dilemma w/ 600m and its lack of a firewire port

[BlazingSaddles]

Currently, I have an external hard drive that is only fire wire compatible. my choices are:
1) buy a new enclosure, usb2.0 compliant (~$40)
2) buy a firewire pc card (~$28)

which one should i do? first of all, are the two speeds comparable, i know usb2.0 is maxed at 480mbs, while 1394 is only 400mbs, but 1394 maintains a faster transfer rate more consistently or something?

also, there is only one pccard slot in the 600m, so i'm worried what would happen if i needed to use another card. also, the firewire card is the least expensive i could find, are there any differences between card qualities?

thanks.

 

[Jejunum]

i have a 600m and am in a similar dilemma

id say buy the firewire card - firewire is a useful thing to have and think about it what else might you need to put in ur pc card slot? u have usb, wifi, etc


and if you have to u can always take ur firewire card out and put in another card

in addition it sounds like you already have pc's with firewire but maybe not usb 2.0 so clearly it would be the most effective solution. I unfortunately know nothing about differences in firewire cards; hopefully someone can chime in and point you (and me!) to a good card

 

[jschuk]

The reviews I have seen about firewire vs USB2.0 drives show that the firewire performs better in most applications. Firewire can also act as a networking device (400Mbps network card in ME and XP), and I don't think it uses as much CPU resources as USB. Just make sure the firewire card uses the TI chip for the best compatibility.

 

[BlazingSaddles]

this is the firewire card i plan on getting
http://store.yahoo.com/dealsonic/beco3pofica3.html

it says on the bottom it has a 12V DC port, this doesn't mean i need to keep it plugged into a socket for it to work, right?

 

[addragyn]

Unfortunately Firewire PC cards do not supply full power to the FW port. Which is why the card has the input. You can thank Intel for making USB2 appear eveywhere(instead of Firewire) by sticking it into their chipsets. Could've been 2 powered Firewire ports there!

 

[GizmoFreak]

I'm probably the only one but I'd go for the USB enclosure. I'm not really a big fan of PC Cards when I can avoid them.

 

[NeoMadHatter]

i'm having the same problem. i have an iPod and need a firewire port for the 600m laptop too. however, i'm not in the same issue as you as i NEED firewire. what you could do is get one of those enclousures that have both firewire and usb2. that's what i plan on doing with the 180GB HD that i have at home.

 

[Sonarcade]

anyone here know of a decent cheap(~$30 total after s&h) firewire card that has a TI chipset(this last part being of utmost importance)? Thanks.

 

[PeteyCPU]

This costs a little more but shipping is free



Maxtor Firewire Card

 

[Sonarcade]

thanks, but does this have a texas instruments or lucent chipset? I appreciate the find.

 

[PeteyCPU]

I tried the Maxtor website and it yielded no information, I also googled around to some other webstores and they were no help. I assume this card is good because they sell firewire drives and I assume they would make a card that is good enough for them.

 

[Sonarcade]

it's not that I question the quality of the card but rather its compatibility with the hardware that I have purchased. The audio interface that I bought, a MOTU 828, doesn't seem to accept anything other than a firewire card with a Lucent or Texas Instruments chipset. Thanks.

 

[NeoMadHatter]

i'm thinking of getting the maxtor one too. i'll probably end up using it with my ipod and the external enclosure i'm planning on getting soon. unless i use it with usb2 instead.