Usb2 Or Firewire?

[marshall1219]

I'm fixing to order an external hard drive for my laptop, and I have to buy a card either way, so should I look into Firewire or USB2? I was going to order USB, but I got to thinking and Firewire would be nice if I get a digital camera. I'm thinking from the drives I've seen that a USB interface is usually cheaper, but I can't remember for sure. If they are, I don't want to pay more for a 400 mbps connection when I could spend less and get 480 mpbs.

[thegroggman]

Hey man...check this link (http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/computers/storage/story/0,2000023527,20264535,00.htm). Basically the speed difference is negligable. The article gives some good arguments for both. Cheers :D

[Amarjit]

USB 2.0 rules over FireWire, or as some like to say IEEE 1394 or i.Link

80Mbps is worth it, that's 10MB/sec faster data transfer rate.

[harrycary]

While what AmarjitSingh sez is arguably true. Within the industry there is a race to see which version will appease the masses.
Given that a lot of hardware(e.g. PVRs, cable boxes, satellite tuners, etc) manufacturers are turning to firewire, that may be the way to go.

I mean, what if, down the road, you wanted to connect your harddrive to your new PVR to play movies or mp3s...

Certainly food for thought.

[bigfoot1942]

make sure your laptop is USB2.0 and not USB1.0 nor USB1.1. I dont have USB2.0 but i have firewire, and it works good with my external Maxtor HD of 250GB (only E 350,-).
The manufacturer said the HD could handle firewire at 40MB/s and USB2.0 at 36MB/s. (even though the theoretical max speed of firewire is 50MB/s and USB2.0 60 MB/s)
A friend of mine has firewire and USB2.0 and he got 19MB/s on USB2.0 and 17 on firewire. So in the end USB2.0 is faster. But the speeds you will get will depend on the speed of your laptop HD mostly :)

[wienerschnitzel]

I would go with firewire. I have both and the difference in speed is not noticible. Most of the usb devices (scanners, printers, etc.) are capable of using 1.0 or 2.0. 2.0 would just make the transfer rate faster. For scanning and printing 1.0 would only add a few more seconds on to it. I do video editing and I need a firewire card. I also use firewire hard drives. The usb and firewire HDs are usually the same price and the same speed.

In the end I would pick firewire because of what it can do with video and because they are very little usb 2.0 only products. If you had to buy those odd are you could buy a new laptop :)