USB 2 vs Firewire 400

I heard that firewire is faster than USB 2, but when i saw the speeds, it was 400 MBPS for firewire vs 480 MBPS for USB 2

so is firewire faster than USB 2 or not?

What is better for transferring work and media (music, videos, photos) on an external HD?

Firewire is faster. Burst speeds, USB 2 is faster, but normal sustainable speeds, firewireis much faster.

Firewire is better for just about all normal uses.

USB 2.0 works fine on iPods when syncing because it is usually just a few songs adding here and there.

Those 480Mbps and 400Mbps (not MB, MB is mega bytes and Mb is mega bits) are theoretical top speeds. In reality USB2 only reaches those speeds in bursts like stretchR has said. Firewire reaches it's peak and can hold it for a sustained period of time.

Think of it as a porsche driving in a 30mph zone and pontiac sunfire driving in a 50mph zone. Which is the faster car?

wytwolf said:

Those 480Mbps and 400Mbps (not MB, MB is mega bytes and Mb is mega bits) are theoretical top speeds. In reality USB2 only reaches those speeds in bursts like stretchR has said. Firewire reaches it's peak and can hold it for a sustained period of time.

Think of it as a porsche driving in a 30mph zone and pontiac sunfire driving in a 50mph zone. Which is the faster car?

Click to expand...

ohh ok thanks, know i understand...

I just synced just over 50 GB of music to a new (NO firewire sync!!!!) 80 GB ipod, and had to use USB 2.0... it was TERRIBLE!!!! It took over 4 hours.

RIDE said:

I just synced just over 50 GB of music to a new (NO firewire sync!!!!) 80 GB ipod, and had to use USB 2.0... it was TERRIBLE!!!! It took over 4 hours.

Click to expand...

Wow, that is a long time, I don't think I'm going to be transferring that much data at once anyway...I need to transfer about 12gb - 16gb of data

With computers, you almost never want to look at the ratings of devices. Most all of them are theoretical. Always need to look at testing, to see if they can actually perform at their rated speeds or not. And it is always best to look at multiple tests.

Just got a quad interface enclosure and the Seagate 750GB SATA drive. Have only begun some testing - hope to have more up by the end of this next weekend.

Here are some preliminary #s. Am not tracking transfer rates, but, what we all care about - how long is it going to take. Both of these are for transferring from the standard MBP 5400 RPM 120GB drive.

1) Keep all software downloads in a folder called downloads. Currently, have 98 files, mostly .dmg's, totaling 1.32GB
USB - 1 Min 26 sec
FW400 - 59 sec
FW800 - 50 sec

2) A 7.57 GB movie folder
USB - 8 min 9 sec
FW400 - 4 min 39 sec

Anyone care to see something specific, let me know, and will try. Have not purchased an eSATA card, so I will not be able to test that at this time.

RIDE said:

I just synced just over 50 GB of music to a new (NO firewire sync!!!!) 80 GB ipod, and had to use USB 2.0... it was TERRIBLE!!!! It took over 4 hours.

Click to expand...

something ive found... if itunes isnt selected (highlighted or active), meaning this is the program that you are currently selected on, it will go about 1 song every 3 seconds.

if i have itunes active/selective, it goes about 3 songs a second.

try it. its odd

Same thing happens with windows. The "highlighted" program is given priority with cpu cycles, ram,....etc...

wytwolf said:

Those 480Mbps and 400Mbps (not MB, MB is mega bytes and Mb is mega bits) are theoretical top speeds. In reality USB2 only reaches those speeds in bursts like stretchR has said. Firewire reaches it's peak and can hold it for a sustained period of time.

Think of it as a porsche driving in a 30mph zone and pontiac sunfire driving in a 50mph zone. Which is the faster car?

Click to expand...

Depends how fast they're going

Hmmm.... how about this for a comparison:

Think of a Porsche driving 45 mph and a bicyclist riding 50 mph. Which one will cover 500 miles more quickly? The Porsche (firewire) maintains a consistent speed for the entire transfer rather than measuring the speed of a short burst.

--