Please Explain: Daisy Chain?

ghost_user_nameghost_user_name
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I'm looking at this hard drive enclosure because it supports Firewire 800. I currenlty have two spare hard drives lying around. If I picked up two of these cases and "daisy chained" them together and then had one plug going into my computer, would it show both drives or would it combine them as one external drive? How does this all work. Thanks for helping me figure this out.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jdcfsu


    I'm looking at this hard drive enclosure because it supports Firewire 800. I currenlty have two spare hard drives lying around. If I picked up two of these cases and "daisy chained" them together and then had one plug going into my computer, would it show both drives or would it combine them as one external drive? How does this all work. Thanks for helping me figure this out.



    It would show both drives...just like in the SCSI days.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    zachpruckowskizachpruckowski Posts: 805member
    You'd have both drives separate, but you'd be limited in terms of speed. If you plan on accessing both drives at once, you sort of lose out because they share the FW bus. But that's worst case, and they're as fast as FW400 even then.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    joe_the_dragonjoe_the_dragon Posts: 931member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jdcfsu


    I'm looking at this hard drive enclosure because it supports Firewire 800. I currenlty have two spare hard drives lying around. If I picked up two of these cases and "daisy chained" them together and then had one plug going into my computer, would it show both drives or would it combine them as one external drive? How does this all work. Thanks for helping me figure this out.



    this one has a better chip set

    http://www.cooldrives.com/3alox922fi80.html
  • Reply 4 of 6
    slugheadslughead Posts: 1,169member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Joe_the_dragon


    this one has a better chip set

    http://www.cooldrives.com/3alox922fi80.html





    Indeed. Always look at the chipsets. They can make a huge difference.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by slughead


    Indeed. Always look at the chipsets. They can make a huge difference.



    Really? I have no idea. I ordered a 24" iMac and want to be able to use my old hard drives for something, and since the 24" has FW800 I figured I should utilize the speed.



    What makes one chip set better then another?
  • Reply 6 of 6
    slugheadslughead Posts: 1,169member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jdcfsu


    Really? I have no idea. I ordered a 24" iMac and want to be able to use my old hard drives for something, and since the 24" has FW800 I figured I should utilize the speed.



    What makes one chip set better then another?



    Speed, packet loss, latency, and compatibility.



    You can benchmark a lot of that stuff.. one site to look at is http://www.barefeats.com



    and btw, never buy a drive enclosure from cooldrives.com, their PSU's SUCK (the one mentioned before may be OK, as it has an external PSU).
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