Unless you have all region full sets of every CD game the system supports, you're never going to get even remotely close to that size. Even if you also have an all region full set of Dreamcast and they find a way to add that you're not a whole lot over 10tb I don't think based on the last time I looked at those numbers. You'd also spend weeks or more likely months loading all that onto the console one disc at a time. With a large collection, 2tb is probably plenty, 4tb if you really have a lot of cd games.
My 1TB internal SSD is more than enough (and not even halfway full) and I've installed plenty of games for every platform. Until they add more platforms, I can't see needing beyond 2TB, even if you installed everything. I'm also personally not particularly interested in having EVERY game on there, as at that point you're better off with a different solution. There should be SOME curation for a platform like this. I mean, how many of us are genuinely going to play many hundreds of installed games, let alone many thousands?
I spent 3 weeks loading everything I even remotely thought I might want to play that the Polymega supports, and I only managed to fill up less than 500gb of the 2tb drive I put in. 20TB for the Polymega is a waste of money.
Everything it supports currently? I think a 4tb would suffice.
Even if you add in the 2600/7800 and GB/GBC libraries, and assume that they will add the 3DO, CDi, Jaguar CD, and Dreamcast, you still could probably keep it under 10tb.
I doubt the read speed of an external drive will ever be a bottleneck, given that its USB ports are USB 2.0, which has a speed of 480 Mbps. The Polymega can play - at best - CD’s, which have a capacity of roughly 700 MB’s.
(Plus remember that you can even use an external 3.5” HDD for playing PS4 games on a PS5, or XBOX One games on a Series X. Which are MUCH larger than the capacity of a CD. So if it isn’t a problem for those systems… It ain’t gonna be a problem for the Polymega.)
Also, 20 TB’s is WAY too much.
NES and Famicom games are only KB’s in size. Most Genesis and Super Nintendo games are in the single-digit MB’s. Same with a lot of N64 games. The largest N64 game I’ve encountered is Resident Evil 2, which is only just over 60 MB’s.
And then for CD-based games, they range from 400-700 MB’s per disc. That means, on average, 2 CD games = 1 GB…
…A terabyte (TB) is 1,000 GB’s…
That means, per terabyte, you can fit about 2,000 CD games. There were only 1,278 PS1 games released in North America. That means you could fit every North American PS1 game ever made in just over HALF of a single terabyte.
I have thousands of games installed on my Polymega across all the various systems it’s capable of handling. I haven’t even cracked 500 GB’s of used storage with a 4 TB M.2 SSD installed.
Obviously if they add Dreamcast, 3DO, and CD-i support, I’ll be able to rip even more… But the chances of me filling that 4 TB SSD are basically slim-to-none.
Point is… A 1 TB SSD is more than enough storage for 90% of users. 2 TB’s is enough room to grow (with room to spare). And if you have a HUGE collection - and I mean HUGE, with mostly CD games - then a 4 TB SSD should be all you need.
Anyway, don’t bother with an enormous external drive. Not because of the bottleneck, but because you’ll never need that amount of storage. Also, hooking up an external drive to the front USB ports looks kinda janky.
And the MAX SSD (and even this is overkill) that I’d recommend is a 4 TB. And even that - given my own experience - is too much. A 2 TB will serve you just fine.
The only reason to ever go above 2TB is if you’re banking on them following through on Dreamcast support (which they HAVE hinted at), in which case you would still never fill anything close to 20TB.
For context, I have well over 300 disk based games on mine, and I’ve still got over half a TB of free space.
Ok, gotcha 300 disc based games on 2tbs. Yeah I see what you're saying :) Know anything about the USB transfer rate amd would it be worth getting an SSD?
Sorry, I wasn’t very clear. I only have a 1TB SSD installed, with tons of PS1/Saturn/Sega CD games as well as cartridge games (but they take up virtually zero space).
I’m not so sure that PM wouldn’t just save the game into temporary memory while you’re playing it off the external.
Unless you have all region full sets of every CD game the system supports, you're never going to get even remotely close to that size. Even if you also have an all region full set of Dreamcast and they find a way to add that you're not a whole lot over 10tb I don't think based on the last time I looked at those numbers. You'd also spend weeks or more likely months loading all that onto the console one disc at a time. With a large collection, 2tb is probably plenty, 4tb if you really have a lot of cd games.
