USb 2.0 or Firewire 800 FASTER?

Question

USb 2.0 or Firewire 800 FASTER?

I have a Quad G5 with 8 gigs RAM. I want to buy an external drive (LaCie) and notice the USB 2.0 is 100 cheaper than the triple inetrface. Is USB 2.0 slower or the same as Firewire 800?

It was my understanding USB 1.0 and Firewire 400 were the same transfer rate and USB 2.0 and Firewire 800 are the same rate?

However, I see specs stating that firewire 800 is much much much faster?

Thnaks everyone.

Quad G5 & 1.67 17 inch Powerbook, Mac OS X (10.4.6), 8 gigs RAM, 30 inch monitor

Posted on Apr 19, 2006 7:47 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

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Apr 19, 2006 8:17 PM in response to Kevin Weinstein

USB 2.0 has a data transmission rate of 480Mbps, while USB 1.1 transfers data at 12Mbps; real-world transmission rates for USB 2.0 will be slower than FireWire 400. FireWire 400 and 800 have a transmission rate equal to the number in the term. Basically, FireWire 800 is much faster then USB 2.0. See this page for more information.

(11826)

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Answer 2

Apr 20, 2006 8:37 AM in response to Kevin Weinstein

Kevin - depending on your needs, I would go with one of the many external enclosures that have multiple interfaces: USB 2.0 / Firewire / and most importantly SATA. Firewire is on the way out - SATA is the way to go. I just added the Sonnet SATA host card to our Quad. More and more I am trying to "future proof" purchases - to the extent that is practical :-0

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Answer 3

DonH49

Level 6

16,716 points

Apr 20, 2006 8:41 AM in response to Kevin Weinstein

On Macs USB2.0 is much s;ower compared to windows machines. Firewire 800 is about 1/3 faster in real time than FW 400. I have three Lacie FW drives and mostly use FW 400 because I can get to the front panel much more easily than the rear. Also the Lacie drive will have to be manually powered everytime you turn on the G5. I use USB 2 for flash drives.

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Answer 4

Apr 20, 2006 5:59 PM in response to Kevin Weinstein

Remember, USB isn't as well suited for 2-way transfer as Firewire is. Even FW 400 would be better for hard drive use than USB 2. Ideally, a SATA drive in a SATA enclosure to a SATA PCI-E card would be best but Firewire 800 is quite fast.

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Answer 5

Apr 20, 2006 6:46 PM in response to Kevin Weinstein

Thanks everyone for your knowledge. Another question. What is SATA? Where do I buy a SATA card for my computer, and who makes SATA drives?

Be well.

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Answer 6

Niel

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Level 10

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Apr 20, 2006 7:19 PM in response to Kevin Weinstein

The acronym SATA stands for Serial ATA, and many currently available hard drives are being built with this interface.

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Answer 7

Apr 20, 2006 8:46 PM in response to Niel

Kevin - Sonnet (sonnettech.com) makes the PCIe SATA host card to install in your Quad - just did this and it took maybe 2 minutes at most. That card uses eSATA connectors - so be sure to check out what connector your external enclosure uses (eSATA or the earlier "L" type). Check out MacGurus.com and their Burly box enclosures, they are very well made.

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