Greetings Peter & List--
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Shkabara" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 6:34 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] USB vs. Firewire


> The specs for USB 2 show a faster transfer rate (480Mbps) than Firewire
> (400Mbps). However, I have read some comments that for an external hard
> drive, the Firewire interface seems to give better performance. Has anyone
> on this list had experience with both so as to make some comments 
> regarding
> the speed?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Peter
> ----------------------------------
-------------------end original------------------------
While I've not yet tried utilizing the USB 2.0 interface to capture video, 
experienced friends of mine have told me that, while the USB spec is faster, 
it does not maintain that speed in a steady-state fashion. The difference is 
much like SCSI vs. IDE. There are some fast IDE drives out there, but their 
steady-state transfer, read, and write speeds are nowhere close to what a 
similar speed rated SCSI drive can maintain. If you plan to do video 
capture, in my opinion, the Firewire interface is the way to go.

HTH.

Paul A. Shippert
Literate Barbarian
Margaret Brent Middle School
410-326-6854 (H)
301-884-4635 x1019 (W)
-----------------------------------------
I don't just burn the candle at both ends;
I hold it in the middle with hot tongs.
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