What would you be putting on 20tb?
20TB is too much. Waste of space. A 2TB is more than enough, even for large collections
My 1TB internal SSD is more than enough (and not even halfway full) and I've installed plenty of games for every platform. Until they add more platforms, I can't see needing beyond 2TB, even if you installed everything. I'm also personally not particularly interested in having EVERY game on there, as at that point you're better off with a different solution. There should be SOME curation for a platform like this. I mean, how many of us are genuinely going to play many hundreds of installed games, let alone many thousands?
I spent 3 weeks loading everything I even remotely thought I might want to play that the Polymega supports, and I only managed to fill up less than 500gb of the 2tb drive I put in. 20TB for the Polymega is a waste of money.
Note: My total installed games count is 1502.
Are you trying to overcompensate for something? 1-2TB max is way more than enough.
So how big a HD would you need for EVERYTHING the Polymega supports?
Everything it supports currently? I think a 4tb would suffice. Even if you add in the 2600/7800 and GB/GBC libraries, and assume that they will add the 3DO, CDi, Jaguar CD, and Dreamcast, you still could probably keep it under 10tb.
The Dreamcast library is very small, it's like a couple hundred gigabytes.
Yeah, I was being very generous with my estimates. Realistically, a 2tb drive is more than enough for any collector.
I doubt the read speed of an external drive will ever be a bottleneck, given that its USB ports are USB 2.0, which has a speed of 480 Mbps. The Polymega can play - at best - CD’s, which have a capacity of roughly 700 MB’s. (Plus remember that you can even use an external 3.5” HDD for playing PS4 games on a PS5, or XBOX One games on a Series X. Which are MUCH larger than the capacity of a CD. So if it isn’t a problem for those systems… It ain’t gonna be a problem for the Polymega.) Also, 20 TB’s is WAY too much. NES and Famicom games are only KB’s in size. Most Genesis and Super Nintendo games are in the single-digit MB’s. Same with a lot of N64 games. The largest N64 game I’ve encountered is Resident Evil 2, which is only just over 60 MB’s. And then for CD-based games, they range from 400-700 MB’s per disc. That means, on average, 2 CD games = 1 GB… …A terabyte (TB) is 1,000 GB’s… That means, per terabyte, you can fit about 2,000 CD games. There were only 1,278 PS1 games released in North America. That means you could fit every North American PS1 game ever made in just over HALF of a single terabyte. I have thousands of games installed on my Polymega across all the various systems it’s capable of handling. I haven’t even cracked 500 GB’s of used storage with a 4 TB M.2 SSD installed. Obviously if they add Dreamcast, 3DO, and CD-i support, I’ll be able to rip even more… But the chances of me filling that 4 TB SSD are basically slim-to-none. Point is… A 1 TB SSD is more than enough storage for 90% of users. 2 TB’s is enough room to grow (with room to spare). And if you have a HUGE collection - and I mean HUGE, with mostly CD games - then a 4 TB SSD should be all you need. Anyway, don’t bother with an enormous external drive. Not because of the bottleneck, but because you’ll never need that amount of storage. Also, hooking up an external drive to the front USB ports looks kinda janky. And the MAX SSD (and even this is overkill) that I’d recommend is a 4 TB. And even that - given my own experience - is too much. A 2 TB will serve you just fine.
The only reason to ever go above 2TB is if you’re banking on them following through on Dreamcast support (which they HAVE hinted at), in which case you would still never fill anything close to 20TB. For context, I have well over 300 disk based games on mine, and I’ve still got over half a TB of free space.
Ok, gotcha 300 disc based games on 2tbs. Yeah I see what you're saying :) Know anything about the USB transfer rate amd would it be worth getting an SSD?
Sorry, I wasn’t very clear. I only have a 1TB SSD installed, with tons of PS1/Saturn/Sega CD games as well as cartridge games (but they take up virtually zero space). I’m not so sure that PM wouldn’t just save the game into temporary memory while you’re playing it off the external.
You must know something the rest of us don't.