Your idea to buy a dual interface enclosure is a good one. USB 2.0 gives you better compatibility (you can find a USB 2.0 port on most any newer computer) and FireWire gives you better performance. With both interfaces you can choose the best for each situation you encounter.
Along those lines, do yourself a favor and buy a FireWire card for your home computer. Despite USB 2.0's theoretically higher maximum transfer rate (480 Mb/s versus 400 Mb/s), FireWire easily trounces USB 2.0 in real life.
I the following Eurocom combo enclosue that I bought from
Dealsonic:
Here are the transfer rates as measure by Sandra 2004.8.9.131:
- Code: Select all
+---------------+----------------------------------+-----------------------+
| | | |
| | Pentium III 1 GHz | Pentium 4 3 GHz |
| | | |
| +----------+---------+-------------+---------+-------------|
| | | | | | |
| | USB A | USB B | FireWire | USB | FireWire |
| | | | | | |
|---------------+----------+---------+-------------+---------+-------------|
| | | | | | |
| Overall MB/s | 19 | 15 | 30 | 25 | 31 |
| | | | | | |
|---------------+----------+---------+-------------+---------+-------------|
| | | | | | |
| Read MB/s | 21 | 15 | 35 | 29 | 36 |
| | | | | | |
|---------------+----------+---------+-------------+---------+-------------|
| | | | | | |
| Write MB/s | 18 | 15 | 25 | 26 | 30 |
| | | | | | |
|---------------+----------+---------+-------------+---------+-------------|
| | | | | | |
| Access ms | 17 | 10 | 12 | 21 | 12 |
| | | | | | |
|---------------+----------+---------+-------------+---------+-------------|
| | | | | | |
| CPU % | 2 | 24 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| | | | | | |
+---------------+----------+---------+-------------+---------+-------------+
Pentium III specs:
Windows 2000
USB A = Adaptec ADA-3100B USB 2.0 adapter, NEC chipset
USB B = Generic USB 2.0 adapter, VIA chipset
FireWire = I/O Flex PFW410 FireWire adapter, VIA chipset
Pentium 4 specs:
XP Pro
USB = Abit IC7-G integrated
FireWire = Abit IC7-G integrated
As you can see, FireWire really outperforms USB, both in terms of realized transfer rates (more than twice as fast in some cases) and resource utilization. You can also see that the performance you get from USB varies greatly depending on the adapter you use, but FireWire is pretty consistent.
cfitz
