USB 3.0 Speed Test vs USB 2.0 eSATA Internal connection (NCIX Tech Tips #71)

How fast is USB 3.0 compare to other popular high speed connection? like eSATA, firwire and USB 2.0.. Watch this episode and find out!

[@almmiron]

How about a 2016 version of this video? gEN2 usb 3.1, thunderbolt 3...

[@angablade]

Just now watching this video for the first time, and THE AUDIO OMG... THE HORROR!!!!

[@frankcreate]

This guy is good. Walked away with a much much better understanding of not just speed but compatibility among the various types of connections. Much appreciated.

[@shehrima]

one of the best presentations i have ever seen thanks

[@PeterHellLetLoose]

You make awesomely educational nerding videos. I would like more.

[@stargazerblue186]

this was a very informative video and answered all the questions that i had. and reliable as your video also had the proof the back it up.. good job

[@RealMarcFoxx]

@blobrockster Anyone who has a miniDV tape-based camera uses Firewire to connect it (with virtually no exceptions). I use both Mac and PC computers, a variety, and have never had any problem with Firewire. In fact, I was using a Firewire external drive on my PC for almost a year as a backup device. This KZbin video is the first time I've heard of people having these problems. All my HD video editing friends use Firewire w/o a problem.

[@ztveng]

I'm doing video editing on a Sabertooth X58 machine. We do have some firewire drives, but hardly ever use them. What we do use 1394 for is connecting to a HDV taperecorder occasionally, that works great and can't be accomplised with any other interface. For external storage we have some Lacie USB 3.0 disks, and while I'm liking the speed, they're consistently introducing errors on video files when rendering directly to them from After Effects (CS5). In any other case they're working perfectly.

[@1000Rahid]

[@iscandium]

great test, exactly what I was looking for. thanks for the hardwork

[@MarioDragon]

I'm sure within the next year or two, we're already seeing less and less of 2.0.

[@Carkand]

"In 32 seconds, I said 31 what are you going to do???"

[@fiveangle]

@davejohnson3000 (continued 5...) Larger latency interfaces effectively put the pitcher farther away from the catcher. This affects small data transfer the most, since the time required to communicate back and forth becomes the deciding factor in overall "speed" rather than how fast the data can be sent. Latency is not fixed and is implementation dependant, but generally in this order: USB2/3-1-2ms, FW400/800, 0.1-0.2ms, eSATA3/6-unknown but in nanoseconds, Thunderbolt-0.000008ms

[@laronmaron98]

As a PC user, I don't use FireWire that often. As an engineer, I have a problem with Linus dismissing FireWire as "unreliable" because he couldn't get it to work. If you're speed testing three technologies, you make damn sure you get reliable hardware that represents each one fairly. I may not use FireWire, but it works for millions if users. It deserved proper representation in this test.

[@fil8649]

Try listening with headphones lol. I truly enjoy these videos though, can't help watching 3-4 videos at a time!

[@DSTOCK1313]

Haha I recently switched over to DVCproHD using the p2 cards and I would honestly like to agree with you but there are still alot of people using tape man. In a perfect world it would be great if everyone could afford to go tapeless, but I know a few agencies that are really having a hard time right now, and simply cant afford to replace their gear. I like tapeless acquisition but I still see some benefits to using tape. For instance tape does provide a cheap hassle free form for archiving.

[@phantomfusion]

I know you were aiming this more at a home tech audience but what about a gigabit home network with a nas solution such as a drobo or a netgear solution? I would think that might be interesting to also compare in your specifications.

[@Calendyr]

Defective Firewire cable maybe? Thanks for the results!

[@HenryTomasino1]

Firewire has theoretical transfer rates of up to 400MBps on modern boards. If you bump back about 8 years you will see that the value is doubled... Firewire 800 was really only found in MACs and workstation computers, but delivers the best rates as far as external is concerned.

[@micropage7]

Usb 3.0 faster than 2.0 but the good thing is it supports backward compability so you can use 2.0 on 3.0.. And on the future 3.0 will b the facto standard beside e-sata n firewire

[@evilduck90]

I feel threatened when he said " wut'r u gonna do" :(

[@RealMarcFoxx]

@blobrockster The vast majority of all HD video editors were using Firewire to capture their HD video from tape-based cameras. Never had any problem with it.

