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FireWire 400 or 800?

team 79 krunch

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.
 
I use Firewire 800 for my external drive and the difference is noticeable! Screamin' fast!
 
FW 800 is considered "pro" level for a reason...very fast, especially noticeable when moving very large files or folders.
 
If you are just going to be using the external as a Time Machine backup drive than it really wouldn't make a difference.
 
Bobioden said:
If you are just going to be using the external as a Time Machine backup drive than it really wouldn't make a difference.
Click to expand...

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.
 
alphaod said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

They do. It's called the MyBook Home Edition. It has USB 2.0 and FW400, but no FW800.
 
bigrell486 said:
800 is faster than 400 and USB 2.0.
Power Consumption depends on the device.
Click to expand...

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

alphaod said:
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.
Click to expand...

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).

Bobioden said:
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.
Click to expand...

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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