IMPORTANT: If your disc drive isn’t broken or giving you read errors, we will run GC games off an SD or SDHC card (and Wii games off USB). If your disc drive is having issues you will need to run all your games from a USB stick or an external HDD. However, the USB ports of about 5% of Wii Consoles have compatibility issues with running GC games under Dios Mios. Issues with Dios Mios can include black screens, shutdowns while loading, and system freezes. Wii games will load fine to my knowledge, but I could be wrong. (Alternatively, you can have your disc drive cleaned or replaced or get a new Wii for under $50.)
If you will be using an SDHC card:
Get a 16GB PNY SDHC Performance Card from your local Walmart. It’s only $14 after tax and will run Melee flawlessly. (If you can’t go to Walmart, look on Amazon.)
IMPORTANT: If you buy an SDHC card, you will need an SDHC port or adapter. Most laptops made within the last few years can read both SD and SDHC.
EXPLANATION: 16GB is reasonable assuming you have 1GB of setup files and each GC game or version of Melee will take up 1.5GB of space. If you have a big enough SD or SDHC card sitting around, go ahead and try it. Otherwise, just go with my suggestion. 32GB is fine too if you want lots of games, but you won’t be saving much money by buying something smaller than 16GB.
IMPORTANT: If your disc drive is broken or you want to run Project M or other Wii games, keep reading. Otherwise, skip to “Hacking Your Wii.”
In addition to an SD/SDHC card, you will need a USB storage device. Project M is just over 8GB and normal Wii games are almost 4GB each. For this reason, 16GB is the smallest you should get. PNY Micro Attache drives and most external HDDs work really well. A 16GB PNY Micro Attache is around $16 after tax at Best Buy or Walmart, while a 32GB PNY Micro Attache is around $26.
IMPORTANT: USB sticks can only load one type of game (GC or Wii) while an external HDD can have multiple partitions so you can have both types of games available at the same time. THIS MEANS IF YOUR DISC DRIVE IS BROKEN AND YOU WANT TO LOAD BOTH GC AND WII GAMES, YOU WILL NEED AN EXTERNAL HDD.
If you are going with the HDD method, follow the rest of this guide but pay close attention to the instructions in BLUE.
How to Hack and Optimize Your Wii for SMASH! 