USB vs. Firewire for iPod

[stabes5150]

Forgive me if this has been asked before.... for PC users, how long does it take to upload mp3s (say 15 songs/mp3s for example) to an iPod via a USB 2.0 port versus a Firewire port? I understand that a Firewire connection is faster, but is the difference in seconds, minutes or hours?

Thanks!

[daxdagr8t]

Seconds i presume.I use usb 2.0 to transfer my songs and it doesnt take that long, about 5-7 seconds for ten songs.

[LeeTom]

I have a feeling the difference is negligible.

Lee Tom

[justinshiding]

Supposedly usb 2.0 is faster for transfers. I use firewire since im always charging the ipod too and firewire is supposedly faster for that. I've never found a situation where it's made a difference actually....hehe i transfered 10 gigs of stuff in around 20 minutes (give or take)...seems fast enough for me

[AmbitiousLemon]

not exactly what you are looking for since it is mac centric, but some good info on usb vs firewire speeds. towards the end of the article is mentions usb 2 speeds on a pc, unfortunately no speeds listed for fw on a pc. still an interesting read though, perhaps someone can find a pc version somewhere.

i don't speak much german (none in fact) but the images here (http://snert.nt.fh-koeln.de/~toby/ipod/ipod_bench.htm) tell an interesting tale

[Veldek]

i don't speak much german (none in fact) but the images here (http://snert.nt.fh-koeln.de/~toby/ipod/ipod_bench.htm) tell an interesting tale

Wow, that’s surprising. I always thought FireWire would be better than USB 2.0. But this story shows USB 2.0 in front of FireWire when using an iPod on a PC. I wonder if it’s because of the PC or if you would get the same results on a Mac.

[solvs]

USB speeds will depend on your CPU speed. USB 2 is theoretically faster, but in most tests FW beats it hands down. Especially with large or streaming files. So if you have a ton of files you're transferring or if they're larger, FW is the way to go. However, to answer you're question, if you have a pretty fast PC (well, pretty much anything over a 1GHz CPU) the difference will probably be negligible. From a few seconds with small or fewer files (like 15, 5MB mp3s), to maybe a few minutes tops for larger or more files.

If you already have USB 2 it's no biggy for what you'd do, but if you have firewire or can get a firewire card cheap, I'd use that. Do a search in the forums for previous threads on the subject that can probably go into more detail.