the trend to USB is pretty much Apple being a "victim" of it's own
success Viz. iMac, where peripheral manufacturers finally saw a
potential (now realised) for a common interface for mac and PC
products (and the "threatened" higher licensing fees Apple and Sony
wanted for manufacturers to use IEEE 1394/FireWire)... that and the
fact that anything was better than Windows serial and Parallel ports
(and SCSI was not that much better) and with Win95 and 98 putting
computers in to your average Joe's home it was the "right product at
the right time"
With Apple, FireWire has always been "reserved" for their "pro" models
iBook - no, PowerBook - yes
G4 iMac - no, G4 Tower - yes
So by putting FireWire in the top end iMac and in to the MacBook (non
pro base model iBook equivalent) they are either saying "these are
pro units" or " we're creeping Fire Wire down the product range.
And it's not just Apple either that appear to be dropping/limiting
their use of FW - I notice that Canon has not included a built-in
FireWire connection on their New EOS D1 (D1 N Mark III) and rather
gone for USB 2, (you can use FireWire but you need the additional
Ethernet/WiFi/FW/GPS peripheral)
on the technical side of things:
USB uses a burst type transfer (non-isochonus) so it will deliver
data in "fits and spurts" that _MAY_ cause streamed media to pause
and restart as it buffers and transmits packets
FireWire uses Isochronous transfer so it has a guarantied transfer
rate per second (so long as the hardware either side that can
stream/buffer it that fast
Hi Sev,
I'm currently mulling this one over also. It may also depend on whether you
have firewire 800 or only (as me) 400.
I hear support for firewire as technically better for moving data, but I see
the momentum going with USB, even from Apple!:
- All new ipods are USB2 not firewire.
- The new AirPort Extreme Base Station lets you share a USB drive (or
multiple drives with a USB hub) as network storage - but you can't attach a
firewire drive.
- The mac mini has 4 USB2 ports but only one firewire 400 port (no firewire
800).
- All imacs have USB2 and one firewire 400 port (only the 24" also has
firewire 800).
- Only the Macbook Pro has firewire 800. (the Macbook only has 400)
It would seem to me that a firewire 800 port on both the disk and computer
would give far & away the best performance.
I hear that firewire 400 actually has the edge on USB2 but it seems to offer
less flexibility in connection options (eg shared storage & PCs) and
slightly more expense.
As you say, there are some great deals (& generally more choice) on USB2
drives and perhaps more connection flexibility.
I also hear that newer video cameras (at least the consumer level) are
tending to come out with USB2 connection rather than ilink (firewire). (Not
that you would be connecting the camera straight to the hard drive).
You can, of course, get enclosures with multiple connection options:
- USB2 + FW400
- FW400 + FW800
- USB2 + FW400 + FW800
- USB2 + ethernet
( I haven't seen USB2 + FW + ethernet)
But, of course, you pay for the added flexibility!
I will also be very interested to hear comments from others.
One other thing - I used to think that you could only boot from an external
FW disk, not USB, but the last time I was looking at disks I was told that
you CAN boot from an external USB2 disk - this may depend on the computer/OS
version? - More knowledgeable people could comment!
Do you have any specific drives that you are looking at at the moment?
Cheers
Neil
--
Neil R. Houghton
Albany, Western Australia
Tel: +61 8 9841 6063
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
on 12/4/07 11:59 AM, Severin Crisp at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
What are the pros and cons of Firewire vs USB2 for external hard
drives, especially for digital video? I am currently entirely
Firewire but there are some good deals on big USB2 drives these days.
Experience based comments welcomed
TIA
Severin Crisp
________________________________________________________
Assoc Professor R Severin Crisp, FIP, CPhys, FAIP
15 Thomas St, Mount Clarence, Albany, 6330, Western Australia.
Phone (08) 9842 1950 (Int'l +61 8 9842 1950)
email mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web pages http://www.JennyCrisp.com.au
& http://members.westnet.com.au/Crisp
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