Most necessary Dreamcast upgrades?

[Londinium]

You know, ones that'll significantly improve the DC experience?

[dark]

Using a vga cable (or something that uses the vga signal a dc can provide) instead of the standard AV cables.

If you do not have a big collection of discs and you don't mind piracy, then get one of those gdemu things so you can experience the system's library.

There are other mods that are nice things to do, but they aren't essential to enjoying the DC.

[ShreddieMercury]

The GDEMU is legitimately incredible and feels like magic to me.

I would also say the Noctua fan mod is pretty amazing in terms of effort/impact. It's plug and play and completely quiets the system while improving cooling by pushing more air than the original fan. Only issue is that if you use it with the GDROM drive, I believe you may need an additional modification given the size of the fan. But if you have a GDEMU or SD reader of some kind, it's a no brainer.

[Cass]

Aye, I had to do the fan mod. Took the DC out of the attic two or three years ago and found out I'd become much more intolerant in my advancing years. The fan never bothered me back in the day but it absolutely had to go. For anyone who's done the mod and is ever feeling nostalgic this guy has you covered

https://youtu.be/c4NFYKHW34c

[retro]

IMO GDEMu and Noctua fan mod are absolutely essential

I would have listed DCHDMI too, but PixelFX is expected to unveil an upgraded DCDigital this or next year, so it's better to wait for the new version.

[SG6K]

When I pulled my old DC out of storage and fired it up, I knew some mods / upgrades were mandatory.

Composite lead swapped with a RGB SCART cable.

That jet engine fan swapped with a Noctua.

The loudest disc drive in the history of game consoles had to be swapped with a GDEMU clone.

So basically, the fan and drive. Unsurprisingly.

[manousos82003]

For me, the best upgrade is GDemu and Akura! Someday i'll buy a pico psu...

[OGDCFAN99]

I've posted about this before but the Noctua fan, although quieter, doesn't move as much air as the original one does. I've tested this with multiple different consoles and you can really tell a difference just by feeling how much air blows out the vent with the original fan vs Noctua.

For that reason alone, I wouldn't recommend the fan mod as necessary at all unless you are sensitive to noise.

I'd say any VGA option, controller cord extenders, thermal pad replacements, and clock battery replacement are absolutely necessary upgrades in 2022. Everything else IMO is subjective.

[fafadou]

I would have listed DCHDMI too, but PixelFX is expected to unveil an upgraded DCDigital this or next year, so it's better to wait for the new version.

Do you have any information about a New version of dchdmi ?
I'm dreaming about it ^^

[Ian Micheal]

I've posted about this before but the Noctua fan, although quieter, doesn't move as much air as the original one does. I've tested this with multiple different consoles and you can really tell a difference just by feeling how much air blows out the vent with the original fan vs Noctua.

For that reason alone, I wouldn't recommend the fan mod as necessary at all unless you are sensitive to noise.

I'd say any VGA option, controller cord extenders, thermal pad replacements, and clock battery replacement are absolutely necessary upgrades in 2022. Everything else IMO is subjective.

Indeed seen many people complain after about overheating reset random problems..

It's not as loud as ps2 not as loud as my laptop so you have to ether have a worn out fan or be a snow flake

If it is very loud it's not normal.. As someone that had them from launch the fan in my samsung dvd player was louder at the time..