What's the Best Way Of Connecting Peripherals? USB 2.0 Or Firewire? (Vanity)

[goldstategop]

What's the best way to connect peripherals? USB 2.0 or Firewire? Which connection method is more frequently used in connecting devices to a computer? Recommendations, please. Thanks.

[flashbunny]

usb 2.0 is the most widely used. It will do almost anything you need.

If you really need high speed / bandwidth transfers, then you go to firewire.

[goldstategop]

Yep. If memory serves, Firewire was Apple's first bid for a high speed device standard. Then USB 2.0 came out and even Apple climbed on board. Not too many people use Firewire unless there's a fancy video camera involved.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[flashbunny]

video, high speed hard drive, audio work. That's pretty much the main applications for firewire.

You're also going to tend to pay a premium for firewire devices over USB.

[goldstategop]

I've decided to upgrade my legacy 1.1 USB hub to a 2.0 USB hub. My computer has legacy ports but I also added a USB 2.0 peripheral port. The older laptops don't have the latest USB standard but a PCMCIA card takes care of the problem.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[coconutt2000]

Depends on what devices you're connecting.

Professional audio and video users should opt for Firewire 800. All other applications it really doesn't make much difference.

Hard drives on the other hand, you should use FW800. Like pro audio and video, hard drives can really use the bandwidth and throughput of firewire. But if you're barely using that external hard drive, and your files aren't very large, you aren't likely to see much difference between USB 2.0 and Firewire.

[Straight Vermonter]

My 7 year old laptop probably would not be able to use a USB wireless network then?

[goldstategop]

If you don't have a Type II Cardbus slot, I don't think so. But USB 2.0 is backwards compatible with USB 1.1 ports; USB 2.0 devices connected to older ports simply won't run to their full speed throughput.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[boris]

In my experience, USB 2 is actually faster than firewire. Anybody got benchmarks?

[HAL9000]

I'd rank them -

1. Firewire 800 - Fastest
2. USB 2
3. Firewire 400
4. USB 1 - Slowest