Ext Hard Drive: FW400 or FW800?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I just ordered a 24" iMac and am about to order one or two external hd's to go with it. One hd will be for Time Machine and the other would be for songs, movies, and maybe some pic's. I found a nice 500GB minStack v2 from NewerTech that has a 16MB cache and USB2.0/FW400 connections. The v3 adds FW800 (and is of course more expensive).



Based on my usage, would I notice a difference between FW400 annd FW800? Since there's only one FW800 on the iMac, could I daisy chain the two hd's together using FW800 (both of them have FW400 and FW800 hubs).

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    trowatrowa Posts: 176member
    The speed difference between FW400 and 800 is noticeable when moving larger files. Not so much when moving 100 MB's or so. Of course FW800 will be faster even then. But not so noticeable



    Personally I would go for the FW800. Just a nice option to have when you need it.



    you can daisy chain 2 FW800 external drives.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    Either. Both are fast
  • Reply 3 of 6
    filburtfilburt Posts: 398member
    Go for FW800 if the price difference isn't too dramatic (say, $20 or so). 30-50% performance boost will be noticeable. That said, FW800 is losing steam over eSATA (and in the future, USB 3.0). But none of the Macs have eSATA so FW800 represents the best external connectivity option.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    Another vote for FW800.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    I agree. Go FW800. If you go FW400, I can almost guarantee there will be a time down the road when you think, "Damn, I wish this thing was faster..."
  • Reply 6 of 6
    Sold! FW800 it is. Thanks for the advice (all I really needed was a little push...)
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