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groovdudeyo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 16, 2008
234
0
A whole bunch of people got mad when it wasnt put onto the new macbooks or something but I have no idea what it is or what it does.
 
A whole bunch of people got mad when it wasnt put onto the new macbooks or something but I have no idea what it is or what it does.

Unless you like to get technical and stuff with how it works and stuff, it can simply be put as a port just like USB only a lot faster (and has its own shape).
 
Its similar to USB, but ALOT FASTER! Used on things like External HDD's, and older Video Camera's (Although alot have moved to USB) If you dont know what it does, you probably dont need it.

The outrage was caused because lots of people use MacBooks for Video/Photo Editing, where an Internal HDD isnt big enough, so they use a 'Scratch Disc' (An External HDD) and Firewire 800 is the best way to do it, and doesnt cause lag like USB would.
 
Not necessarily. I didn't know what it was used for a couple years ago. Now (now not meaning that I just found out through this thread, but a year ago) that I know, I decided to purchase a firewire external hard drive instead of a USB one.
 
firewire is able to transport data in a consistent data stream where as usb 2.0 transports its data in batches so if you have to f.e. capture videos of a tape (in real time) you need firewire because usb (2.0) cant handle the consistent data stream. and like mentioned above with firewire 800 you have a much faster connection as well :)
 
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