Firewire or USB (much faster)?

Wondering whether to splurge on a firewire interface or go for the cheaper USB. I saw this site which seems to say firewire is faster, but much faster? Cost benefit analysis for garageband interfaces??
http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm
Would like to hear some opinions.

I used to use the M-Audio MobilePre USB. It worked fine until GB2. The noise problems were fixed with a new driver. However, USB taxes the CPU more. I wouldn't say the FireWire is necessarily faster, although I suppose it is, but it has its own power and does not create the load on the CPU.
A USB interface will work fine, especially with a fast computer. You may run into over-working the CPU with effects and lots of tracks. If you can afford FireWire go for it. Then there won't be any questions or regrets.

Similar Messages

  • USB 3.0 port speeds not much faster?

    Is it just me or is the USB 3.0 speeds really not that much faster than the regular USB 2.0? I tried transferring about 9 gigs of music using a USB 3.0 flash drive via my USB 3.0 port on my ThinkPad vs the 2.0 USB port and I didn't notice that much of a difference in download/upload speeds. I thought USB 3.0 was supposed to be soOo much faster?? What gives?

    @shahanmi,
    - Ensure that you have all the drivers installed.
    - Try a different USB 3.0 flashdrive or HDD on both the ports
    I previously had the Y500 transferring about 20GB worth of data on the USB 3.0 external HDD, its blazing fast.
    *Non Lenovo employee*
    I have a Y2P (i5) ... Feel free to ping me if you want me to test some applications with your Y2P if you have the same model. I don't mind keep doing recovery on it if needed .... =)

  • Firewire or USB 2? Faster?

    Hey
    Which will transfer songs faster? Firewire or USB 2?
    im using an iMac G5
    cheers

    Curiosity led me to test this with both my PC and Mac last spring. It was actually started when one of my students bragged about how fast his USB 2 flash drive was. FireWire is rated at 400 Mbps while USB 2 is rated at 480 Mbps but this is only part of the picture because these are the theoretical peak speeds. Actual sustained transfer speeds are a good deal lower for USB than FireWire. Further, using the same USB 2 devices, Mac systems routinely see slower speeds than PC systems.
    Bottom line: If you are transferring multiple GB of data when you sync, FireWire is going to be faster but if you routinely sync your iPod to change only a handful of CDs worth of music and to update playcounts, etc, USB 2 and FireWire differences are too close to call. At least on my G5 tower and PowerBook.

  • Convert from firewire to USB ???

    I have a 1st gen 20gb ipod which i bought 3 years ago. My problem is that it is very slow to synchronise from pc to ipod and to update will take up to 50 mins. I have taken this for granted until I bought a nano for my wife and saw how fast this synchronises (I know its only a 4gb but I only have my ipod half full)
    The orginal ipods came with firewire connection only and i am wanting to know if it is possible to get a connector to allow me to use my much faster usb 2 port in an attempt to speed up the painfully slow process.
    Can anyone help with this please
    Cheers
    Any
      Windows XP  

    "I charge it via the mains lead and not via pc."
    But still, the iPod needs extra power when it's connected to the PC, because the HD would empty the battery within minutes.
    "Is there any other way of making the synch faster ??"
    If you are already at the latest firmware version (v1.5), I'd say there isn't any, since, in that case, it must be the iPods hardware, which is unable to go any faster.
    After all, your iPod is 3 years old...

  • Firewire vs USB

    Hello all
    I am thinking about getting the new 60GB iPod video soon. I have a lot of music (1500 CDs, mostly Classical). I noticed in one review that I read that the new iPod no longer supports Firewire but only a USB connection. I have an old G4 iMac (10.3.9) with the standard 1.1 USB connections. Will my old USB ports be OK for this new iPod ? How much faster (transferring data) was the Firewire compared to the USB connection ? I want to make sure that my old G4 iMac (3 yrs.old) can handle this new iPod. I also have the newest version of QuickTime as well. Thanks in advance !

    Maybe my indications were wrong, but I had 2.975 , so a little bit less than 3.
    Sorry about my indication problem, but that's the way we use it in Belgium
    Also, if you know that the solution you get from the formula is decimal, and minutes and seconds are always on a scale of 1/60 (I don't know how to explain it, 'cuz I don't know how to tell it in English) you have to transfer 2.975 (which is still less than 3) to the other scale. I used my calculator for this, but you can also do it ofcourse by using your computers own calc program.

  • USB much slower thru Thunderbolt Display!

