IS FIREWIRE 400 REALLY FASTER THE USB 2.0?

Question

Could it be that Mac is playing games to make their interface of choice look better? Of simply that their I/O functionality isn't up to par in certain areas, etc. Consider this, not many PCs have fire wire. So who do you think is mainly making the comparisons? That would have to be the Mac users because both firewire and USB are on the Mac. I have recently come across several articles that state the PC implementation of USB 2.0 puts the Mac's implementation of USB 2.0 to shame. What's being said is that, on some Mac's firewire works perfectly but USB 2.0 works lousy. Since most Mac users don't like PCs and most PC users rarely use Macs (especially pertaining to these same set of peripherals) who would ever really know for sure? I have a PC notebook with both USB 2.0 & Firewire 400; I've used them both in various apps from audio to video, etc.. I have seen little or no difference. Only that as far as digital audio devices used for professional studio recording goes; there seem to be many more computer conflict complications with Firewire I/Os than with USB 2.0 I/Os, which work pretty seamlessly in this area of technology. Here is a link to one such article that highlights the difference of USB 2.0 on the Mac and the PC (Windows).

Qoute: "The Windows PC implementation of USB 2.0 puts the Mac to shame. Today we tested the same USB 2.0 drive/enclosure on a Windows PC (3GHz Pentium 4) with built-in USB 2.0 on the motherboard, similar to Apple's approach. We measured 33MB/s READ and 27MB/s WRITE."

http://www.barefeats.com/usb2.html

I would like to know if anyone can shed some light on this. Basically, have any PC users, using firewire and USB 2.0 noticed any vast differences in performance pertaing to certain hareware and software use??

Answer 1

Indeed tons of people are still using USB 2.0. And the market is still full of products that use it. Not to mention they’re still selling some new computers with USB 2.0 only. Agreed USB 3.0 has nice ratings but not many are willing to shell out several hundred dollars just to buy a new computer to get it. I don't think you can buy a plug in card that will not have a bottleneck. USB 3.0 is rated at something like a 6GB/s transfer rate I think. There is no computer input you can plug a card into that will let it work that fast. From what I understand most techies are saying it's not worth the investment anyway. Intel is getting ready to shortly come out with something called "Light peak" that does 20GB/s transfer rates, that will likely shoot down USB 3.0 before it even really gets a chance to take off.

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As for the original question: "Is firewire 400 faster..., I have not really compared them extensively and I know everybody claims firewire is faster even though it is rated 80 MB/s lower, I'd have to agree with you, on the PC, I don't see a significant difference in performance between firewire 400 & USB 2.0. I also didn't know it worked poorly on the Mac. You just may have something there friend! I will say that your question is still valid with so many USB 2.0 items on the market and still many users having USB 2.0 on their computers.

Answer 2

FireWire is used to circulate vids out of your cam, whilst usb is used to circulate archives from usb drives. Usb makes use of Usb Port, whilst FireWire does not. Firewire has its very own port. it particularly is formed like a VGA card. Firewire can in straight forward terms connect with cams (it fairly is the only ingredient i understand). Usb facilitates usb drives to connect from its port, like flash disk, etc. yet you won't be able of connect a flash disk onto a firewire port. Firewire has a extra perfect speed, or, i might desire to declare, it particularly is totally speedy. quicker than usb 2.0, i think of. try it your self.

Answer 3

USB 2.0? Who uses that anymore?

USB 3.0 is a hell a lot faster than Firewire 400.