Comments on: Battle of the data titans: USB 3.0 vs. FireWire 3200

By: Hank McCord

Hank McCord — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 06:47:22 +0000

I use firewire nearly everyday with my external HDD. I transfer HD movies and moving over 100GB takes no more than 25min. USB would take hours and hours. And Shan, you are so far off of the truth. Firewire provides twice the power output that USB does. And Firewire 800 users are 1000x better off as it will be forward compatible with 3200; not needing a whole new mobo for some silly 3.0.

By: ebphoto

ebphoto — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:26:29 +0000

firewire is a more stable technology, it came from mac!. I do video editing and there’s no way I could edit on usb HD, transfering a 1TB takes about 20 hours with usb 2 and 3-4 hours with firewire 800. the only reason usb is more popular is political reason, not what is best for consumers. I just my firewire 800 HD will need a firmware update.

By: mark

mark — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:04:02 +0000

Only Firewire provides a reliable transfer. USB is good for printers and scanners. My external hard disks have both firewire 800 and USB2. USB2 is faster than Firewire 800 only in the beginning. If you have to transfer wide load of data only Firewire is to be chosen. In the long run Firewire is faster than USB, has no up and downs that USB has.

By: MacFundamentalist

MacFundamentalist — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:19:06 +0000

Simon, I don’t agree. I have daisy-chained a harddisk with a dvd-burner with a 320GB portable harddisk at the end and it draws power from the chain.
For TimeMachine backups FireWire is preferable over USB. I also like the targetmode on the Mac, making it possible to use it as an external harddrive.

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:08:11 +0000

Neil, you’re wrong there.

FireWire DOES support power output. FW400 has a 4-pin and a 6-pin version, the latter can power devices alright. AND you can daisy-chain FW devices if they have 2 connectors. Though in that case, the one that’s further away from your computer can’t receive power from it.
Then again, most FW-peripherals have their own power supply.

By: Neil

Neil — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:19:24 +0000

well that’s the problem as to why firewire hasn’t caught on: it’s oriented to the professional market who have money to splurge on products that support firewire.

also, firewire doesn’t support power output, while usb does support it. this adds convenience to the fact that usb products are smaller and have a smaller setup time.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:00:02 +0000

I prefer to use Firewire for recording because it seems to be more consistent and less problematic. Usb is great on peripherals used quickly like printers and such but if you are in need of reliable communication between interfaces Firewire (or pci) is the way to go.– Shan if you would research just a tiny bit on this subject you would see there is large, Professional market for firewire because well… it is better, stronger, faster.

By: Alejandro

Alejandro — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:35:11 +0000

Shan, you’ve made a wrong assertion. There are mini firewire ports and conectors, in fact most laptops have one… yeah, its that tiny hole in your computer that reads 1394!… and you thought it was a clever Kensington lock….

By: Shan

Shan — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:55:17 +0000

Reason for loosing the battle is simple.
-There is no firewire pen drives, cards, card readers, PDAs , Cameras,
- No Mini, Micro Firewire ports, connectors which are more consumer market oriented.

So.. nobody promotes it /wants it.
If I dont have firewire port on my comp, I dont have a problem ( reason is obvious) , but if i dont have a USB port on the comp, there is a big problem…

By: Elliot

Elliot — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:19:25 +0000

Response to Ken.
Firewire is used a lot in the music industry and is very useful for linking audio interfaces to computers, i would choose firewire over USB any day.