Optical drive (external), Firewire versus USB

Hi, RoleneF. If you want to be able to use the drive to start up your Powerbook, as for example to install an OS on the PB's hard drive from an Apple installer DVD, you will have to have a FireWire drive. A USB drive can't start the Powerbook.

That's the only one that matters. A FireWire connection transfers data faster, too, but an optical drive won't read data fast enough to take advantage of the difference. Bootability is a very significant advantage in any emergency situation.

eww wrote:
A FireWire connection transfers data faster, too, but an optical drive won't read data fast enough to take advantage of the difference.

Perhaps slightly, depending on the age of the PB G4. The older ones had only USB1.1 ports, and a 20x drive reads data about twice as fast as USB1.1. If it's a newer PB with USB2 ports, there's no speed advantage with FW.

Neuro makes a good point about USB 1.1 vs. USB 2.0. The very first 17" PB, with a 1.0GHz processor, had USB 1.1 ports, and a USB drive connected to one of those would be ungodly slow: unusably so. If you have that PB model, don't even think about buying anything but a FireWire drive. All later 17" PBs had USB 2 ports, so if you have a 1.33GHz or faster PB and you're sure you'll never need to start it up from a CD or DVD again, you can get away with a USB drive and save a few dollars. But I wouldn't if I were you: it's hard to be sure you'll never need to start your machine from a CD or DVD.

A USB optical drive won't be recognized by iDVD and will not burn DVDs. I have LaCie DL Firewire drive and it is at least four times faster than the internal drive ever was. Have a look at this link. Firewire optical drives start at $80. Cheap as chips! You can also get a drive that has both Firewire and USB2, so you can share the drive with a Windoze machine if need be.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/

... any idea if they are as reliable as LaCie's...

No idea at all cos I'm on my second LaCie drive and my previous older one (5 years old) is still going strong with one of my friends, so I cannot comment on other drives, but I know you only get what you pay for. I can't tell you which way to go, but if it were me, I'd spend the extra fifty bucks and go LaCie. The actual drive is made by NEC and they have a sound reputation in the PC world. Contact the guys at OWC and ask their opinion.