    My new Air/Thunderbolt system is fabulous but I just noticed that USB transfer rates through the Thunderbolt Display are much slower!
    Here are my results using the same USB disk drive, same USB cable, same file, same copy command (see * below):
    USB thru Thunderbolt Display USB port:    ~0.5 GB / minute
    USB thru MacBook Air             USB port:    ~2.0 GB / minute
    Anyone else able to reproduce this on a MacBook Air with Thunderbolt Display?  If not, I'll need to swap mine.
    I stipulate that firewire and thunderbolt are faster than USB.  But some devices require USB.  What I'm noticing is that at one of the USB ports on the back of my Thunderbolt display is running at about 1/4 the speed of the USB port which is built in to my MacBook Air.
    Has anyone from Apple checked this?
    Thanks a lot!
    William
    *My copy command takes less than 2 minutes if the USB cable is plugged into the MacBook Air, and takes 7 minutes if the USB cable is plugged into the Thunderbolt Display.

    I tested my TB display's USB ports using Time Machine. My configuration is a 17" MBP with Lion and 8gb ram. I setup TM for the first time with a USB drive connected to the TB display. The backup took 7.5 hours for about 185gb. I deleted the backup and connected the drive directly to a USB port on the MBP. The exact same backup took 2.5 hours. Nothing else was running during either backup.
    I talked to the local Apple dealer about this and apparently they don't read the forums very much since they hadn't heard of the issue. I'm sure hoping this is a firmware and not a hardware issue. Using the display as a hub was a primary consideration when I purchased it. I haven't heard back yet from the dealer.

  • Advice on hub firewire or usb ports?

    Hi,
    can anyone recommend a self powered high speed hub with more than 4 ports, ?
    I need to hook up more peripherals, I need more ports for
    scanner, printer, wacom tablet, external HD etc...
    I don't know what is the difference about firewire or usb...or which one is faster...
    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
    Monica

    Intel Macs can boot from USB or Firewire. PowerPC OS X Macs needed Firewire drives to boot (or a lot of complex fiddling to get USB to boot). 
    monick,
    Take a look at The MiniStack v3, it offers a three port USB2.0 hub, and one extra FW400 and FW800 port piece (assuming you connect to the FW800 port on the iMac). It also has a bay for an SATA external hard disk of pretty much any size you could want and I'm told fits nicely on the iMac plinth under the screen.
    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ministackv3
    cheers
    mrtotes

  • Firewire and USB

    In my process of researching to buy a new Intel Macbook I've discovered that there is only one firewire port, two USB 2.0 ports, and no pcmcia port.
    Here's my problem. This laptop will replace my old powerbook that I use for recording audio. I need one bus for audio to enter the laptop and one bus to access my external hard drive to write the audio. I currently have a firewire bus card in the pcmcia slot and use the firewire port for the other bus on my powerbook. This optimizes the amount of data that Logic can process. My worries with the new macbook is that USB 2 is typically slower than firewire. So using the firewire and USB 2.0 ports may slow me down. I know the old powerbooks with USB 2.0 had issues with the USB 2.0 bus being really slow compared to PCs. Was this problem ever fixed? Does anyone have any experience with this or any suggestions? I know I could just buy a macbook pro, but I really didn't want to spend that much money.

    Actually there's more than just another FW port. It's a FW800 port, ExpressCard/34 expansion slot, faster and better GPU with more VRAM, faster CPU, more RAM, bigger hard drive, and higher resolution screen.
    You're buying a business computer. That means you are making an investment. You can write off the investment which reduces taxes. Doesn't it make better sense to be dollar wise rather than penny foolish? Over a three year write-off period you're bartering over $250 per year.
    The MacBook has no expansion future whereas the MacBook Pro does.
    However, this is ultimately your decision. All I wanted to do was point out the benefits of the MBP over the MB. I should probably stop here lest I sound like I'm making a sales pitch - which I'm not. I own a MacBook and two MBPs. I like them both.
    Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
    The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
    Members may reward you with 5 points if they deem that your reply is helpful and 10 points if you post a solution to their issue. Likewise, when you mark a reply as Helpful or Solved in your own created topic, you will be awarding the respondent with the same point values.

  • Firewire to USB adapter?

