USB or Firewire for E-Mac external HD? Also, display issues.

[RafeDonson]

I've got a 2.5 SATA HD to use with my mac, but I need to get an enclosure. I have an E-Mac, so I know it has USB 2.0 and Firewire 400. It's running Tiger, but I've heard the USB 2.0 on the E-Mac isn't all that fast. Which would give me better speeds? A USB enclosure or a Firewire enclosure? And does the E-Mac provide enough power to run the Firewire enclosure via firewire only?

EDIT: Ta - anyone else recommend fireware as well?

On a related note, I'm looking for a way to keep using my external monitor as my only display. So far I have my E-Mac set up with Screen Spanning Doctor so my main desktop is on the monitor, with the E-Mac's display as a second display. But this gives me two issues.

1) If I move the mouse the right of the screen, it can go off the edge. This might seem like a minor irritation but I'd like a way to disable this if possible.

2) The E-mac screen is still on. I've cranked the resolution and contrast right down but presumably the E-Mac's CRT still has a finite life and I see no reason to have the screen running if I'm not using it.

3) There must be some kind of performance hit, even if I'm not using the second desktop.

I tried using ScreenChangerX and some other program to set the default res of the E-Mac to 1600x900, so the external monitor would work but the E-Mac screen wouldn't, but no luck so far. I also tried using boot.plist but I'm on Tiger so I don't think the system looks for or uses that.

Finally, is there any danger in sitting the E-Mac on the carpet under the desk? I can't see any X-Box 360 style ventilation that could be blocked at the bottom.

 

[GermanyChris]

I've got a 2.5 SATA HD to use with my mac, but I need to get an enclosure. I have an E-Mac, so I know it has USB 2.0 and Firewire 400. It's running Tiger, but I've heard the USB 2.0 on the E-Mac isn't all that fast. Which would give me better speeds? A USB enclosure or a Firewire enclosure? And does the E-Mac provide enough power to run the Firewire enclosure via firewire only?

Use FW it doesn't steal as many processor cycles..

 

[Nameci]

I vote for firewire too.

 

[Intell]

I vote FireWire as well. It has slightly faster real world speeds over USB 2. The eMac can power a FireWire hard drive via its FireWire port as long as the drive is designed to be powered in that way. You can always unplug the eMac's internal video cable. This will prevent the CRT from turning on and it would force the eMac to use only one screen as it wouldn't detect the internal one. There is a row of ventilation holes along the front bottom edge of the eMac's case. While I would suggest not blocking these, the eMac's cooling system is very well designed and overdone. If it does start to present overheating problems, it might be a good idea to raise it off of the floor.

 

[666sheep]

FW. USB only when you have no choice.

1) Try this, maybe it will help, they say that's still UB: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/19599/wraparound

2) Maybe SwitchResX can do better than ScreenChanger? I use it with my LCD modded eMac and it works as it should. But I do not use external display.

3) Every screen is using half of you video RAM, i.e. 16MB in your case. Add double display CI effects handled by CPU to this. You video card supports only QE.

 

[SnakeCoils]

Hello, I join this thread because I am trying (without much success) to create some 60Hz resolutions for using console and arcade emulators (with appropriate vsync) on the CRT display of my eMac 1,25 MHz (Radeon 9200/32 mb) but while SwitchResX seems to accept and save the created resolutions every time I try to choose them the display become black, I am trying nothing exotic here: 1280x960/60 Hz or 1024x768/60 Hz but stil no luck either creating "standard" resolutions or modding the existing system values with the GFT, CVT or CVT-RB formulas. Do someone have succesfully created custom display resolutions on those all-in-one PowerMacs? Oh, I forgot to say I am on OSX 10.5.8 with SwitchResX 4.3.6 installed.

 

[Amethyst1]

Hello, I join this thread because I am trying (without much success) to create some 60Hz resolutions for using console and arcade emulators (with appropriate vsync) on the CRT display of my eMac 1,25 MHz (Radeon 9200/32 mb) but while SwitchResX seems to accept and save the created resolutions every time I try to choose them the display become black, I am trying nothing exotic here: 1280x960/60 Hz or 1024x768/60 Hz but stil no luck either creating "standard" resolutions or modding the existing system values with the GFT, CVT or CVT-RB formulas.

The eMac's CRT has a fixed horizontal scan rate of 72 kHz. Modes using a different horizontal scan rate do not work (except for those within a small tolerance range... maybe). The CVT-RB timing formula is for LCD monitors (the blanking period is insufficient for CRTs). GTF or CVT are meant for CRTs.

 

[SnakeCoils]

Thank you very much for the answer, this is something I should have imagined about eMac's CRT (and all-in-one Macs in general) also I think at present there are no hacks (either software or hardware) to unlock the horizonal scan frequency. In the end custom resolutions could be available on the external video ports only but it very unlikely I will attach a second monitor just for this purpose.