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MBA with FireWire, my #1 wish
- Thread starter PracticalMac
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How wrong you are.
It might diminish on all but high end PC's, but in industrial applications it is USB that is an endangered species.
USB3 still does not have the credentials to replace industrial certified protocols (FW, Gige, CL, RS).
+2. I also agree. I think your desire for Firewire is a little unrealistic. Besides, why would you care about transfer speeds to an external drive or whatever as your "#1 wish?" I think it's a bit of a minor concern, in my opinion.
Screen, battery, CPU, GPU, improved weight, increased RAM - Firewire is literally the last thing I care about.
It doesn't even make sense with this machine. You're not going to be doing video work, or using large files that much. And if the SSD stick rumors are true, the limited space will mean Time Machine backups aren't going to take that long.
1. TDM
2. Faster file transfers (3 to 4x faster then USB2)
3. Faster backups
And then their are a few FW non-HDD devices around.
1. TDM
2. Faster file transfers (3 to 4x faster then USB2)
3. Faster backups
And then their are a few FW non-HDD devices around.
Fair enough. The heart wants what the heart wants. But, in my opinion it's a little myopic.
What non-HDD FW device would be useful with a MBA? Not trying to be argumentative, I just can't think of one.
Bri
Wow, I can't believe there is such a thing as a firewire fanboy.
For a Hard Drive, eSATA is better than anything else. You just connect the hard drive directly to the same controller as your internal drive. Done. That is 6000mbps BTW, with relatively littler overhead. That is 7 times faster than Firewire.
For audio/video equipment, ya sure Firewire is pretty popular, but it is going to wane and become less relevant with USB 3 and light peak.
For a Hard Drive, eSATA is better than anything else. You just connect the hard drive directly to the same controller as your internal drive. Done. That is 6000mbps BTW, with relatively littler overhead. That is 7 times faster than Firewire.
For audio/video equipment, ya sure Firewire is pretty popular, but it is going to wane and become less relevant with USB 3 and light peak.
Not to mention the fact that audio and video production aren't the strong points of the MBA, you might as well go with a MBP in a case like that.
So true, hopefully apple will be able to add it to light peak or something down the road.
I also want firewire
How many people use a MBA as their sole computer? So it needs to have a simple way of syncing your home folder with your main machine. Without firewire and target disc mode this is quite clunky. esata still needs a second cable for power. USB is slow, and depending on your external drive's specification and enclosure, also needs an external power supply. Don't dis firewire when the alternatives are so inadequate. Maybe when we have light peak everything in the garden will be lovely, but not until. It's a bit like saying electric cars are great, but forgetting that you need to tow a trailer with a diesel generator on it.
How many people use a MBA as their sole computer? So it needs to have a simple way of syncing your home folder with your main machine. Without firewire and target disc mode this is quite clunky. esata still needs a second cable for power. USB is slow, and depending on your external drive's specification and enclosure, also needs an external power supply. Don't dis firewire when the alternatives are so inadequate. Maybe when we have light peak everything in the garden will be lovely, but not until. It's a bit like saying electric cars are great, but forgetting that you need to tow a trailer with a diesel generator on it.
Knowing Apple there will be no Firewire, USB 3.0 or eSATA.
The first 2 because Apple now purchases chipsets from Intel or Nvidia and neither of them support FW or USB 3 natively so you will have to add another chip or two which add extra space and uses more power etc.
No eSATA because well Apple is Apple and an USB+eSATA port is probably too ugly for their standards.
The first 2 because Apple now purchases chipsets from Intel or Nvidia and neither of them support FW or USB 3 natively so you will have to add another chip or two which add extra space and uses more power etc.
No eSATA because well Apple is Apple and an USB+eSATA port is probably too ugly for their standards.
Follow the money.
Wouldn't it be a funny world if there were a correlation between the price of or rebates on silicon components from a big 800 pound gorilla chip company - you know, fundamental stuff like processor silicon - and the decision whether to use/support something like USB over Firewire. Nah, that would never happen.... Now, help me recall, who was it that pretty much invented and championed USB as an alternative to Firewire back in the day?
Wouldn't it be a funny world if there were a correlation between the price of or rebates on silicon components from a big 800 pound gorilla chip company - you know, fundamental stuff like processor silicon - and the decision whether to use/support something like USB over Firewire. Nah, that would never happen.... Now, help me recall, who was it that pretty much invented and championed USB as an alternative to Firewire back in the day?
I synch all my files through MobileMe. Works great. There was a rumor that Apple could offer the service for free....
Audio Interfaces.
Pro end disk jockeys have dumped USB due to noise introduced by USB Phy Layer. Nothing to do with bandwidth, just a protocol doing something it was not designed to do.
USB3 is a radically different USB, more like FW with USB2 support, but it will be years before Audio industries will use USB3
This following is rough estimates, but any research on HDD (5800, 7200, 10k RPM) and SSD throughput and compare.
If you ever compare transfer rates of HDD between eSATA and FW 800, you will be amazed to see the FW800 is almost as fast as eSATA.
Why? The HDD is the bottle neck. In write mode 7200RPM HDD is about same throughput as a FW800.
Use a quality SSD drive, THEN you will see real performance with eSATA!
USB3 will be same as eSATA again, becuase the SSD limit is reached.
Anyone who buys a USB3 HDD case is wasting money, because eSATA is 1/4 the price for the same throughput.
Everyone focuses on THEORETICAL, and not the ACTUAL throughput. A FedEx van full of Blue-Ray disks can deliver petabytes (1000 Terabytes) more data in 1 hour then USB3, PCI-e, or any network can dream of.
The only true issue is devices.
There is plenty of FW devices, and Apples TDM, to make it still a useful connection.
S!
USB 3 enclosures will reach USB 2 prices in a matter of months. The real benefit to buying a USB 3 drive over esata or FW though is that you can connect it to every computer, game console, nas, router and tv streamer ever made.
The fact that USB 3 is powered(actually, it has double the current of USB 2), backwards compatible and ridiculously fast means that it will dominate. No question about it.
The fact that USB 3 is powered(actually, it has double the current of USB 2), backwards compatible and ridiculously fast means that it will dominate. No question about it.
USB 3.0 is at least twice as fast as FW800 in real world tests based on current SSD speeds. Also your views of Audio interfaces no longer applies to USB and hasn't for probably the last 6+ years. So please consider USB is at least on par with FW if not better.
Full article http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec09/articles/qa1209_2.htm
Full article http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec09/articles/qa1209_2.htm