Firewire

superscaper

Leopard wrote: »

Firewire 400 is faster than USB2 in practice and Firewire 800 is (almost) twice as fast.

Depends on transfer type. Firewire is faster for sustained transfer but USB2 is actually faster with burst tranfer. I.e. FW is ideal for video editing/transfer, but if it's something that tranfers short amounts of info intermittently, such as an input device, then USB2 is faster.

superscaper

Leopard wrote: »

Firewire devices can be daisy-chained; USB devices can't.

Portable devices can usually run off the power carried by Firewire without an external power supply unit. USB devices mostly can't.

Not sure what you mean by this since USB devices can be daisy chained. And it surely depends on the portable device for power, FW has a max current of what 2000 mA? and USB 2 something like 500 mA. It may be more and at a higher voltage but I don't think I've ever had anything that could run off the power on one and not the other, they either can run off both or in the case of my external HD needs external power supply for both.

Leopard

Forgive me if I was incorrect (?) about the ability to daisy-chain USB devices.

Fact of the matter is, I've never owned an external device (apart from a hub!) that had two USB2 ports; so daisy-chaining them is an academic question for me.

I mainly use Bluetooth keyboards and mice, so the only USB2 devices that I need to run regularly are my scanners, printers and media card readers.

Other USB2 things that have to be plugged in from time to time are the leads for my mobile 'phones and a USB modem (for dial-up where there's no other Internet access and for doing online banking and anything else that needs more security than WiFi or a cellular 'phone when I travel). Thinking of getting a TV stick, too, though.

Otherwise I use Firewire, both 400 and 800 - especially for hard drives.

LaCie makes a quite decent pair of portable speakers that run off Firewire 400 without need for an external power supply.

I replace my laptop drives routinely, every couple of years or so, to limit the risk of a failure. I put the old ones into semi-retirement, inside external enclosures. Firewire will power one of these sufficiently but USB can only do it by means of a Y-cable with two USB2 plugs. That's a pain. And if your two USB sockets are on opposite sides of your laptop, it's impossible without a USB extension lead.

Most Firewire external drives have two ports, permitting daisy chaining of the signal even if some of them (e.g. 3.5" drives) do need an external power supply.

Travelling with a MacBook Pro, I can, in a hotel room, run LaCie speakers off the Firewire 400 port, a fast external 2.5" drive off the Firewire 800 port, an SD card reader in the ExpressCard slot, a USB dial-up modem off one USB2 port and my mobile phone off the other USB2 port - all without needing anything more than the single power supply unit for the computer. :cool:

If I take a portable printer and/or scanner, as well, those are externally powered and need, in addition, the deployment of a USB hub.

At home, I dock my MacBook Pro to a Bookendz - to which are connected Gigabit Ethernet, a USB2 hub, a Firewire 400 hub and a daisy chain of Firewire 800 drives, all externally powered. Plus a large external monitor and some speakers.

This arrangement works simply, reliably and well for me.

I agree with your comment about transfer type, but Firewire doesn't draw CPU power, which USB does, and Firewire 800 is nearly twice as fast as either Firewire 400 or USB2 for anything. Firewire 800 drives are great!

Plus, Firewire permits "Target Mode" to be used between Macs (very useful) but USB2 doesn't.

Although eSATA is gradually emerging, both my MacBook Pro laptops are only a year old, plenty fast and powerful enough for my needs, and I'm not planning on replacing either of them for a few years yet. If necessary, though, eSATA drives can be connected via the ExpressCard slot.

Marty_J

I wasn't aware that FireWire was something that only "old bits of kit" used.

I know that many audio interfaces still use FireWire for instance.