USB 2 vs. USB 1.1 vs. FireWire 400 vs. FireWire 800?

[MamaMoose]

I am puzzled by the diffewrences in "speed" or frequency  for the above protocols. For example, what is the difference between FW 800 and USB 2.0? Which is faster (greater throughput)?

Can anyone help? Thanks,

MamaMoose

[swhitset]

Firewire 400 has a nominal speed of 400 mbits/sec.
Firewire 800 has a nominal speed of 800 mbits/sec.
USB2 has a nominal speed of 480 mbits/sec.

However, USB 2 requires the computer processor to regulate the transfers while Firewire 400 (or 800) do not.  Therefore Firewire has a more reliable and faster real world transfer speed.  This is especially true of larger transfers.  Because of this Firewire is the preferred method of transfer for things like video capture etc...

Steve

[Texas Mac Man]

Here's the speed comparison. USB: Transfer Speed Compared to Other Technologies

The USb speeds are maximum & during data transfer you get maybe half of the max speed. Firewire speeds are usually constant at the rated speed. If you want to use an external drive, Firewire is best.

Cheers, Tom

[pendragon]

Steve, Tom

Thanks for the explanation & link. I knew a bit about the speed differences, but was unaware that USB called upon the processor. Ah, now I am not quite so dumb as I was yesterday. Perhaps my Mensa invitation will arrive today.

[kelly]

Get an Enclosure with multiple Connections IMO.

You'll need USB 2 to Boot an Intel mac.

Firewire to Boot PPC macs.

[MamaMoose]

Wow! great info. I have a new 320 GB Firewire 400 & 800 as well as USB 2 and SATA ports!. It's from LaCie. I will use the FW 800 port so the drive will act as a backup to my new laptop.

Thanks all - your the best (as usual)

MamaMoose

[swhitset]

Actually, you can boot an intel mac with Firewire too but it has to be formatted correctly. I can't remember the details, but I have a firewire drive that I boot my macbook pro with.  When I formatted it I had to do something extra...can't remember what.  I'll look into it.

Steve

[sandbox]

Barefeats has a good test page. http://www.barefeats.com/usb2.html
The comments on Macintouch seem to verify them.


“Jan. 11, 2007

Joe F
Re Steve Fish's FW400 vs FW800 issue:

I've got a USB 2.0/FW400 external drive and a FW800 external drive. Both enclosures are from the same manufacturer and have identical 80 GB Maxtor 7200 rpm HDs. So not quite the same set-up as Steve.

Doing speed tests from my PB G4 1.33 GHz, FW400 was nearly twice as fast as USB 2.0, and FW800 was about 25% faster than FW400 (the internal 5400 rpm PB drive might have been a limiting factor in the FW800 test).

The other difference was that I was using a large folder (about 2-3 GB if I remember correctly) of iTunes songs (about 5 MB each). If Steve was using a single huge file, could that have affected performance?”
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/fi.../topic4500.html