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team 79 krunch

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 9, 2008
64
0
I am going to upgrade my 17" 2.5GHz 4GB RAM MBP's hard drive to a 500GB 5400-RPM drive. I want to use the 250GB 5400-RPM drive as an external. IS there a major difference between FireWire 400 & FireWire 800?
My main concerns are speed and power consumption.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,541
942
I use Firewire 800 for my external drive and the difference is noticeable! Screamin' fast!
 

Herrow

macrumors regular
Jul 24, 2008
103
0
FW 800 is considered "pro" level for a reason...very fast, especially noticeable when moving very large files or folders.
 

Bobioden

macrumors 68000
Sep 23, 2007
1,725
46
Denver
If you are just going to be using the external as a Time Machine backup drive than it really wouldn't make a difference.
 

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
If you are just going to be using the external as a Time Machine backup drive than it really wouldn't make a difference.

It does if you have 300GB of backups to make! ;)

And yes FW800 is a lot faster and the power consumption for all FW official spec devices should be the same.
 

Bobioden

macrumors 68000
Sep 23, 2007
1,725
46
Denver
It does if you have 300GB of backups to make! ;)

And yes FW800 is a lot faster and the power consumption for all FW official spec devices should be the same.

But if it is only going to be used for a TM backup, the first time it will be slow, after that it is not going to make a difference.
 

noodle654

macrumors 68020
Jun 2, 2005
2,070
22
Never Ender
I am about to change my external hard drive setup. I am currently using the WD Passport (USB) and that thing is slow, I hate it. I plan on getting the WD Studio Edition with the USB, eSata, and FireWire 800/400. I wish WD made a drive that has just USB and FireWire at a lower cost. I dont need eSATA at all.
 

CaptainChunk

macrumors 68020
Apr 16, 2008
2,142
6
Phoenix, AZ
I am about to change my external hard drive setup. I am currently using the WD Passport (USB) and that thing is slow, I hate it. I plan on getting the WD Studio Edition with the USB, eSata, and FireWire 800/400. I wish WD made a drive that has just USB and FireWire at a lower cost. I dont need eSATA at all.

They do. It's called the MyBook Home Edition. It has USB 2.0 and FW400, but no FW800.
 

DoFoT9

macrumors P6
Jun 11, 2007
17,586
98
London, United Kingdom
800 is faster than 400 and USB 2.0.
Power Consumption depends on the device.

it will most likely even be faster than USB3.0!!!!!!! :D

It does if you have 300GB of backups to make! ;)

And yes FW800 is a lot faster and the power consumption for all FW official spec devices should be the same.

that backup will only be made once, so it wont really make that much of a difference the first time (backup will only go on average about 5-10mbps).

But if it is only going to be used for a TM backup, the first time it will be slow, after that it is not going to make a difference.

the first time the database has to be made, so its extremely slow.. it runs in the background as low priority anyways, so thats why its so slow.. could probably change it but meh.
 
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