do you use your: FireWire 800??

Hey, so ive had my mbp for almost 2 months and im trying to get a little more out of it.. Since the mbp only has 2 usb ports id like to take advantage of the FireWire 800.
Now my question is what do people use it for?? also if it faster, or slower then usb 2.0??...

thanks

 

I think Firewire 400 is faster than USB 2.0, especially during sustained throughput.

That said, yeah, I don't use Firewire 800 for anything.

I just bought an external DVD-R to save wear and tear and get something faster than my internal slot loading, and there were ZERO firewire external DVD-R drives at Frys.

As usualy, the crappier format is taking the lead. Shame since Firewire is pretty cheap.

 

FireWire is much faster than USB. Data transfered through Firewire need not go through the CPU.
There are plenty of external Firewire devices. You should be able to find whatever external device you want in Firewire format.

 

I could have, but I would have had to mail order it.

I'm just saying that out of the entire aisle of DVD-R external drives at a fairly large retailer, there was not one USB2/Firewire DVD-R drive. They were all USB2.

 

Ya you won't find much in the way of FireWire in a retail store, they are more the realm of mail order. As for my FW800, it sits unused. Maybe the next external drive I get I will spring for FW800, but it can add significantly to the cost.

 

so what are my chances of getting a FW800 external 250gig hard drive that does'nt cost an arm and leg...oh and if there is such a thing where can i get one?

 

www.newegg.com

 

Do you need it? Or just want it?

You have 1GB RAM and a 5400rpm internal drive? So, It does not look like you are editing hi-def or anything?

 

oh..found one.....
1000 gigs....but a bit out of my price range
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10084342&catid=

 

WD's My Book Pro uses FW800, and it's only nominally more expensive than its FW400-only counterpart.

 

A lot of camcorders come with firewire400 at least.

 

well i don't so much need it as i just want it... when i plug in my key board, mouse, ipod. Then i have no more usb ports left so a firewire hard drive would be nice..oh and ill be doing alot of photoshop so having the faster transer rate would come in handy

 

Well no FW 800 over here but FW 400 and it certainly works faster than USB 2.0 on my external HD

 

I got a little $14 USB2 hub thing. It plugs into a USB2 port and gives me 4 ports.

I have the DVD-R in its own USB2 port, and an external HD and a mouse in the hub thingee.

I think you'd be plenty satisfied with a FW400 drive.

 

Man, FW 400 is so much nicer than USB 2 for hard drives.
I can't imagine what FW800 is like. I wish I had the port on my MBP.
But I would personally buy the hard drive and a case against buying a premade box from WD or someone.
And another bonus to FW, it can aparantly run more drives without external power than USB (as long as it's not a mini firewire connection).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817146604

Thats the one I use right now (for my 2.5" 60 gig 7200 rpm drive). It's amazing. Though, this doesn't help if you want a 3.5" drive :-D

 

I disagree with firewire 400 being "much faster" than usb 2.

I have a Seagate external HD thats got fw400 and usb2. i have tried both, and can say that fw400 is just barely 2mb/s faster than usb 2 in an hdtune test. it definitely didnt 'feel' faster though.

Firewire800 is fast. really fast. but if youre talking about using it for an external hd, you have to fact in the other links in the chain. ie, the actual HD in the fw800 enclosure, is it fast enough? and then if you're transferring data FROM another HD, is that one fast enough? Probably not, and to get all the gear to live up to fw800's potential, its almost not worth it.

 

Keep in mind that enclosures which have both FW and USB tend to operate slower on the FW side than enclosures that have both. The quality of the chip makes a huge difference.
I have another enclosure that has both FW and USB, and I'd say FW is almost slower on it. Check out a lot of benchmarks, the difference can get as high as 10mb/s, which is a major difference.

 

Well, actually, i take some of that back. I guess its not really that much money anymore.

Looking at newegg now, for what i paid 400$ a couple years ago, can be had today for about 100$. wow.

I say go for it then. I get about 63 MB/s out of a 320GB WD drive in an fw800 enclosure. thats very nice if your talking about a notebook. and a steal at a cool bill for it all.

 

63 mb/s? Damn... that really does hit around 2x as fast as FW 400 and about 3x faster than USB.

I need one of them.

 

I think i'm about to order another set. damn this thread! i cant believe its so cheap now. i guess sata has really taken over.

I just hope these fw800 cases are as good as the one i have. you're definitely right about the chipset quality. i paid a pretty penny for the one i have, it had the absolute best benchmarks a couple years ago.

 

yeah, check out tomshardware and a few other hardware review sites. I found some good threads (I think on TH) that had comparisons between FW and USB enclosures, including information about chipsets.