My two external hard drives are equipped with both a USB 2.0 and a FireWire interface. My Adaptec DuoConnect also suppors both. So, which interface should I use for maximum peformance and stability? In theory, USB 2.0 should be faster. However, what about in practice? Also, is FireWire a more reliable/stable interface? Thanks.
How should I connect an external HD: USB 2.0 or FireWire?
- Thread starter DonBlack
- Start date
i would go usb 2.0 because
usb 2.0-480mbps(60MB/s)
firewire-400mbps(50MB/s)
minus the controller overheads and (in theory)usb 2.0 will still be faster
usb 2.0-480mbps(60MB/s)
firewire-400mbps(50MB/s)
minus the controller overheads and (in theory)usb 2.0 will still be faster
I don't think it will matter (even though some articles I've read put firewire ahead of USB2.0 for high data transfer), base your decision on other factors, like the price between the units, the number of computers you are connecting to (how many have firewire, how many have usb, and how many have usb2.0).
USB2.0 seems to be winning the everything-but-digital-camera/camcorder market...
USB2.0 seems to be winning the everything-but-digital-camera/camcorder market...
I would go USB2.0... but only because I think the ports are more plentiful these days. You have a better chance of being able to lend the drive to a friend (or take YOUR data elsewhere) with USB2.0.
Either option works great... I use my external USB 2.0 to load all my games to, and they work fine... i don't notice any type of decrease in performance... If you can get an enclosure that supports both, then you're gold..
So, you've got hard drives with BOTH interfaces, and an adapter card that has BOTH interfaces...try it for yourself and see, don't ask other people what THEY THINK is going to work better.
USB2.0 has a higher theoretical peak bandwidth, but it's still a master/slave interface with the CPU having to "shepherd" all the data transfer. Firewire has only a slightly lower peak bandwidth (and the next generation will of course blow away USB2.0 if it ever comes out) but it's a peer to peer connection, each device is in control and the controller itself handles the transfer directly to the DMA channel. There are benchmarks aplenty that show USB2.0 beating Firewire in one test, while others show Firewire winning, and every benchmark has parts where one wins over the other and other parts where it's the reverse. Try it for yourself, see which one works best. USB2.0 still isn't quite everywhere, it's just destined to become more common. But if the drive supports both, you can use the one you want and still be able to use the USB interface if you need to share with someone else.
USB2.0 has a higher theoretical peak bandwidth, but it's still a master/slave interface with the CPU having to "shepherd" all the data transfer. Firewire has only a slightly lower peak bandwidth (and the next generation will of course blow away USB2.0 if it ever comes out) but it's a peer to peer connection, each device is in control and the controller itself handles the transfer directly to the DMA channel. There are benchmarks aplenty that show USB2.0 beating Firewire in one test, while others show Firewire winning, and every benchmark has parts where one wins over the other and other parts where it's the reverse. Try it for yourself, see which one works best. USB2.0 still isn't quite everywhere, it's just destined to become more common. But if the drive supports both, you can use the one you want and still be able to use the USB interface if you need to share with someone else.
Wow, very interesting review.....
I'm thinking about getting an external enclosure myself, and my question is, would a firewire only enclosure perform better than a USB2.0/Firewire combo enclosure when both using firewire? I don't think there would be any difference, but was just curious about on how the USB2.0 and FW chipsets are orientated in the enclosure, if that would prove to be the cause of any performance hits or gains.
I'm thinking about getting an external enclosure myself, and my question is, would a firewire only enclosure perform better than a USB2.0/Firewire combo enclosure when both using firewire? I don't think there would be any difference, but was just curious about on how the USB2.0 and FW chipsets are orientated in the enclosure, if that would prove to be the cause of any performance hits or gains.
Thanks for the input. I think I'll go with the FireWire interface for now and then maybe mess around with the two in the future.
I'd use the USB2.0, because it's backwards compatible with USB1.1, which means you can use the drive anywhere (albeit much slower on USB 1.1)
Eug
Lifer
- Mar 11, 2000
- 24,158
- 1,806
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Too bad theory fails miserably here.
In real life Firewire is almost twice as fast in max transfer rates. The problem is the USB 2.0/IDE bridge chips out there. They are simply slow. Some Firewire chipsets are also slow, but the Oxford 911 chipset is very fast. Most enclosures these days seem to advertise Oxford 911, even cheap enclosures. In my case with my average speed 7200 rpm drives my Oxford 911 enclosures give me well over 30 MB/s in real life. The real life reviews I've seen of USB 2 enclosures have shown that they can only barely break the 20 MB/s mark. I've seen reviews of Firewire have it approaching 40 MB/s. Thus:
Firewire (Oxford 911): ~ 35 MB/s
USB 2: ~ 20 MB/s
Plus with Firewire, you don't need any drivers either on a Mac or a PC. Ie. With XP and OS X you simply just plug in the Firewire drive and it works. If you have both Firewire and USB 2 ports then I'd use Firewire most of the time and USB only when you need to (ie. when there are no Firewire ports on the computer).
