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What do you use your FireWire Port for?

iSamurai

iSamurai

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 9, 2007
1,024
6
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just wondering why does apple supply firewire ports on all their comps including laptops, because these days I can't find anything that has firewire ports that I will use everyday ie. flash disc, HD, mouse etc.

I know there's somewhere a 2.5" HD firewire case available but I already have a USB case for an external, and it would probably be more expensive to get it. What do you guys use firewire ports for?
 
I have 2 FireWire connected drives hooked up to my iMac Core Duo 20" at home at all times. Sometimes I hook one of the drives to my MBP when I need to move something larger than my network can handle.

I love FireWire. Its faster then USB in most cases, works great for large files, like backups and HD movies and the such.

Although I've never had the chance to use my FireWire 800 plug on the MBP. :D
 
iSamurai said:
I know there's somewhere a 2.5" HD firewire case available but I already have a USB case for an external, and it would probably be more expensive to get it. What do you guys use firewire ports for?
Click to expand...
iSight - have a PB15
External HDs.
Booting in Target mode.

BTW, Apricorn makes some nice external FW HDs.

FW is so much nicer than USB. At least for now.
 
TraustiB said:
I love FireWire. Its faster then USB in most cases, works great for large files, like backups and HD movies and the such.
Click to expand...

yup...

It free's up USB ports for other things. I used firewire for all data transfer and backups. I swear by it.
 
Techguy172 said:
Those hard drives look pretty good thanks Sushi.
Click to expand...
You're welcome! :)

I have an 80GB model. Works great. Probably will get a bigger one in the future. Very handy to have the FW cable built in.

FWIW, for those who have the white Intel iMacs, the FW cable is long enough (just barely) for the HD to sit on the silver stand and be connected to the iMac.
 
I use firewire to sync my iPod still. Transferring music to my 4G iPod is a lot faster than using USB. I also use firewire to create a network between my PowerBook and PowerMac. Like mentioned above, a 400Mbps network rocks when transferring large files.
 
Data transfer and for when I'm feeling nostalgic and break out my 2nd generation 10 GB iPod. It was so much better when iPods used Firewire to transfer songs- it was so fast.
I remember when I got it back in 2002, back before anyone new what an iPod was, how many people used to come up to me and ask me what the hell it was.
Good times....
:cool:
 
ISight (Mac Pro) and data transfer - usually target disk mode. Seriously, target disk mode is one of the most useful nuggets of wisdom ever created by Apple.
 
I use my FW400 port for a shiny new 750GB WesternDigital external hard drive. Its alot faster than USB 2.0; however I am not happy of the location of my MBP's FW ports. They should be on the other side....
 
External hard drives (way faster than USB) and for target disk mode occasionally when I'm working on a machine and need to transfer files from another Mac quickly.
 
I think I've got more FireWire devices than USB! LaCie hard drives, 2 EyeTVs, external iSight, old iPod etc. I don't have any use for FW800 so far though.
 
MacBook Pro 15" (SR):

I use the FW800 port for my WD Pro 500GB disk (Time Machine and iTunes videos), which supplements my internal 160-7200 disk. I actually have never used the FW400 port on this machine, but on most of my Macs, it sits around and waits for me to need to plug in a camcorder.
 
Moto 8Pre 8 Channel Audio Interface
Elgato EyeTV 410
External Hard Drive (FW800)
DV Video Camera
SCART -> DV converter box
Other Macs for Target Disk Mode

None of these applications/devices would work as well (or at all, in some cases) over USB.

Firewire rocks.
SL
 
You're having trouble finding a purpose for one FW port, while I can never have enough FW ports. I had to buy a hub not too long ago for my iSight and four External HDs. (I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I'm at work and can't glance over at the hub.)

I have one external USB HD, and it crawls compared to FW400. I'd love to have FW800 eventually but that'll come with a new Mac, which won't be for a while, unfortunately.
 
Absolutely nothing. I don't have a FW drive, and can't justify getting one when my USB 2 drive is perfectly fine.
 
I used to have an external HD until i put the firewire cable in the wrong way round and hiss pop went the enclosure. Then I couldn't justify the extra price of firewire so just went with a USB enclosure, boy was that a mistake. Firewire is so much better.

So nothing at the moment.
 
TDM21 said:
I use firewire to sync my iPod still. Transferring music to my 4G iPod is a lot faster than using USB. I also use firewire to create a network between my PowerBook and PowerMac. Like mentioned above, a 400Mbps network rocks when transferring large files.
Click to expand...

yeah but the prob is that the new ipod nano doesnt work with firewire when syncing :p

i have 3x 2.5" HDs all from my broken HP (from upgrading/repairing) without external cases so maybe if I can find 1 for a good price I can use it maybe.
 
An external hard drive, a camcorder, and an iPod or 3...

To the OP who has a external USB HDD, I have one of them too, and it crawls compared to FW400, let alone FW800. I paid a premium for my mac, and I pay a premium for my drives, but damn everything flies.. The only way I would ever consider ditching a FW HDD is for eSATA.
 
StealthRider said:
Ha - it's one of those things that shouldn't be possible, but unfortunately happens all too often...

Never to me. :p
Click to expand...

The problem was because I was hiding the encloure under a chest of drawers and I couldn't see it so tried both orentations with little force to see which was the easiest and hence the correct oreintation but I got it wrong :eek:

I am right in thinking that with firewire 800 they changed the design so it is no longer actually possible to do this.

USB drives are so slow in comparision to Firewire next time I won't be so penny wise pound foolish when choosing which enclosure.
 
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