USB 2.0 Vs FireWire

mik_da_man

Hi Guys,

I am getting a external Hard drive for backing up Music pics and the like

Just wondering if I should choose one with FireWire over USB 2.0.
I have read a few varying reports on which method is faster.

Just wondering if anyone out there has any good advice for me?

Cheers

Mik

Villain

Well firewire can be faster, but I'd advise you to go for USB 2.0 it's fast enough and not many PC's or laptops have firewire connections so if you want to connect your hard drive to other peoples computers you might have problems. Some hard drives have both so you can have the option. Hope that helps.

aidan_walsh

USB 2, IMO. For the simple reason that it will make your drive far more portable if you ever need to bring it anywhere. Not a lot of computers come with Firewire ports.

zuma

Choose USB2 for compatibilty only as firewire is a superior and faster connection.

Shame firewire never became popular!!!

mik_da_man

zuma wrote:

Choose USB2 for compatibilty only as firewire is a superior and faster connection.

Might try to get one with both if possible, both my lappy and home PC have firewire

Anyone know off-hand if you can get a Ext Hard drive with both?

Cheers

Mik

aidan_walsh

mik_da_man wrote:

Might try to get one with both if possible, both my lappy and home PC have firewire

Anyone know off-hand if you can get a Ext Hard drive with both?

Cheers

Mik

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.asp?bn=10098

djmarkus

USB 2 has a max throughput or 480mbits, firewire 400 has a throughput or 400 mbits and firewire 800 is 800mbits.

Now, a hard drive's max throughput is about 40 mega bytes(320megabits) per second(unless ur making a raptor your portable drive ), so, nomatter what standard you go for, its will be your hard drive that will be the bottleneck not the connection.

So my reccomendation is USB2, far more portability and compatibility, and its faster than Firewire 400.

mik_da_man

djmarkus wrote:

Now, a hard drive's max throughput is about 40 mega bytes(320megabits) per second

Cheers, I did not know that.

USB2.0 it is then I guess

Cheers Lads

Mik

irlrobins

isn't apple dropping support for firewire in the near future?

ShiverinEskimo

Firewire is only truely at its best when networking two PCs when its 4 times faster than Ethernet - gigabit though will remove its need. Shame really, decent standard - just never got the mainstream support.

SouperComputer

On paper USB 2.0 appears faster. In the real world firewire works out better as it has less overhead in the way data is transerred it also uses less CPU cycles. In situtations where data is being transferred back and forth regularly (For example booting & running an OS or using as a busy file server)
), firewire is far superior.

Now, a hard drive's max throughput is about 40 mega bytes(320megabits) per second

Most IDE HD's these days max above that, nearer 55-60 at peak. Have a gander on storagereview.com for details.

The bottleneck is the interface as the bandwidth that is marketed does not include the data transfer overhead. In other words its a theoretical bandwith. Somewhat like 100Mb LAN, altough not as lossy.

Just to be sure im not going crazy, I dug up a few links:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles/usb20vsfirewire/
http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,844061,00.asp

Luckily for me they backup my rant!

Also bear in mind that Firewire dates back to 1994 and it's all the more impressive.


My advice, get a HD with both connections

Firewire is only truely at its best when networking two PCs when its 4 times faster than Ethernet - gigabit though will remove its need. Shame really, decent standard - just never got the mainstream support.

I havent done back to back tests, but Gigabit ethernet seems to max around 380-400Mb\s in the real world. I must test the two of them against each other somtime.

Also, dont forget that Firewire 800 exists, albeit overkill!

ethernet

Is it true that Macs can only boot from Firewire HDDs?