[@dr.k.2945]

He didn't seem to say whether he was working with IEEE1394 Firewire 400 or Firewire 800. I have been interested in technology for a long time, and wrote a major program with the help of a professional programmer in 1967, which was adopted by several major universities. But, I do not work in the tech field. I have used Firewire 400 and 800 devices for 15 years? or more, and never had the slightest problem. Firewire 800 worked blazingly fast to transfer files between my computers for many years. Also used it to scan and print for years. No problems. Today I also use USB 2, USB 3, Thunderbolt 2, and wireless to transfer files. I believe Apple inc. went from firewire to USB because all the rest of the world was using USB, and it was just easier to join the mainstream, than to persist with a unique type of connection.

[@BrianD428]

I looked for this information for a good 15 minutes. Exactly what I was looking for, thanks NCIX!

[@davec5613]

No big deal about the firewire. It is a dodo bird these days. Even Mac is ditching it in favor of Thunderbolt 2. Thanks for the comparisons. I transfer files from AJA KiPro recorders and the files are enormous.

[@ShiggitayMediaProductions]

That second FireWire port is for MiniDV digital camcorders way back when. = )

[@TheItalianYouTuber]

ok, thank for your tests, I now know what to choose: e-sata! :o)

[@MmmCouchPotato]

Great video Linus; very informative. However, WHERE'S ESTHER?

[@JasonDenison]

I have 2.0, Firewall and eSata. I installed a eSata card in my computer but I have a hard time getting my Lacie External drives to connect fast and stay connect in a stable way. Kept dropping connection. I switched to Firewire 800 and got a slower connection speed but barely noticed and the connection was stable... NOW I'm thinking should I go to USB 3.0....

[@Hirotoro4692]

@filmftw3 potentially USB 3 is faster than Esata but as far as I'm aware the sata interface on the hard drive itself will throttle the USB 3 speeds, thus limiting its potential.

[@fiveangle]

I have to chime in here to state that Firewire *is* considerably faster, for one reason: latency. The actor claims that the speed differential between small file copies was likely due to "handling the files differently" by the different interfaces. This may be somewhat correct, but we'll never know. 2 factors contribute to external drive speed: latency, and buffer flushing. (continued above...)

[@davewozere2k9]

@marbachan I agree, i don't think they did it on purpose, ive noticed the comments that were voted up to the top saying, use firewire 800. Have been removed :s Would it really be such a hard thing to add a footnote stating they made a mistake, or just do a re-run

[@MrThexamen]

The firewire comment that don't work is a bad comment I recommend to check because Pro-tools reocomend connect to firewire a HD vs USB 2, FIREWIRE is a great connector probably is removed by thunderbolt but firewire you can found a great performance and less error rate than usb.

[@OyePressStart]

@mckimsey you're very right. I'd like to add though that i've used eSATA Firewire and usb 2.0 I prefer firewire. using usb while using my computer typically slowed down my transfers however using esata or firewire never did. zip zilch that was enough to convince me that firewire was the way to go.. I never got why usb did that. never liked usb because of it. Can't tell me i gotta sit and watch a transfer if i was best speeds thats nuts!

[@MrElseJon]

@WobBingZs the USB 3.0 ports are backwards compatible with 2.0 and 1.1 don't worry :)

[@chronofusion]

@tyeikyl I definitely understand your overall point about " mac haters..etc" I only own an ipod 120gig classic so i dont have much room to talk. i've built more than 40 custom gaiming pc's since 2001. I know mac to a HARDWARE extent rips off their customer's by as much as 25% maybe more..BUT i do agree with most experience apple customer's about the overall EXPERIENCE which apple gets an A++ in my book. I had problem with a previous ipod 120g classic in less than 2 years still in warranty..

