Whats firewire good for?

This has to be the noobiest question, but what good is it? I know its fast transfer rate, but what good will that do? Is it possible to hook that up to my home pc and take files from it.... like all my music? I didnt search also, so flame me if there are a ton of posts about it.... I am kinda lazy.
-Mike

FireWire is an interface just like USB 2. It's good for the same things that USB 2 is good for. External drives, HDD, CD/DVD, iPods etc. Though it is technically a slower interface than USB 2 (400Mbs vs 480Mbs) in real world operations it is often faster than USB 2.

FireWire.....ugh....good god, y'all....what is it good for?.....absolutely nothing



:black:

Well, it's good for transferring video, and it's good for providing power to devices, which USB isn't. It also has native networking capabilities, which USB doesn't.

But fundamentally it does pretty much the same thing as USB2. It's a Beta/VHS thing really. Like Betamax, Firewire is generally better, but USB dominates.

firewire is a constant 400 mb/s USB is MAX 480 mb/s so sometimes its even less than firewire, its not constant

There is firewire 800 too - not as prolific on systems, but it is still there. I use it for an external drive and for transferring video from a handheld recorder. FWIW I prefer firewire, but many devices are USB2.

macAttack said:

firewire is a constant 400 mb/s USB is MAX 480 mb/s so sometimes its even less than firewire, its not constant

Click to expand...

Read THIS and THIS.

Thanks guys... appreciate the walkthrough. I am also impressed how no one made me feel stupid, most other forums flame people to death.

Corrosive said:

Thanks guys... appreciate the walkthrough. I am also impressed how no one made me feel stupid, most other forums flame people to death.

Click to expand...

That's what keeps me coming back. The mods keep a tight lid on flaming