Upgrade to larger SD-card or SSD

Chishiya

Hi!

I am new to the Raspberry/Retropie world. I just got a Raspberry Pi4 B kit with a 32 GB SD-card.
I am realizing that the storage is depleting fast...
My goal is to build a large library of roms with for example PSP and PS1 games.

My question is should I go for a bigger SD-card or SSD?

One reason I'm asking is that I am already using two USB-slots (One dongle for keyboard/mouse) and one for PS4 controller (I haven't been able to get the bluetooth to work yet). The wireless mouse is acting weird (like a drunken) so I might need to buy another wireless mouse and there goes another USB-slot....
2) Am overthinking about the potential lack of USB slots?

In general what do you prefer running the system on SD vs SSD?

I'd love to hear your inputs and pros and cons

Thank you :)

dankcushions

@chishiya regarding lack of USB slots, i just bought a powered hub as i (pre-lockdown) would have people over to play 2-4 player games, etc.

the pros of SSDs are same as the pros of USB sticks, listed here. potentially an SSD is even faster, although I/O isn't going to be a bottleneck for emulation, typically.

personally, i would favour USB sticks instead as, along with the above advantages, they take up effectively no more floor space, are dirt cheap, and for me emulationstation/raspberry pis don't suit themselves for larger 'archival' libraries of 1000 and 1000s of games, as emulationstation takes ages(?) to load, had to navigate, and so on. however i'm not sure if that's still a concern with rpi4 and current es...

Chishiya

@dankcushions

Thank you for your in-dept pros and cons, I appreciate it a lot!
Funny you mentioned the USB-Hub because I have been thinking about that as well. How does it work out when you play like 4 people on the Hub, is there some issues with the controllers?

You mentioned about the bottleneck of many games on the emulationstation, which Raspberry pi have you been using when you saw that? I have the 4 B version. This is my first Raspberry pi so I can't compare it unfortunately with anything...... I haven't faced any issues with the loading but yes I don't have like 100 roms hehe.

dankcushions

@chishiya said in Upgrade to larger SD-card or SSD:

@dankcushions

Thank you for your in-dept pros and cons, I appreciate it a lot!
Funny you mentioned the USB-Hub because I have been thinking about that as well. How does it work out when you play like 4 people on the Hub, is there some issues with the controllers?

nope! in fact i’ve played with 5 before. it being powered may be important as excessive USB power drain can cause issues with undervolting.

You mentioned about the bottleneck of many games on the emulationstation, which Raspberry pi have you been using when you saw that? I have the 4 B version. This is my first Raspberry pi so I can't compare it unfortunately with anything...... I haven't faced any issues with the loading but yes I don't have like 100 roms hehe.

i have heard of slow boots with pi3 for sure. however this’ll anecdotal stuff from years of support. i’ve not heard of it in a while. my pi4 takes a few minutes to boot - i have several 1000 roms, but i keep it on 24/7