[@doubleatheman]

I was so happy the day I got my SDHC HD video camera, I soooo disliked Firewire always dropping out on me, regardless of camera or computer. I had 9 fire wire cameras (diffrent angles of the same project) at times. And 3 computers I would edit with, rarely could I import an entire mini dv tape of 60 mins without having to reconnect and reimporting. I am loving the ESATA on my asus n61jqp and on my desktop.

[@LaveaFirmis]

Its rare to have any issues but I have more issues with USB devices playing up than Firewire ones. Firewires soundcards just wack in and go. USB limits the amount the interface can do too

[@williamshirkie]

USB 3.0 can get up-to 4.8Gbps with full duplex but the new Firewire specification is only 3.2Gbps with full duplex. However Firewire 3200 will be backwards compatible with the old Firewire 800 ports and you will receive the full 3.2Gbps and full duplex with a supported device and cable in the Firewire 800 port. Unlike USB 3.0 which will be backwards compatible with USB 2.0 but only at 480Mbps and half duplex. Also Firewire is Media industry standard. Also he didn't use Firewire 800.

[@Surwin]

Dude..... you're a geek! PS. (haha) thanks for the informative lesson, and now I know why two of my USB ports are "blue" on my new Intel DH67GD desktop board. : ) ~10 out of 10 techno geeks agree, INTEL beats AMD~ Period

[@PolymerJones]

does anyone else have the issue with Windows / PC .. where your USB 2.0 ports eventually get slow and you get the error "try connecting to a USB 2.0 port " when all ports used to be USB 2.0?

[@LaveaFirmis]

2 things most professional soundcards are still using Firewire 800 because of its reliability over USB and theyre skipping straight to Thunderbolt in a lot of cases USB is only really used for novice, entry level, cheap soundcards. USB 2 & 3 arent good enough really because of the way the buses are setup

[@hraqhraq]

disappointing that you didn't try harder with firewire port; try adding firewire cards on PCI-E and post again; otherwise thank you so much for this video and well done

[@cccs07]

How big is that TV/Monitor, and what resolution are you using? Looks like a fairly large one (Resolution), which leads me to believe it was pretty expensive... :o

[@zzzhuh]

I could really give a shit on how fast it takes to copy, not gonna spend money on something I don't really need just because it's "a little" faster.

[@MarisaClardy]

For USB 2.0, yes. You need to use a USB 3.0 port with the USB 3.0 drive to get full speeds. using a USB 2.0 port will significantly slow it down.

[@TalesOfWar]

@JmsDrkx I'd say FireWire is more like BETA Max, it's actually a superior technology to VHS (USB) but is used less because it cost more to produce and use (when it was new). FireWire kind of killed itself in the start with the higher licencing fee, but they dropped that. It was too late to make up the ground lost to USB though. Although FireWire is used extensively in professional studios where they need the extra speed and stability. It's rare seeing FW800 on anything but Macs too.

[@dissturbbed]

Freaking awesome..answered all my questions in one video..weird

[@LM_Cams]

@Twisted86 It is! I use my USB 3.0 port to connect my keyboard when the other ports won't detect it

[@Gapfruit]

What do you mean with "better picture quality"? Isn't it a digital connector, so you'd suppose to have the same data on the destination as on the source? In school I learned the main difference is that the firewire controller reserves bandwidth to the different devices so your realtime-video translation for example cannot be interrupted by some other device that requested speed.

[@MORONI88]

why did he not ask the cameraman how to use firewire lol. how did you you check write quality to see the reliability of the connectors?

[@n33oh]

This makes no fucking sense! If eSATA has been available longer than USB 3.0 *and* it's FASTER than USB 3.0, then why the hell on Earth are companies making USB 3.0 ext hard drives instead of eSATA ext hard drives? Does a combo USB 2.0 & eSATA ext hard drive exist? I'm not talking about enclosures, but a stock OEM one. This is what happens when you let marketing people control the evolution of hardware standards.

[@bobbynishi]

Some Windows 7 installs are picky about using Firewire from the Mobo. But what bothers me is that is the enclosure (that has FW800) didn't work properly with a FW800-FW400, you should try a motherboard that has FW800 (PCI?) to begin with. And, btw, that small 4-pin FireWire port is well too familiar to any Videographer. That also has several variations of transfer rates and different kinds of connectors. 4-pin (FW400), 6-pin (FW400) and 8-pin (FW800).

