USB2 or Firewire...which is faster...

[MdDg37]

I am looking to an an external HD and found 2 models of the same HD...one with both Firewire and USB2 and another unit ...exactly the same but with only USB2 for $40 less. Is Firewire faster than USB2?

Thank you!

[maqtda alsadr]

USB2 is supposed to be. My daughter just got a usb2 dvd burner. Its supposed to write at 8x. about half way through movie it fails. So don't get the cheapest one.

[Joleen]

USB2 is 480M/s while firewire b is 800.  USB is more generally common but firewire is more common for video (camera/camcorder). You be the judge.

[MdDg37]

Excellent ...thank you!

Firewire B...is that the name for the newer 2nd genreation Firewire I have been hearing about? Unfortunately I have not been able to find that on any current external HDs...just the original Firewire. Thanks again for your help!!

[Joleen]

It is second gen.  The info I gave you can be found via Google very easily.. I think I just typed in firewire for my search string.  Also take a look at *I think* http://www.howstuffworks.com.

[johnwill]

FYI, while the bit rate for USB 2.0 is 480mbit and Firewire is 400mbit, in reality Firewire has much better performance.  It all comes down to the controller and the amount of processor required to access the device.  Firewire uses DMA and adds very little processor overhead when accessing devices, USB 2.0 uses all programmed I/O and uses lots of processor power doing large transfers to mass storage devices.

I have a pair of 7200 RPM 8mb cache drives in USB 2.0 / Firewire cases, and in my benchmarks, the USB 2.0 interface had a raw transfer rate of around 22mbyte/sec with significant processor overhead and Firewire does 31mbyte/sec with minimal processor impact.  I use them with the firewire interface.