    I recently purchased a iMac 27 i5. Love it. But it has only USB and thunderbolt ports. My beloved Nikon 4000 film scanner only has firewire connectivity. I found a firewire to USB adapter online and purchased one. It came from China. When I plugged it into my self-powered USB hub, I got a message saying a USB device was drawing too much power and it shut down one or more other USB devices to protect the computer. I couldn't print. I realized the adapter might be the problem and when I disconnected it, my printer came back online.
    Q1 -- has anybody found a firewire to USB adapter that works?
    Q2 -- is there another workaround to connect firewire devices to the new iMacs?
    Q3 -- is it possible to have a USB port put into the scanner hardware?
    George

    Thanks, Niel. That makes sense ... should have thought of that ... assuming that will reduce the excessive power draw?  I see Apple sells the 400-800 cable.

  • Firewire or USB for Home Media Server

    I have an iMac (2008) that I am going to use as an iTunes server for streaming to AppleTV. Since the iMac only has a 320GB drive, I am planning on buying a new external hard drive to which I will transfer all of my media, which I will always leave connected to the iMac (I will just point the iMac's library to the media on the drive).
    My question is whether I should consider FireWire 800 or USB 2.0 as the external drive. I know most macs these days no longer come with FireWire, and in the case that I end up getting a new computer in the next year or two, I'd rather have a drive that utilizes USB 3.0 and have that faster option in the future.
    That being said, if the stream quality to the AppleTV is going to be so poor that I hate it (using the USB 2.0), then I would consider a FireWire 800. Does anybody have any experience with this?
    Also, it should be noted that all of my devices will be wired to the local home network (not wireless).
    Thanks for the advice.

    Personally, I don't think it matters. FireWire 800 is capable of almost 800 Mb per second and while USB 2 is theoretically capable of 480 Mb per second it only has an effective throughput of 280 Mb per second. If you have other uses for this drive, the difference between FireWire and USB may well be worth considering, however if you are just going to use it for movies to play to your Mac/Apple TV, you should remember that these movies will need no more than 10 Mb per second in order to play without issue.

  • Is USB 2 fast enough to record to hard drive over?

    Hi folks. Atthe moment I'm recording to ext HD via FireWire 800, but down the line I may well want to get a FireWire audio interface, would recording to the drive work ok over USB? Or has anyone got experience of using FireWire busses? Advice/recommended options appreciated :) ta!

    While the USB 2 transfer rate may seem faster than Firewire 400, it is a "BURST RATE" meaning after a few seconds it drops substantially while Firewire starts high and stays high meaning that Firewire is faster at "SUSTAINED RATES" such as streaming audio to drives. Test it your self by copying a 1 GB file to a USB 2 drive and then to a Firewire Drive while timing the transfer... Firewire will smoke it everytime
    http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/schwebs-lounge/54422-usb-2-vs-firewire-400-agai n.html
    http://www.barefeats.com/usb2.html
    From GlyphTech:
    "Even though USB 2.0 Hi-Speed has a theoretical max raw data rate slightly higher than FireWire (480 mbps vs. 400 mbps), the typical sustained transfer rates are about the same, because FireWire is a more efficient protocol to use in audio and video environments. In fact, in most cases, FireWire beats USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, albeit by a small margin. Very often it will be the computer or hard drive mechanism which limits the system performance more than the interface, so you might see about the same performance using FireWire-A or USB 2.0. "
    According to NEC (Dec 2004):
    "Specified speed of USB 2.0 is 480 mbps (in other words, around 60 Million Bytes per second, or 57.2 MB/s), but 57.2 MB/s is NOT the actual data rate.
    This is because USB 2.0 packet is inclusive of overhead data.
    [Note that conversion from megabits to MegaBytes requires (x*1,000,000/8)/1,048,576.]
    Moreover, idle time are added between packets.
    Besides, data rate is also dependent on the system architecture, the PCI bus and the attached USB devices.
    Therefore, actual data transfer rate [of USB 2.0 High-speed] will be lower than 480 mbps (57.2 MB/s).
    Our measurement result of data transfer rate with USB 2.0 storage device (HDD) is about 20 - 25 MB/s on average."

  • M-audio Firewire 410 or USB2 Fast Track Pro?

