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firewire is fast

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heatmiser said:
Because I already have several USB drives, and see no need to buy more for the purpose of using FireWire. The USB drives do exactly what I need them to do (work well between Macs and PCs). Why replace them?
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No one ever advocated replacing them. I don't understand why a person wouldn't buy a dual interface drive in the first place. (assuming the difference in price to be negligible)

I mean, if you were to buy a new drive tomorrow would you buy a USB only drive or a dual interface USB/FW drive?
 
TBi said:
I mean, if you were to buy a new drive tomorrow would you buy a USB only drive or a dual interface USB/FW drive?
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I'd buy a USB drive, because I'm fine with USB 2 speeds, and I see no reason to pay more for a dual interface drive when (I'll say it one more time, TBi), I'm fine with using USB on both computers.
 
TBi said:
No one ever advocated replacing them. I don't understand why a person wouldn't buy a dual interface drive in the first place. (assuming the difference in price to be negligible)

I mean, if you were to buy a new drive tomorrow would you buy a USB only drive or a dual interface USB/FW drive?
Click to expand...

Exactly. That person thinks his way is the only way, and fails to consider that OTHER people have different needs.

Professionals care about speed. PC techie does not care, they get paid by the hour.
Professionals: less time required to do something = more jobs done = more money.
 
USB is more compatible. But when using a USB drive it seems like I am operating in the dark age because USB is much slower than FW.

For me, I just make sure my PC has a FW card in it. They are pretty cheap these days and well worth it for the speed increase.

Even my 2.5 inch external has FW and USB. All my 3.5 inch externals have both.

On a side note, I wish there were more FW thumb drive options out there.
 
FireWire doen'st sustain "full" speed. Nothing does...but...it comes a lot closer to sustaining it, than USB 2.0 does. I mean let's break this down.

Firwire 400 (400Mbits/Second = 50MB/Second)...Firewire's sustained rate is generally between 30MB/s to 38MB/s.

USB 2.0 (480Mbits/Second = 60MB/Second)...USB2.0's sustained rate floats between 15MB/s to 20(ish)MB/s (on a mac).

so i say 30-38 is a whole lot closer to 50, than 15-20 is to 60.

-JE

*i do not claim this as factual knowledge...only what i have learned through my use and readings. Nor am i telling anyone (including you heatmiser) that you should use a Firewire drive instead of USB. That is your choice. If compatability wins for you over speed, then that is what works for you. Me, i choose speed.
 
I prefer Firewire and all, but it seems pointless to continue picking nits with heatmiser.

He already said that that's what works for him, end of story.

I prefer Firewire not so much for the speed advantage (they are in the same class), but because Firewire transfers don't hit the CPU.
 
It's becoming a bit of a hassle deleting all the off-topic or borderline posts in here, so...
 
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