Last two days, I couldn't get any mail from the list, so I have to repost this.

Jun Qian

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Shippert" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 12:39 AM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] USB vs Firewire


> Greetings Robert and list--
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Robert Citkowitz <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Monday, May 12, 2003 4:33 pm
> Subject: [PCBUILD] USB vs Firewire
>
> > How do they compare in speed? Range of peripherals using one or
> > the other? Other characteristics? Is including a firewire port a
> > significant reason to select one of those very few notebooks
> > (excluding Apple) over others?
> >
>
> USB 1=12 Mbps, USB 2.0=480 Mbps, FireWire=400 Mbps
>
>

Number doesn't really matters here, USB has too much hyper.  There are few
reviews around.  All of them showed that fireware is better than USB2.
There is one http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,847716,00.asp
There are few words I copy/paste here
"But overall, FireWire slightly outperformed USB 2.0"
"Our tests showed that USB 2.0 was generally only 2 to 13 times as fast as
USB 1.1-not the promised 40 times as fast."

The reason why USB2 is faster on paper, and firewire is faster in real life
is:

(The following words are from another review)

"Another point is that the main application for FireWire was real-time data
transfer, with digital video, for instance. This points us to exactly the
advantage that FireWire has to offer, because the data stream must remain
uninterrupted with such applications"

"On the other hand, USB 2.0, in its current form, could never deliver
continuous streams of data, which are required for hard disk recording and
video applications."

Hope this helps.

Jun Qian

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