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Are all Firewire 800 Cables the Same?

olletsocmit

olletsocmit

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 24, 2010
296
2
USA
I have a 4TB G-Drive and i want to move it to another desk to give me more room on my current one. I use Firewire 800 with the drive. I was looking around the net for a 15ft cable. There is really not many out there... seems i am old school running FW800 over USB. So my question is... are they all the same. Are they just like HDMI cables where you can get ones at best buy for $200+ and also ones online for $10 and the quality looks the same... I am not sure if that's the same with FW800 or now.

I see $50 ones like this: https://www.tethertools.com/product/tetherpro-firewire-800-9-pin-to-9-pin-15ft-4-6m/

and then....

cheaper ones like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/360980100248
 
Cables can be cheaply/bad and some are not shielded well. Those that monoprice sells work well.
 
So i just got my 15ft FW 800 cable in the mail... it was like $20 shipped. from just looking at it, the quality looks fine to me. I did some speed tests, and it seems slow to me, what do you guys think? Would i benefit from getting one of those high quality $60 cables?? The higher end ones seem to look different them normal ones. they have little plastic capsules on each end. I have post a pic below of the the higher end ones have the the normal ones dont, what is this thing?

see the 2 orange little plastic capsules...
5zh6j9.png



Here are my speeds when i tested with my cheap 15ft cable...

1znq2jn.png
 
Gwendolini said:
I used cheap ones, even ones with metal connector. They all delivered around 67MB/s.
Click to expand...

That's weird, i am getting under 50MB and your getting almost 20 more than me... what program are you using to test your speeds. I would like to do a test the same way you do to compare evenly.
 
olletsocmit said:
That's weird, i am getting under 50MB and your getting almost 20 more than me... what program are you using to test your speeds. I would like to do a test the same way you do to compare evenly.
Click to expand...
Aja system test.

Or simply copying big files and looking at Activity Monitor.
 
Gwendolini said:
Aja system test.

Or simply copying big files and looking at Activity Monitor.
Click to expand...

I tried a big file and watched in activity monitor. The issue is that it really fluctuates a lot. Seems to go all over. Spike from 45 then 3 sec later hit 55, then keep spiking up and down.

I will try and post a video in a few hours of what it looks like on my screen.
 
olletsocmit said:
So i just got my 15ft FW 800 cable in the mail... it was like $20 shipped. from just looking at it, the quality looks fine to me. I did some speed tests, and it seems slow to me, what do you guys think? Would i benefit from getting one of those high quality $60 cables?? The higher end ones seem to look different them normal ones. they have little plastic capsules on each end. I have post a pic below of the the higher end ones have the the normal ones dont, what is this thing?

see the 2 orange little plastic capsules...
5zh6j9.png



Here are my speeds when i tested with my cheap 15ft cable...



1znq2jn.png
Click to expand...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead
This is the kind of cable I like.
 
The round blocks are just ferrite-beads for noise suppression. You can purchase snap-on ones from Amazon to add to any cables you already have. They come in different sizes for different cable diameters. I add them to all my USB 3.0 cables these days!
 
hfg said:
The round blocks are just ferrite-beads for noise suppression. You can purchase snap-on ones from Amazon to add to any cables you already have. They come in different sizes for different cable diameters. I add them to all my USB 3.0 cables these days!
Click to expand...

Do you have an example link for the USB addon?
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Ok so this 15ft FireWire 800 cable i got online is ok... but could be better but for $20 I can deal. the only issue is the end of the FW800 cable is a little too big. The 5ft one had a smaller end. The prob is that the ports are so damn close on the left side of the MacBook Pro. I always have the FW800 plugged in 24/7 to access my G-drive. But next to it is the Mini display Port which i use a lot! I have to push it in way too hard for my liking since it rubs against the FW800 one. Does anyone know a company who makes one with a smaller end or do i have to trim some off of this one.
 
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