The other benefit of Firewire is superior power specs. This is irrelevant for desktop drives, but is important for laptop drives running on bus power. 6-pin Firewire provides enough juice (15 Watts) to power ALL laptop drives, whereas USB and USB 2 (2.5 Watts) can only power some laptop drives - the slower lower power ones. From what I've read on this forum, you're likely going to fail if you try to power an IBM 40 GB 40GNX off of USB 2 power alone, but it works fine with Firewire. (The 40GNX is spec'd to require up to 5 Watts of power.) Who cares? Well, many people do, because when they carry around a second drive for their laptop they don't want to carry an extra AC power adapter. (This is moot however for PC laptop users, since the only laptops with significant Firewire power I've seen have all been Macs.)
What about Firewire 2? Well Oxford Semiconductor is already making the chips, but I have not yet seen any retail enclosure with that chipset. I believe there is a PCI Firewire 2 card available now though.
What Eug said about power is also a good point. I have an Ipod which charges off the Firewire port. A friend of mine has an Archos MP3 player which is USB 2.0. His doesn't charge from the USB port, so he has to carry around a power brick.
Firewire being OHCI compliant and not having to install any drivers with XP is also great. The plus for USB however is it's greater portability to systems not having Firewire ports. That may not matter to you, if you're not planning on using the drive for portable storage.
Firewire being OHCI compliant and not having to install any drivers with XP is also great. The plus for USB however is it's greater portability to systems not having Firewire ports. That may not matter to you, if you're not planning on using the drive for portable storage.
I just bought a combo USB2.0/Firewire external drive, and I'm extremely happy with it. ^^ I have a Shuttle SK41G, w/ both firewire and USB2.0, but I opted to use the firewire connection. Transfers are very fast, but the only thing I worry about is the puny little exhaust fan.
RE:"Too bad theory fails miserably here.
In real life Firewire is almost twice as fast in max transfer rates. The problem is the USB 2.0/IDE bridge chips out there. They are simply slow. Some Firewire chipsets are also slow, but the Oxford 911 chipset is very fast. Most enclosures these days seem to advertise Oxford 911, even cheap enclosures. In my case with my average speed 7200 rpm drives my Oxford 911 enclosures give me well over 30 MB/s in real life. The real life reviews I've seen of USB 2 enclosures have shown that they can only barely break the 20 MB/s mark. I've seen reviews of Firewire have it approaching 40 MB/s. Thus: Firewire (Oxford 911): ~ 35 MB/s USB 2: ~ 20 MB/s"
USB 2.0 is an Intel creation isn't it? That would explain the trumped up benchmarks/transfer rates no? LOL
In real life Firewire is almost twice as fast in max transfer rates. The problem is the USB 2.0/IDE bridge chips out there. They are simply slow. Some Firewire chipsets are also slow, but the Oxford 911 chipset is very fast. Most enclosures these days seem to advertise Oxford 911, even cheap enclosures. In my case with my average speed 7200 rpm drives my Oxford 911 enclosures give me well over 30 MB/s in real life. The real life reviews I've seen of USB 2 enclosures have shown that they can only barely break the 20 MB/s mark. I've seen reviews of Firewire have it approaching 40 MB/s. Thus: Firewire (Oxford 911): ~ 35 MB/s USB 2: ~ 20 MB/s"
USB 2.0 is an Intel creation isn't it? That would explain the trumped up benchmarks/transfer rates no? LOL
Everybody seems to be missing the part where he says his drives have BOTH interfaces and so does his adapter card. Or perhaps I'm misreading and each drive only has one or the other interface, but that's now how it sounds. So whether he uses Firewire on his own machine or not won't affect whether he can use it on someone else's USB port.
Yes, both drives come with both interfaces. It seems like it's a YMMV scenario. Thanks everyone!
Yup, I have two 80gig drives on external enclosures. Both are 7200rpm and one is USB 2.0 and the other is Firewire. Firewire is simply faster.
Did you read his post at all??
Go with firewire because although USB2 is supposedly faster (480MBps) it's a software based controller like a WinModem. While Firewire is slightly slower (400MBps) but uses a HW controller (which doesn't place any un-necessary load on your CPU etc... or any extra latency).
Thorin
I was responding to a different post. Thank you.
I was just looking for an enclosure that does both. Any ideas where to find a good one?
I was just looking for an enclosure that does both. Any ideas where to find a good one?
I got mine from Compgeeks and it rocks...I use the Firewire cause simply put, it's faster... but it's nice to have the USB which works on OP's who usually have USB1.0
LED man,
What model did you get?
BTW, I'm looking for one to take into the field for data rescue so the more interfaces the better.
Mac
What model did you get?
BTW, I'm looking for one to take into the field for data rescue so the more interfaces the better.
Mac
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