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external hard drive: usb2.0 or firewire?

B

BlazingSaddles

Senior member
I am getting a new laptop (600m) and it doesn't have a firewire port. 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? 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.
 
I say firewire. I find firewire far more appealing.

1. Firewire networking is pretty cool, very intresting possibilities I network my notebook and desktop and file transfer super fast.
2. iPod 🙂
3. Firewire is faster
 
Originally posted by: GnomeCop
I would go for the firewire card. Cheaper, and firewire is faster. 😛
Click to expand...

And your right on the mark there 😉

Firewire HD benchmarks are shown to be anywhere upto 25% + better in performance.

At least thats what I read 😉

Dan 😀
 
i will get the same performance from the firewire PCMCIA card, as i will from a 'normal' firewire port, right? (like if my laptop came with a firewire port)
 
Originally posted by: BlazingSaddles
i will get the same performance from the firewire PCMCIA card, as i will from a 'normal' firewire port, right? (like if my laptop came with a firewire port)
Click to expand...

Should do yup 🙂
 
Firewire spanks USB2 in so many ways it's not even silly. What is silly is how Intel developed USB2 instead of adopting FW.

One thing to beware of, I've heard of some 1394 PC cards not supplying full power. So if you had 2.5" drive you were planning on running on bus power you should check that out.
 
>> this doesn't mean i need to keep it plugged into a socket for it to work, right?

Yes or no.

If the firewire disk enclosure has its own power source ( by using power adapter or getting power from PS2 port etc.),
you don't need to power up the adapter, otherwise, you do.

I guess most enclosures come with a special cable to get power from the PS2 (mouse) port of laptop,
therefore, in most cases, you don't need an extra power adapter for your firwire card.
 
Sometime this year, I've heard there will be a new firewire(faster)...could be just a rumor though

You didn't get the memo? 😀

It's been out for awhile. FireWire 800 does more than just expland on the speed of 1394a. The new spec includes much longer cable lengths using cat5 and fiber. One of the coolest new features is the ability to loop your FW800 chain back to your machine for redundancy. While not useful to the home user a very nice feature for pro applications.
http://www.apple.com/firewire/ If you want more details there is a PDF on the top right of that page.

http://www.1394ta.org/ The 1394 Trade Association site is also a good place to find FireWire info.
 
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