Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Firewire devices

W

waltervt

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 24, 2011
63
0
Valencia, Spain
Hi everybody and thank you for reading!

I bought a brand new MacBook Pro 5,5 (13,3", 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD) from an iStore on December 2009. It was a Xmas present from me to myself. I use it mainly for music-video recording and editing, also have music and movies and other stuff. I'm not much of a gamer, but I do play some Diablo or Halo occasionally.

I have an upgrade of 500GB HD and 8GB RAM on the way, and a bluetooth mouse as well.

I'd like to take advantage of the Firewire 800 port that has never been used yet. So, what devices are out there that are FW800?

I'm gonna use my current HD as an external drive over USB, because I couldn't find a FW800 enclosure that I like nor one with the right price to justify the speed over USB2.0.

I like music a lot, both listening and playing, also enjoy the sound of a movie played through the right speakers. I have a USB-1/4" guitar cable which I think is great.

Hope you can help me out, I don't NEED to use it, but it would be nice to do so, so any help will be appreciated.

Thank you for reading and I hope you can help me!

Cheers.

Walter
 
waltervt said:
I'm gonna use my current HD as an external drive over USB, because I couldn't find a FW800 enclosure that I like nor one with the right price to justify the speed over USB2.0.
Click to expand...
Based on this statement, forget about using FW800. If you can't justify the need for using FW800 with an external hard drive, it's not likely you'll find anything else that you can justify, either.

There is a noticeable difference in data transfer speed between FW800 and USB 2.0. That's the primary benefit, when used for accessing external drives.
 
External drives will have twice the data rate and less processor load when connected via FW800. Unless you are doing video there isn't much you can do with FW800.
 
GGJstudios said:
There is a noticeable difference in data transfer speed between FW800 and USB 2.0. That's the primary benefit, when used for accessing external drives.
Click to expand...

In that case, do you know any good FW800 cases for a 2.5" HD. Not no be too picky, but I'd like one on silver/gray, that looks good, and that is not too expensive.
Thanks for the quick reply.
 
OWC cases are great, but aren't inexpensive. :)

You are always going to pay more for FW800 over USB2.0.
 
GGJstudios said:
[url=http://eshop.macsales.com/imgs/ndesc/owc_mercuryalpro_mini/owc_mercuryalpro_mini.jpg]Image[/URL]
Click to expand...

How on earth did I miss this one? I'm on this page all the time! I'm even gonna buy my 500GB Seagate Momentus XT from here! Thanks a lot!

Having said that, I did do a search on google/amazon/ebay and found this cases:

Acomdata TangoPro: http://www.acomdata.com/p-297-tangopro-triple-interface-portable-enclosure.aspx
G2 Mini: http://www.ineedstorage.com.au/hard...enclosure-firewire-800-/-usb2-0/prod_113.html
Macally PHR: http://www.macally.com/en/product/ipod4show.asp?ArticleID=340
Mercury Elite Pro mini: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MEPM934Q1BOB/ (Thanks to GGJstudios)

What do you think of the four of them? Any better than the other? Bad/good experiences?

Cheers

BTW, you made me change my mind, I'm going FW800 all the way over USB2.0
 
Last edited:
not sure if it is a need or concern to you, but my new OWC Mercury Elite drive won't boot with Firewire (either 400 or 800) with my iMac. Only with USB2.
I can use Firewire 800 for external storage though.
I guess it can with newer iMacs, but mine is a late 2007 C2D, version 7,1.
There is a boot compatibility table in the manual (not included in the online version!) that lists mine (and earlier) as USB2 only. This would be a problem if you were wanting to use it for Time Machine for instance.
 
GGJstudios said:
I'm not sure what you mean by this, since Time Machine doesn't make bootable backups, anyway.
Click to expand...

ok, I didn't know that. I use Time Machine but I have thankfully never had to restore anything. Also, my Time Machine drive (an old Maxtor One Touch IV) is perfectly compatible with Firewire.
It is a problem if you are installing a test OS version for example. That is how I discovered the problem in the first place. I wanted to test my system with Lion before I installed it over SL on my main drive. I did still do that, but I can only use USB2 to boot into Lion.
My main issue is that you pay more for OWC enclosures and more for Firewire 800 drives and no where does it say that you can only boot with USB2 on earlier Macs. USB2 enclosures are dirt cheap.
 
mzd said:
not sure if it is a need or concern to you, but my new OWC Mercury Elite drive won't boot with Firewire (either 400 or 800) with my iMac. Only with USB2...This would be a problem if you were wanting to use it for Time Machine for instance.
Click to expand...

Well, I DO want it for Time Machine, but to do regular backups, I didn't know that I could boot from TM. Anyway, if I needed to boot from TM and FW wouldn't let me, I'd still be able to do it through USB, right?

I think I might go fo the OWC enclosure, it's still cheaper than getting the kit with the transparent polycarbonate enclosrure, which I do not like one bit. Still don't know why it says FW800/400 and has two FW800 ports.

One more thing, do I need to plug in a DC converter, or with the FW800 connector is enough?

Thanks a lot again to all of you!
 
At least the OWC drives have FW800 and USB 2.0 so if you can't boot from the FW800 interface you could always use USB 2.0.

(TimeMachine not being bootable is true in either case, but IMHO if the drive is to be used for TimeMachine you are wasting money with FW800 anyway.)
 
waltervt said:
Well, I DO want it for Time Machine, but to do regular backups, I didn't know that I could boot from TM. Anyway, if I needed to boot from TM and FW wouldn't let me, I'd still be able to do it through USB, right?

I think I might go fo the OWC enclosure, it's still cheaper than getting the kit with the transparent polycarbonate enclosrure, which I do not like one bit. Still don't know why it says FW800/400 and has two FW800 ports.

One more thing, do I need to plug in a DC converter, or with the FW800 connector is enough?

Thanks a lot again to all of you!
Click to expand...

Yes, USB2 is bootable. Though it sounds like you don't need a bootable drive.
Some of the "portable" enclosures are bus powered, but the Mercury Elite Al Pro is not their portable version and has an external power source you need to plug in. Which enclosure are you looking at specifically?
[edit] the Mercury Elite Pro Mini that is linked above does say it is bus powered.
 
waltervt said:
Well, I DO want it for Time Machine, but to do regular backups, I didn't know that I could boot from TM. Anyway, if I needed to boot from TM and FW wouldn't let me, I'd still be able to do it through USB, right?

I think I might go fo the OWC enclosure, it's still cheaper than getting the kit with the transparent polycarbonate enclosrure, which I do not like one bit. Still don't know why it says FW800/400 and has two FW800 ports.

One more thing, do I need to plug in a DC converter, or with the FW800 connector is enough?

Thanks a lot again to all of you!
Click to expand...
You can't boot from a Time Machine backup. If you want that capability, use Carbon Copy Cloner. With the OWC enclosure I posted, you can connect via Firewire 800, Firewire 400 or USB 2.0. As for the FW800/400, you can simply use a FW800 to 400 cable. The 800 side plugs into the drive, and the 400 side plugs into your Mac. For power, you can buy an optional AC adapter, but it will run on bus power for FW800/400/USB.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back