Why do I have 3 FireWire Ports?

[Pancake]

I have a G4 400 AGP and was wonderering why I have 3 FireWire ports. Yes, I said 3. It has 2 in the outside and 1 on the INSIDE. Why is there a FireWire port inside my computer? I checked and the G4 AGP were the only ones with an internal FireWire port.

 

[vniow]

I believe they were going to use the internal one for internal Firewire drives at one point but they seemed to have scrapped the idea..

Only thing I can think of for it.

 

[Flowbee]

Re: Why do I have 3 FireWire Ports?

Originally posted by Pancake
I have a G4 400 AGP and was wonderering why I have 3 FireWire ports. Yes, I said 3. It has 2 in the outside and 1 on the INSIDE. Why is there a FireWire port inside my computer? I checked and the G4 AGP were the only ones with an internal FireWire port.

Cool... You can mount an iPod inside your computer!

 

[bennetsaysargh]

i wonder why the scrapped that idea? maybe it would cost too much.
pancake, can you hok any FW peripherals into it?

 

[Pancake]

I just tried plugging my LaCie 120gig FireWire drive and it worked perfectly.

I thought it might be for an internal FireWire hard drive, but the port is at the very top of the motherboard, right behind the 2 external ports, and the hardrive is at the very bottom of the case.

It just doesn't make any sense.

 

[GeeYouEye]

Back when the AGP G4's were made, there were indications that true FireWire Hard Drives, not just IDE-FireWire bridged ones, would soon be coming out. Turned out not to be worth the money, so there was no need for the port.

 

[strider42]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
i wonder why the scrapped that idea? maybe it would cost too much.
pancake, can you hok any FW peripherals into it?

I believe it was probably scrapped becauset here aren't any firewire hard drives. I know, I know, you say you can get plenty of them at any computer store. but those are actually just IDE drives inside a firewire case, and therefore offer no advantages over ide. I've heard that at one time firewire was actually going to become a hard drive interface, much like IDE or SCSI, but it never (or couldn't) happen for whatever reason.

 

[toughboy]

I dont know why, but I plug my iPod to the inner firewire port.. its closer then the back of the case, and I dont have to mess up with other cables when I plug or unplug the cable...

 

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by toughboy
I dont know why, but I plug my iPod to the inner firewire port.. its closer then the back of the case, and I dont have to mess up with other cables when I plug or unplug the cable...

lol. i wish i had a fw port on the keyboard. although it would be slower, i want one. maybe fw keyboards that have a mini hub on them will come soon.:-/
just thinking!

 

[MacFan25]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
lol. i wish i had a fw port on the keyboard. although it would be slower, i want one. maybe fw keyboards that have a mini hub on them will come soon.:-/
just thinking!

yeah, a firewire port on the keyboard would be nice, but I really don't plug and unplug things from the firewire port that much. every few days i charge and sync my ipod through the firewire, but i just leave the cable plugged in the firewire port of the computer when it is done synching and charging.

 

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by MacFan25
yeah, a firewire port on the keyboard would be nice, but I really don't plug and unplug things from the firewire port that much. every few days i charge and sync my ipod through the firewire, but i just leave the cable plugged in the firewire port of the computer when it is done synching and charging.

i don't do that either, it would just be a usefull thing to have there when you just need it.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

I've got one of the 450 APG Sawtooth Macs and its got the extra firewire port on the mobo. Haven't ever hooked anything up to it, and even since you can chain a ton of the fw devices together, it doesn't really serve any purpose....

I wonder if the new 970s will have 2 fw800s on them...

D

 

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
I've got one of the 450 APG Sawtooth Macs and its got the extra firewire port on the mobo. Haven't ever hooked anything up to it, and even since you can chain a ton of the fw devices together, it doesn't really serve any purpose....

I wonder if the new 970s will have 2 fw800s on them...

D

they probably will have
2FW800
2FW400
4USB2

i don't know why i want usb2, but still!

 

[macfreek57]

yeah they still sell a lot of pc's with internal usb
mostly on the build-your-own's and mother boards
but on the mobo's it makes sense because ther are a lot of cases sold now-a-days that have usb ports built into the front of them (something i would have thought to be implemented into macs by now, or even before some loser company thought of it).

 

[ibookin']

Originally posted by strider42
and therefore offer no advantages over ide.

Actually they do. Firewire drives are hot-swappable (you can connect and disconnect them while the computer is running), whereas IDE drives are not unless you have a bay specifically designed for it. As the G4 tower cannot accept such a bay, an internal firewire HD would have its place in the machine, especially since it is very easy to access the inside of the G4 case.