Bob

MiSTer IO Data Shootout

Porkchop Express, the person behind the misteraddons.com website and awesome input latency list has just posted another important MiSTer-related analysis:  How fast games load via different storage methods.  WiFi is (obviously) the slowest, followed by MicroSD, USB and ethernet via a NAS.  One of the most important points Pork makes in his analysis is that USB-based storage solutions will all be similar in speed.  That means unlike use in a PC, using a 2.5″ 5200RPM HDD vs an NVMe drive won’t give you any performance boost, however it will take a lot longer to copy files from your PC onto it when you load your ROMs.  Unless you need a ton of storage, I’d say just stick with MicroSD for now and look into a NAS-based solution in the future.

MiSTer IO Data Shootout https://misteraddons.com/blogs/news/mister-data-io-speed-shootout
Controller Latency Database:  https://rpubs.com/misteraddons/inputlatency
MiSTer Shop:  https://misteraddons.com/collections/all

As a note, the WiFi analysis was in the context of loading games over a network.  If you use USB or MicroSD storage and just use wifi for updates, that’s a perfectly good solution.  I’ve been using this one, that’s WiFi + Bluetooth:  https://amzn.to/3eH1097

Pork’s post comes at an extremely interesting time;  With more CDROM-based cores becoming available, people are looking to switch to cheaper and easier to manage storage solutions.  Coincidentally, a NAS-based project is due to be released soon that will tackle that exact issue, in a way that makes things easier for everyone.  I truly think that’ll be a game-changer, so unless you already have IT server knowledge, maybe hold off a few weeks and wait to see the project that comes next – Pork’s data supports our testing that it’s worth looking into…

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