What's better USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394?

[snidy1]

For a DVD burner? Also for a Digital camcorder?

 

[bacillus]

IEEE 1394

 

[oldfart]

Originally posted by: bacillus
IEEE 1394

 

[syberscott]

Check out the specs on the device itself.
USB 2.0 actually has a higher maximum transfer rate than firewire. (480Mbps vs 400Mbps)

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: syberscott
Check out the specs on the device itself.
USB 2.0 actually has a higher maximum transfer rate than firewire. (480Mbps vs 400Mbps)

USB2.0 will never get near 480Mbps sustained transfer rate. Get Firewire instead as it can sustain higher transfer rates better because of its design (or so other ATers have siad )

 

[ViRGE]

In both those cases, Firewire would be the way to go. In terms of the burner, both would probably be able to provide the nessisary bandwidth, but the Firewire burner is going to have a lower CPU overhead, since USB is partially host-based. As for the camera, Firewire is both the "standard" in this case, and the faster option(along with the lower overhead mentioned).

 

[Confused]

USB2 may have a higher theoretical transfer rate, however Firewire (IEEE 1394) will have the higher actual transfer rate


Confused

 

[Shad0hawK]

nm, already been addessed.

 

[PlatinumGold]

firewire is best.

 

[cordite]

Originally posted by: syberscott
Check out the specs on the device itself.
USB 2.0 actually has a higher maximum transfer rate than firewire. (480Mbps vs 400Mbps)

Never evalute hardware based on a single spec alone. I mean, would you buy a car simply based on the top speed or peak horsepower?

 

[StraightPipe]

firewire is faster, but USB is more common (i guess it really depends on the device)

cordite,

Welcome to AT!

 

[metalmania]

USB2.0 is more common? 1394 is definitely better. Even if your machine has no 1394 ports, a 1394 PCI card only costs $13.

Originally posted by: StraightPipe
firewire is faster, but USB is more common (i guess it really depends on the device)

cordite,

Welcome to AT!

 

[EeyoreX]

USB2.0 is more common?

I think he might have ment USB is more common. You can go to any computer made in the last several years and use USB. Not so with IEEE 1394. USB 2.0 is backwards compatable. If you require maximum compatability (for use on several machines) USB 2.0 is the way to go. However, for best speed, as just about everyone else has said, IEEE 1394 is the way to go, as it has faster real-world transfer rates than USB 2.0.

\Dan

 

[Eug]

For a DVD burner it's irrelevant, as long as it's working, since DVD burners won't max out either Firewire or USB 2. Caveat: I still hear about more problems about USB 2 drivers - Firewire has built-in drivers that usually work fine. That said, I once had a noname brand card that refused to work. I bought a different card for $10 more and it worked fine.

OTOH, for a hard drive though, Firewire for sure. Much faster in real-life usage. So you may as well get Firewire now, even if it's just for a DVD burner.

And Firewire 800 is even faster.

 

[aka1nas]

For the digital camcorder you probably have no choice, they are pretty much all firewire only. For the burner, either is fine. Of course, there no reason not to have both nowadays as they aren't too expensive and you can always use a few extra USB ports.

 

[snidy1]

I just read that firewire will double in speed. IEEE1394b 800 Mbps.
Link

 

[SuPrEIVIE]

Originally posted by: snidy1
I just read that firewire will double in speed. IEEE1394b 800 Mbps.
Link

I think it was a mag from CPU or something i read that Firewire2(w/800Mbps) will not be that much faster than firewire1

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: SuPrEIVIE

Originally posted by: snidy1
I just read that firewire will double in speed. IEEE1394b 800 Mbps.
Link

I think it was a mag from CPU or something i read that Firewire2(w/800Mbps) will not be that much faster than firewire1

Firewire 800 is much faster, but it depends on the drive. If the drive is only capable of 40 MB/s sustained transferred, you're not going to see a huge speed difference between Firewire 400 and Firewire 800, since Firewire 400 is already capable of 35 MB/s

 

[bupkus]

I'm shopping for an external CD or DVD drive to load software on a dozen PCs that lack cd drives but have USB 1.1. So I can either get the ASUS CRW5224A-U for about $90 which uses USB 2.0 or a $160 ASUS External SLIM CDRW-DVD Combo Model SCB2408-D which offers both USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394.
This means I'd probably need to buy over 10 USB 2.0 or Firewire cards. Would the speed difference between USB AND 1394 matter in this application?

 

[Bryans]

If you already plan on opening each system to install a PCI card I would recomend pluging in a normal $20 IDE cdrom and using that, than removing it and moving to the next. That would be a far cheaper solution that wouldnt take any more time than installing a card in each.


Bupkus:

I'm shopping for an external CD or DVD drive to load software on a dozen PCs that lack cd drives but have USB 1.1. So I can either get the ASUS CRW5224A-U for about $90 which uses USB 2.0 or a $160 ASUS External SLIM CDRW-DVD Combo Model SCB2408-D which offers both USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394.