USB 2.0 vs Firewire

wixostrix

wixostrix

New Member
I've read that USB 2.0 transfers 480Mbps and FireWire transfers at 400Mbps. Ok it's obvious which is faster. However, I also read that FireWire is better when dealing with large files (and large amounts). Is this true? I'm gonna buy a external enclosure of my extra IDE HDD cause my Mobo only has one IDE lane. So I want to know which type I would get better performance.

Edit:
I already bought a FireWire card that goes into my PCI-E x1 Slot if that makes any difference.
 
Bl00dFox

Bl00dFox

New Member
Ur best with USB - more PC's have USB than firewire. And no, you wont see that much performance increase (if any)
 
P

PC eye

banned
You will probably find that firewire will work better with large transfers since it is on it's own bus. The usb bus has? mouse?, keyboard?, printer?, and other possible distractions loading and unloading things. The actual bandwidth with firewire on the other hand is all alone by itself. Other system processes shouldn't see any effects there.
 
T

Technogab

New Member
wixostrix said:
Well the case i got has FireWire and USB and I have FireWire now so I shouldnt have any problems. Thanks
Click to expand...

Going by spec's USB looks faster, but like others have mentioned, Firwire is on it's own bus and has a higher "constant" transfer rate. You will see that transferring large files over Firewire is faster than USB2.0. USB starts off with a burst, but then slows down. Firewire is more consistant and handles the large data much better.

We used to run full system backups over USB 2.0 but switched to Firewire and it made a big difference in backup times.

USB 2.0 is still fast, but if you are dealing with lots of files and large transfers, Firewire is the way to go.
 
The_Other_One

The_Other_One

VIP Member
I once found some benchmarks between USB2.0 and Firewire. Firewire is about 20% faster than USB. As mentioned, random access probably wouldn't make too much of a difference, but large transfers might.

I have a USB/Firewire enclosure with my external DVD-RW in it. Most of the time, I catch myself using USB just because it's more handy. But either way, there's no real noticable difference in just common usage.
 
P

PC eye

banned
One of the main reasons that 1394 firewire would be seen faster was mentioned before where you have a card or even onboard bus that runs free of interference while on usb a list of devices can be in use at the same time. With a laptop not desktop you would be miore likely to be using the usb available there.
 
Cromewell

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
It isn't about a dedicated bus. USB isn't good at sustained speeds, Firewire is. Even with a PCI USB card firewire is better for large sustained transfers.
 
kof2000

kof2000

New Member
firewire enclosure also cost more than usb2 ones. if you plan on getting firewire at least get one that is a combo of the two.
 
P

PC eye

banned
Cromewell said:
It isn't about a dedicated bus. USB isn't good at sustained speeds, Firewire is. Even with a PCI USB card firewire is better for large sustained transfers.
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That's because it was never intended to be. IEEE 1394 firewire was first called LINK by Sony. The bandwidth is about 30 times wider then usb 1.1 and doesn't even need to be used on a pc. It's often used for transfers between two digital devices like a camcorder and vcr. You'll find it's almost a standard for use on Mac when tranferring between systems.
 
wixostrix

wixostrix

New Member
kof2000 said:
firewire enclosure also cost more than usb2 ones. if you plan on getting firewire at least get one that is a combo of the two.
Click to expand...

the one i got is a combo, so yea, im prepared for anything and it isnt that much more expensive than (well the ones i saw anyway). i got mine from ebay for only 20 bucks
 
calumn

calumn

New Member
Firewire is better. I would prefer it if all my devices were firewire and not usb but usb is more "windows supported" than firewire so usb wins even though firewire is better.
 
dragon2309

dragon2309

P.I Dragon
wixostrix said:
I've read that USB 2.0 transfers 480Mbps and FireWire transfers at 400Mbps
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Not strictly true, you haven't said what FireWire your running, on, you stated FireWire400 speeds, there is also FireWire800 which, believe it or not, runs at 800Mbits per second

dragon
 
P

PC eye

banned
The Apple Developer Connection goes into that in more detail. http://developer.apple.com/hardwaredrivers/firewire/index.html

Firewire800 is rarely seen in Windows while prevalent on Mac. SP2 is required and will see it only work at 100mbits per second. This is due to OHCI specifications having a direct bearing on that. Due to the lack of hardware for pc and incompatibilities Microsoft has actually done little with it. For more detail on that go to http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm
 
P

PC eye

banned
Too bad it's more of a Apple/Mac deal as far as the transfer speed. It would be a big help there for the Windows environment if the support was there. But like the article outlines there it's one application is for either for tranfers of large files or a large number of files with the 100mbit per second rate. Tom's Hardware has a good review to look over that does show promise in network use seen at http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/04/02/go_external/
 
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