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Is firewire better than USB?

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superboyac:
If I'm going to transfer large amounts of information back and forth from my desktop to a portable hard drive, is firewire better than USB?  I ask because it seems like firewire is used when people transfer video from their digital camcorders instead of USB.

What are the pros/cons of each?

mouser:
my understanding is that there is very little difference in speed and quality of usb2 vs. firewire.

firewire is surelly faster than usb1, but most computers and usb drives are usb2 now.

in general, i would prefer usb2 over firewire any time. more compatible with more devices, and i had bad experience with my bytecc hd enclosure and firewire.

just my 2 cents.

kimmchii:
FireWire vs. USB 2.0

Question: Which is faster Hi-Speed USB 2.0 or FireWire?
Answer: In sustained throughput FireWire is faster than USB 2.0.

Question: If Hi-Speed USB 2.0 is a 480 Mbps interface and FireWire is a 400 Mbps interface, how can FireWire be faster?
Answer: Differences in the architecture of the two interfaces have a huge impact on the sustained throughput.

Carol Haynes:
Both are good - but Firewire was really developed for Macs (as iLink) and USB for Windows. Gradually Firewire was adopted on Windows because it was so much better than USB 1 ... USB 2 was really a respose to the growth of Firewire and they went for a higher data rate to say 'look Windows is beter' unfortunately the architecture of USB isn't nearly as good as Firewire so in practice Firewire is quicker.

There was talk a while back about Firewire2 coming out to push data rates again - but I get the impression it has died a death.

Personally the only thing I have used Firewire for is DV (Camcorder Video tape) dubbing to hard disc adn via my DVD recorder to DVD and I have never had any problems with it. I used to have loads of probs with USB 1 being flaky - but it seems to have become a bit more stable since USB2 came out - maybe the drivers have stabilised a bit.

superboyac:
Yeah Carol, I've heard firewire has better sustained throughput.  Mouser, I think the best solution would be to have a hard drive enclosure capable of supporting both usb and firewire.  Sounds good!  Thanks everyone.

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