    I am getting ready to take delivery of my new 17" MPB on Wednesday and my brand new Yamaha 48" Studio upright piano on Friday. I would like to make a few recordings using GB3 for personal use. I plan on using a few Shure 57's or maybe buying 2 condenser mics. My question is:
    Would you buy the firewire or USB M-audio device?
    http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWire410-main.html
    or
    http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrackPro-main.html

    I want to share my experience with everyone here. I am beyond frusration and do not wish anyone to suffer as much angst as I have, but I urge everyone to stay away from the horrendously foul piece of crap that M-Audio calls the FireWire 410. I urge everyone to boycott M-Audio products until they acknowledge that their products are faulty and fix these problems ASAP.
    Here's some background information so that those who have similar setups as I may benefit the most from my experience. I'm a very experienced Mac user. Since I bought the 410, I have used it on 4 PowerBooks, a MacBook, and a G5 (Quad). On all these machines, I have had problems with the 410 (which I bought 3 years ago). Thinking it was a defective model, I recently purchased another from Guitar center to try out (careful guys.. there's a 15% open box restocking fee... not exactly my idea of a full refund), only to find out it shared the same problems as the one I bought 3 years ago. I've heard many Windows users use this product without any problems at all. Unfortunately, I strongly believe M-Audio's Mac OS X drivers are to blame for this (every single version of the driver they released has had problems).
    The problems I've exhibited are loud, spontaneous pops as the driver "resets" the device, often in the middle of audio playback, random and constant crackling, no audio playback or input... I've spent at least 2 hours a DAY troubleshooting this thing. Worse yet, M-Audio claims that their product will fry your motherboard, fry your audio interface, and void your warranty if you attempt to hot-plug their device.
    THIS IS LUDICROUS! I really regret buying this piece of $hit. I'm at wit's end with this one... Can other mac users attest to these problems? Can someone enlighten me on experience with other M-Audio FireWire products? I love their studio monitors, but how is the FW 1418? Any experiences with that? Maybe I should just pick up a Traveller... Either way, I really wish M-Audio (or even Apple) would get their **** together and put out quality drivers that are usable.
    For those who used the FireWire 410 successfully, would you mind sharing how you set it up? and what's up with the "Everything's OKAY-even-though-I'm-turned-off" blinking LED light? Annoying!

  • Firewire or Usb

    Hi
    can you use either one with TM and will it work on a full restore.
    Terry

    According to information Apple provided about Time Machine, yes, you can use either a Firewire or USB 2.0 external drive to backup your hard drive.
    However, I would recommend Firewire as that appears to be more reliable and overall faster than the USB 2.0 counterpart.
    Good luck.

  • Seagate 7200.8 (firewire and usb) won't unmount

    I have a Seagate 7200.8 300 GB PATA hard drive that won't dismount. I have 3 different brands of external firewire/usb cases and this particular hard drive just won't dismount while installed in any of them and it doesn't matter if I have it connected to firewire or usb. When I drag it to the trash nothing happens and the drive stays mounted. If I then turn it off I get the message warning me about all the bad things that will happen if I don't dismount first. The only safe way I know of to dismount it is to shutdown the mac and then turn off the hard drive. This is on a Powermac G5 Dual 2.0 (PCI, 4 ram slot) with 2.5 GB ram and a single internal 250 GB hard drive running 10.4.3 and all current updates.
    Powermac G5 2.0   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  
    Powermac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

    send it to a data recovery company if you don't have a backup.  If you dont have a backup, you'll wish you did when you see how much money it costs to retrieve data off a damaged HDD (if they can even retrieve a portion or all of it).  Google "hdd data recovery" for lists of companies.

  • Sonnet Tango PCI-Express Firewire 400/USB 2.0

    Had my new Mac Pro less than a week and as I didn't want to move it out from under my desk too much I fitted an extra 500Gb HD and a Sonnet Tango PCi-Express Firewire 400/USB 2.0 card before I started it up for the first time.
    If I put the Mac to sleep it won't wake (I have to restart using the power button) and the status light flashes in a '3 flash then pause and repeat' way indicating failed RAM.
    I've replaced the 3x 2Gb RAM sticks (as fitted by my local Apple reseller) and replaced them with the standard 3x 1Gb as shipped… No change… I've run the AHT and Memtest and everything checks out fine there. Remove the Sonnet card and the problem is gone, I've tried the card in a different slot and the problem returns… I don't have another PCI-Express card to try… Any suggestions as how to proceed? I need those FW400 ports!

    I've contacted Sonnet and they've been very helpful… They tell me that I'm the first person to report a sleep issue with this card (really?) and that I need to contact the retailer that I bought it from as it must be faulty. As yet I've had no reply from the retailer and Sonnet have offered to contact their UK rep on my behalf if I don't hear anything in the next couple of days. I'll keep you posted…

Maybe you are looking for