firewire or usb
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- mnix21
I'm getting into motion and video editing work on my intel mac. i bought a 250gb 7200RPM USB 2.0 external for doing this work, but I've heard I won't be able to use the drive without firewire. Is that true and should I return it and get a firewire or will the 7200 USB work?
- oldelpaso0
what make?
ive gota LaCie 300gb hooked up on USB
but im on a windows pc
- horton0
you can use usb2, but u want the firewire.
firewire is the apple & industry standard for video.. not my field but i believe the big bonus is that you can dump footage directly onto the drive via FW.
someone correct me if i got that wrong.
- oldelpaso0
yea u want fire wire.. its way better.. its just a a different cable (set u back 10 bucks tops)
the same connection at the back of a hard drive faster connection on the machine
- horton0
yea u want fire wire.. its way better.. its just a a different cable (set u back 10 bucks tops)
the same connection at the back of a hard drive faster connection on the machine
oldelpaso
(Mar 4 07, 16:04)eh??? no its not the same, and not just a different cable.
some ext drives come equiped with usb2 and FW ports, maybe has you confused.
usb devices need a computer to connect to each other. FW is peer-to-peer.
- Chief0
yeah, it's not the same.
and yeah, you do want firewire. usb 2 is actually faster but it's not sustained.
- oldelpaso0
oops yeah different connection on the back of the hard drive (but they come in both type of connections though surely)
peer to peer? ie HD to HD?? how would you transfer stuff? with out a keyboard or a computer... confused??
only thing i have on firewire is my ipod :)
- nearestexit0
Use only firewire.
- blackspade0
Fiya!'Wiya! boh! boh! boh!
- CyBrain0
Silly me. I thought USB2 was faster.
My Lacie drive came with Firewire 400, Firewire 800 and USB2. I had to use Firewire 800 because my old Powerbook only has USB1 and all my Firewire 400s were taken.
- ornj0
I believe USB 2 is faster than firewire 800. USB however uses more processor cycles which is probably why firewire is used more often in the video industry. There is already enough eating up the processor and you lose frames if things slow down too much.
- jpea0
on a Mac, FW is faster. For some reason, USB2 on a mac is slower than using a FW drive.
- CyBrain0
Am I right in assuming FIrewire 800 is better than Firewire 400 for my drive? (I could use either)
- jpea0
yes and no. you tend to get better results out of a fw800 drive, but that's just because real world results don't live up to technical specs. go for fw800 and at least you'll hopefully be ahead of the game if you need to someday swap in a faster drive (or just go eSATA and call it a day for a few years)