[@kidsafe]

@mnagmobile1 He does bash FireWire quite a bit in other videos, asking why it's wasting space on motherboards instead of something 'better.' FireWire 400 is faster than USB 2.0 in the real world, uses less CPU and is officially spec'd to supply more power to devices. It is also a peer-to-peer serial technology meaning it doesn't necessarily require a complex controller to link two devices. eSATA is faster because it's native, but powered eSATA is rare.

[@Aaronage1]

Shame you couldn't get Firewire running for this test. I've been using it for years for external storage, very reliable and fast in my experience :) Firewire was always better than USB 2.0 really, the devices actually run at the advertised 400Mbps/800Mbps whereas USB 2.0 devices rarely come close to 480Mbps. Firewire should have taken USB 2.0's place but that's just my opinion :) The SATA vs. USB 3 tests were interesting, i was under the impression they were neck and neck :O

[@TheDbG33K]

Nice video! Very informative :)

[@samljer]

I know lots of ppl use firewire etc, but i had the some issues as him apparently firewire chipsets have to be compatible while as USB.SATA ones just talk a common language, its weird. Firewire is like the 25 pin com port of the modern PC lol its there, but using it........ try to find another interface.

[@kidsafe]

For reliability FireWire is actually superior to USB 2.0 in every way. Not only are there 6 leads vs 4, but the port supplies around 15w of power...much more than USB 2.0. FireWire also supports isosynchronous data transfer so more importan tasks can be prioritized. While FireWire will be made obsolete by USB 3.0 and LightPeak, it had many advantages to eSATA and USB 2.0.

[@TherandusGaming]

Could you try putting a us 2.0 wireless dongle that connects to a router in both a 2.0 and 3.0 port and see if it makes a difference because i swear it is but im not sure if it was just my internet being grumpy :P I think thats an interesting thing to do,m test different usb devices with each :P

[@pksmb1120]

I've been on a Mac since 2005 and have never had trouble with Firewire. Just pop it in and go. USB gives me trouble when trying to copy large amounts of data greater than 20 gigs or so. When I used to be on a PC back in like 2003 I had a firewire port and didn't have trouble with it.

[@PeterWu777]

There we have the control experiment on Win7. How about run them again with Win XP ? I can tell you for sure NONE of my machines runs Vista or 7. XP is still the mainstream for me. For the longest time I pick mobo based on SATA Raid controller, alone with eSATA, usb 3.0 may be too new, still high priced

[@uncannytranny]

I've always been wondering, are there companies that own patents to cables like USB, HDMI, DVI, etc? Or did someone develop them and distribute them without the idea of making money directly from the cable. Can someone clue me in here?

[@OVERLAPE]

Will a 3.0 USB still work with a 2.0 outlet ? Because my laptop has 2.0 outlets, but I've already ordered a recording device that works on a 3.0 usb. will it work with a 3.0USB just as fast as it would with a 2.0 usb, or it won't work at all... ??

[@MarioDragon]

@Skriptid I hadn't even heard of Firewire until recently, and doubt I'll ever use it now there's USB 3.0. Oh well, let butthurts be butthurt.

[@Michplay]

i coppied 1 file 1gb from a Corsair neutron gtx to usb 3.0 with 300MB/sec transfer rate on a asus p8z77-v. but then you have the problem that it takes longer to calculate the time remaining then the actual data transfer :P

[@BrianCRobichaud]

Additional as I ran out of space in the last comment, it would have been nice if he had also monitored CPU performance on the copy tests. USB uses a lot more CPU power then SATA and Firewire for file copy operations.

[@datapro007]

Excellent review. However, the speed comparison between eSATA and USB 3 isn't quite valid. The reason is that the external enclosures use SATA II (3 gb/sec) internally, which is the bottleneck.

[@gpittel]

Intel's thunderbolt I/O transfers 650mb a second. Blows all of this crap outta the water. And of course all the new macs come loaded with it. