isnt even close to enough. The demos on the 360 are what? like 600-700 mbs? This system definatly needs a harddrive.
 
[quote name='chodax']Yea reading this whole thread makes me realize 512 isnt even close to enough. The demos on the 360 are what? like 600-700 mbs? This system definatly needs a harddrive.[/quote]
What do you want to bet we won't be seeing 600-700MB demos?
 
[quote name='botticus']What do you want to bet we won't be seeing 600-700MB demos?[/quote]

Yea, probably 50 mb demos...
 
512mb seems awful small when you take into consideration VC games, demos, downloadable content, etc. If it were just for saving games and VC content, then it wouldn't seem so little. But it just seems we'll end up with limited options. I don't see demos being a reality. Even with a 2gb SD card you would have to be clearing it constantly.

Nintendo is still being tight lipped about all of this, so maybe we're just not fully understanding it yet. Also, do we even know where the SD cards plug in? I don't remember seeing a slot.
 
[quote name='elwood731']Also, do we even know where the SD cards plug in? I don't remember seeing a slot.[/quote]

It's under the little flap.
 
[quote name='HumanSnatcher']epobirs, i know what SD stands for. I used to do tech support for Panasonic when it came out and they shoved the shit down our throats[/QUOTE]

Well, then you shouldn't have needed the implications described, should you?

No matter. It was a useful way to get the info out there for those who didn't know.
 
:lol: demos are not going to 700mb. Even with a 4gb card that would be way too huge. Unless Nintendo really fucked up, they won't be more than a 100 mb. Enough to DL a couple, play em, delete em and get some more.

SD cards are great. If it were propietary, it would be more expensive and smaller. nuff said. a 1 or 2 gig card should cover everything.

what's the deal people wanting TONS of space on their console...it's not a porn library like your PC :p
 
[quote name='botticus']What do you want to bet we won't be seeing 600-700MB demos?[/QUOTE]

No, but why would they be needed? The Wii has less than 100MB of RAM to work within. Unless a demo contains a lot of FMV or several levels, it shouldn't be all that big. If a modern codec is used even a fair amount of FMV could be held within a 150MB demo, which is entirely reasonable to put on a 1GB card that sells for $10 and can be erased at will.

Don't forget, USB hard drives can still be supported for such applications. It is only purchased content that requires copy protection that is limited to SD card storage. If anything, Nintendo should regard it as desirable for a demo to be widely copied so that it reaches even those Wii owners who lack broadband.

What Nintendo will support for storage of non-DRMed material remains unclear. It seems likely they aren't cutting off virtually all use of USB devices for storage.
 
[quote name='daroga']If my math is right, figure it this way.

The PS2 Memory Card is 8 MB, the Gamecube 59 card is 4 MB 512KB, and the 1019 card is 64 8 MB. The internal memory of the Wii is 512 MB, so roughtly 8 64 1019 Cube cards, or 64 PS2 cards.

The average NES game is between .05 - .1MB. SNES / Genesis weigh in at 1-3 MB, and N64 come in at about 8 MB I think. You could fit every NES game ever officaly released on the Wii roughtly 6 times over.

Overall, I think the internal storage is going to be fine for my uses, but a SD card down the line would make it official. And I'd rather have a small SD card in the slot than an external harddrive plugged into the USB port.

EDIT: cleared up some goofs and fleshed it out a bit.[/quote]

I am pretty sure the 59 was 4 Mb, not 4 MB...

[quote name='daroga']Sony's STILL charging $25 for an 8 MB card? Come on.[/quote]
Yeah, and Nintendo is still charging $30. :bomb:
 
[quote name='daroga']Sony's STILL charging $25 for an 8 MB card? Come on.[/quote]

Thats why I decided to get a Codebreaker and a use the 6 dollar 512mb thumbdrive I got on clearance from Target lol
 
[quote name='Apossum']:lol: demos are not going to 700mb. Even with a 4gb card that would be way too huge. Unless Nintendo really fucked up, they won't be more than a 100 mb. Enough to DL a couple, play em, delete em and get some more.

SD cards are great. If it were propietary, it would be more expensive and smaller. nuff said. a 1 or 2 gig card should cover everything.

what's the deal people wanting TONS of space on their console...it's not a porn library like your PC :p[/quote]

on the 360, the 20 gb HD is not enough.
 
[quote name='chodax']on the 360, the 20 gb HD is not enough.[/QUOTE]

The 360 is operating at a different scale. Driving 720p as the target resolution adds a good chunk to the basic resource requirements of a game. While an XBLA product can be kept small, the demo for a game eventually intended to consume a major portion of a DVD is bound to be bulky.

If Xbox 360 owners had the freedom to upgrade to a larger drive without paying a premium comparable to the 20GB unit when sold separately, how many would? It was never intended to hold every demo and movie trailer to ever become available on Xbox Live. (One person I knew who complained he was going to run out of space soon had a few gigs taken up by demos for games he already owned! He believed he was losing something if he deleted the demos.)

Microsoft will have to address that issue someday but how likely is it that it will be done in a way that finds wide satisfaction? Any method that allows users to transfer all of their stuff to a new drive is going to be too technically oriented for a big chunk of the market or require retail support. Most big chains would balk at having to get involved in that unless there was a good amount of money to be made. A bit more legit than Circuit City charging people to attach the hard drive but enough to cause a lot of people to forego upgrading. (Microsoft could support offloading non-DRMed material to a networked PC but they haven't figured out where they stand on the issue yet. It would be a minor extension of Media Connect but only a temporary solution as users acquired more and more DLC and XBLA games.)

Nintendo may not be providing storage in the tens of gigabytes but they are at least using a medium that is an open standard offered from many competing vendors. For the scale on which the Wii will operate, SD cards will provide as much space as you care to buy. By mid-2008, 1GB cards may start becoming hard to find because they'll be too cheap for most retailers to bother stocking them.
 
[quote name='oleander']I am pretty sure the 59 was 4 Mb, not 4 MB...[/QUOTE]

That's possible, as I wasn't finding terribly great sources for that information, but only proves the point all the more that the 512 will be more than enough for gamesaves and VC games.

I could see demos being dicey, but we'll see how that all shakes out.
 
I only have a 512 sd card right now. It is time to upgrate to at least 1 gig (considering it is only like $10). I would have preferred maybe a gig of internal but 512 will do.
 
I'm sure there'll be a wider array of storage solutions once the Wii comes out, as virtual media and independent developers becomes prominent. SD is quite cheap as it is now, as it's possible to get 1 gig free after rebate, or $10 if you shop around.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top