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splitpea

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 21, 2009
1,177
447
Among the starlings
What connection type would you choose when buying a new external hard drive?

USB 2 isn't very fast, but Apple seems to be de-emphasizing Firewire and eSATA isn't even an option on anything except the Mac Pros AFAICT.

:confused:
 
Firewire is ok, I can't wait for USB3

If you look around I'd get one that has connections for both Firewire and USB2 on the back. Unless you get a portable 2.5in USB powered one a multi connection in the back is not uncommon. My WestDigital had Firewire, USB2, eSata, and UltraWide SCSI(Just kidding). No really, big drives should have more then one connection.
 
If I were choosing a new external, and eSATA wasn't an option on my particular mac machine, I would go for firewire 800. It is almost as fast as eSATA.

In a year or two either USB 3.0 or Lightpeak is going to start becoming more widely adopted by industry (to me, Lightpeak seems like the more promising technology).
 
If I were choosing a new external, and eSATA wasn't an option on my particular mac machine, I would go for firewire 800. It is almost as fast as eSATA.

In a year or two either USB 3.0 or Lightpeak is going to start becoming more widely adopted by industry (to me, Lightpeak seems like the more promising technology).

If it is a single drive, I would get FireWire 800 over anything else.
For more than one drive, I suggest using eSATA.
If you really need fast, portable, and not to worry about upgrade it, try this
http://www.timelinedigitalinc.com/iostudio-pcie-expansion-pcie-card-standard-length-p-848.html
Fully compatible with Fusion I/O and the speed is over 1GB/s
 
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