Review: USB 2 still not up to snuff when compared to Firewire.

[Eug]

USB 2 OK but Firewire is better.

While FireWire is good at streaming video, it also provides plenty of bandwidth for storage devices. Our Maxtor 1394 hard drives all exceeded 25MBps on our transfer tests, although their performance is largely limited by the onboard IDE converter. Daisy-chaining these drives didn?t slow down the bus until we connected the ADS PYRO 1394 reader to the end of the chain.

Maxtor Hi-Speed USB 2.0 hard drives lagged behind FireWire hard drives by a large margin. We attribute this to ISD300 bridge chip, which has a maximum sustained transfer rate of 18MBps. You can expect future models with more efficient bridge chips to perform better.

Between Hi-Speed USB 2.0 and FireWire, the latter is apparently more established in terms of software support and industry acceptance. However, since USB 2.0 is still in its infancy, there are still a lot of improvements to be made before the high-speed standard catches on.

 

[McCarthy]

*Gets some popcorn, takes a seat, waits for NFS4's reply*

Keep in mind my posts in other threads have been more about making better use of either or both rather than advocate either, my lack of success with USB 1.0 devices aside. This because most people don't currently have or plan to have external drives and the same is probably true of digital cameras (had a Hi-8 camcorder once upon a time, gave it away), yet those seem to be the same applications mentioned consistently to highlight both. True, higher speed transfers from digital still cameras, mp3 player, printers, scanners, modems, cable/dsl units are all benefits, but none of those applications are revolutionized by USB2.0 or 1394, just a bit snappier than before. Snappier is good though

--Mc

 

[NFS4]

<< *Gets some popcorn, takes a seat, waits for NFS4's reply*

Keep in mind my posts in other threads have been more about making better use of either or both rather than advocate either, my lack of success with USB 1.0 devices aside. This because most people don't currently have or plan to have external drives and the same is probably true of digital cameras (had a Hi-8 camcorder once upon a time, gave it away), yet those seem to be the same applications mentioned consistently to highlight both. True, higher speed transfers from digital still cameras, mp3 player, printers, scanners, modems, cable/dsl units are all benefits, but none of those applications are revolutionized by USB2.0 or 1394, just a bit snappier than before. Snappier is good though

--Mc >>



Yawn..............

From that same website:


<< The SMC USB97C201 USB 2.0 ATA/ATAPI/CF Controller Chip has just been certified as Hi-Speed USB peripheral silicon, and it is the first to support UDMA mode 4 ATA66/100 drives. The company claims the controller is able to achieve a burst rate of 53MB/s and to sustain an average transfer rate of 31MB/s, almost double the performance of first generation Hi-Speed USB hard drives. On paper, this controller would be able to close the gap between Oxford 911-powered FireWire and Hi-Speed USB hard drives. >>



And let's not even get into the issue of which has more support from motherboard manufacturers

 

[BD231]

NFS4 = The Rock

Layin the smack down for ALLLLL you sucka heads. Why? BECAUSE THE ROCK SAID SO