USB 2.0 and firewire

  • Thread starter Thread starter Augustus
  • Start date Start date
A

Augustus

I did a test with my external hard disk. The disk has a USB 2.0 connector
and a firewire connector.

I copied the same large file on my local hard disk to the same destination
on my external hard disk. The first time I used the USB 2.0 option, the
second time the firewire option. It turns out that firewire was
quicker...significantly quicker.How can that be? The trasnfer was about 40
mbps, it was a bit less with USB 2.0...so my local hard disk was the
bottleneck (firewere and USB 2.0 can both use 400 mbps at least).

So if my local hard disk is the bottleneck, how can firwwiere than be
significantly quicker than USB 2.0?

(And my USB 2.0 was indeed on hi-speed cause the calculated speed is far
above the 1.5 mbps USB 1.1 and the full speed 12 mbps from USB 2.0. So with
about 38 mbps the transfer was on USB 2.0 hi-speed!

So is firewire indeed faster? But how? USB 2.0 runs at a max of 580 mbps and
firewire at 400 mbps. How can firewire then win this test?

Thanks.
 
Augustus said:
I did a test with my external hard disk. The disk has a USB 2.0 connector
and a firewire connector.

I copied the same large file on my local hard disk to the same destination
on my external hard disk. The first time I used the USB 2.0 option, the
second time the firewire option. It turns out that firewire was
quicker...significantly quicker.How can that be?
Click to expand...

USB will never be faster than FireWire...

It's like comparing IDE to SCSI. The theoretical transfer rates might be
close, but the protocol efficiency and CPU overhead aren't even close.

Personally, I'd suggest using Firewire for anything where speed may be an
issue (anything but mouse/keyboard basically)
 
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