USB 2 or Firewire

[mangled]

As I understand it, USB 2 is 480 mbits/sec and Firewire is 400 mbits/sec, correct?

If I hook up an external hard drive, USB 2 will give me the faster transfer rates of the two, right?

I always thought firewire was faster....

 

[keeleysam]

Firewire is faster because it can actually sustain those speeds.

 

[corkyg]

On a sustained basis, Firewire will do the job faster than USB 2 and is generally more reliable.

 

[mangled]

Ah, makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Zepper]

For peripherals like fast hard drives, FW is the way to go. For any less strenuous application, high-speed USB 2 is fine.

.bh.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: corkyg
On a sustained basis, Firewire will do the job faster than USB 2 and is generally more reliable.

FireWire also uses less CPU.

 

[wpeng]

Wow, that's interesting to know. Any USB to Firewire adapters?

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: wpeng
Wow, that's interesting to know. Any USB to Firewire adapters?

No as they are different Protocals but you can find hardware and cards that have both...

 

[mangled]

Now I just gotta figure out why my firewire ports do not recognize the external hard drive.

I have a usb 2.0 and firewire pci card installed. The drive is recognized when connected in to the usb 2 ports, but it's not recognize when connected via the firewire ports on the same card. Any ideas?