For games like SMG 1 & 2, would it be possible to have dolphin cache looped animations? These would include spinning coins, star bits, walking animations, space fireballs (pretty much anything that runs in a cycle). I've noticed my computer only lags when there are may animated objects on screen, but runs perfectly when there aren't. The amount of polys on the screen have no affect on my framerate.
Think of the things you could do in the amount of time you would save by not safely removing your flash drive.