Daisy Chain FW HD Vs. USB HD for Logic Recording

jasd2d · Jan 16, 2008

Hey Mac Forums:

I've got a question.

I'm using a macbook with a presonus firepod. As you know, the macbook only has one firewire port. Right now I'm running my interface into the computer and then the external HD into the interface.

Would it be better, use less resources, etc, for me to use a USB external HD? My HD can be switched from either FW or USB, so switching isn't a big deal.

Cheers,

Justin

Village Idiot · Jan 16, 2008

jasd2d said:
Hey Mac Forums:

I've got a question.

I'm using a macbook with a presonus firepod. As you know, the macbook only has one firewire port. Right now I'm running my interface into the computer and then the external HD into the interface.

Would it be better, use less resources, etc, for me to use a USB external HD? My HD can be switched from either FW or USB, so switching isn't a big deal.

Cheers,

Justin

It's probably better to record to the macbook's interl hdd then transfer it...well, depending on how many channel's you're recording and such. USB will likely end up a bottle neck.

MegaRoss · Jan 17, 2008

You sometimes get latency problems with the macbook stock hard disk I find (I also use a firepod), I upgraded to a 7200rpm one, no problems.

I'd say usb in theory would be faster, firewire 400mb/s, usb 480mb/s.

Village Idiot · Jan 17, 2008

MegaRoss said:
You sometimes get latency problems with the macbook stock hard disk I find (I also use a firepod), I upgraded to a 7200rpm one, no problems.

I'd say usb in theory would be faster, firewire 400mb/s, usb 480mb/s.

That is just the fastest allowable speeds. Test show that USB tends to only hit that on burst and firewire tends to hold a faster steady throughput.

Plus the huge advantage firewire has is that input and output are allowable at the same time, unlike USB.

And the internal connection is always going to be faster, they're probably using SATA which smokes the transfer rate of either of those two mediums.

jasd2d · Jan 22, 2008

Thanks for the input. I'd upgrade the internal HDD and use that, but you shouldn't have your applications and OS be on the HD you use for audio. Audio files should be on their own dedicated disk. I'll test USB and Firewire and see which is faster. I wouldn't have this problem if I had two firewire ports.

Amen-Moses · Jan 22, 2008

jasd2d said:
I'm using a macbook with a presonus firepod. As you know, the macbook only has one firewire port. Right now I'm running my interface into the computer and then the external HD into the interface.

Would it be better, use less resources, etc, for me to use a USB external HD? My HD can be switched from either FW or USB, so switching isn't a big deal.

I'd say yes, using a USB2 HD whilst using the FW for audio input should give you the best I/O profile.

Amen-Moses

Daisy Chain FW HD Vs. USB HD for Logic Recording

jasd2d

Village Idiot

MegaRoss

Village Idiot

jasd2d

Amen-Moses

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