Firewire or USB2

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bdemenil

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They sell these kits for about $60 to convert a 3.5" IDE HD into an external USB2 or Firewire HD. Which of the 2 interfaces works best - anyone have experiences to share with this?
 
i haven't checked this, but i think that the two are about the same speed....but like i said, not sure....i got a usb 2.0 drive kit which i've been using with a hard drive and a tdk velocd CDRW. data transer is fast with a usb 2.0 enabled machine (i have four usb 2.0 ports on my laptop). things are slower with my older asus cusl2 machine (usb 1.1 or whatever), but it still works. if you have desktop hardware that is up to current standards (hard drive, CDRW, DVD), those usb 2.0 drive kits are great....the firewire is probably good too, but i just have one firewire port on my notebook....so i went with usb.

i should add that i haven't burned a cd yet..but i'm guessing it will work fine with the usb 2.0 kits on a usb 2.0 enabled machine...and it should work with older usb technology as well; but it's going to be slow.
 
Firewire is still a superior interface even when compared to USB 2.0 Firewire 2 should be out as well and will double the current bandwith for a whopping 800Mbits/sec (100Mbytes/sec)

The two are fundamentally different in how they work and what they were intended for.

USB was created only to replace the aging serial interface and was not intended for high bandwidth use. USB was meant as an interface to connect modems, mice, keyboards and joysticks - definelty not for audio, video or data storage.

Firewire was created as a new alternative for a high speed network interface primarily for the home networking/automation consumer market as well as DV (digital video). Yamaha also took Firewire as a possible replacement for MIDI which they call mLAN.
 
USB 2.0 has a theoretical bandwidth of 480 Mbits/sec.
Firewire - 400 Mbits/sec.

I knew this when I started the thread, but I'm more concerned with which actually performs better for sustained transfer.
 
As far as audio is concerned I would think firewire to be more stable. From what I've read it's the "sustained" issue that makes USB less worthy, especially with conflicts with different CD drivers and such, even though the theoretical speed may seem faster. My $.02 :)
 
I have both FireWire and USB - I tend to use f/w more (2 CD burners, plus 2 x 160 Gb external drives, plus a slide-scanner, plus a flat-bed scanner) - I've had very little problems with f/w - make sure you use decent cableage though...

- Wil
 
bdemenil said:
USB 2.0 has a theoretical bandwidth of 480 Mbits/sec.
Firewire - 400 Mbits/sec.

I knew this when I started the thread, but I'm more concerned with which actually performs better for sustained transfer.
Click to expand...

I answered you question. Firewire was meant for DV and networking, hence it performs better for sustained transfers.
 
I answered you question. Firewire was meant for DV and networking, hence it performs better for sustained transfers.
Click to expand...
I know you answered the question - it doesn't hurt to get different opinions though. Also, actual performance is not 100% dictated by what the original developers 'intended' the product for. I just wanted to hear from people who are actualy out there using one or the other.
 
Any USB is the work of the devil. I friggin' hate it. f/w is much better.
 
Search around the web. I did so when I was faced with the same question a few months back; and I found a few tests where it was plainly obvious that USB2 does not even remotely live up to its spec, whereas firewire does.
 
j said:
just how 'remotely' are we talking about?
Click to expand...

Bandwith comes nowhere near 480Mbits/sec. More like in the 200Mbit/sec range depending of course on your hardware configuration.
 
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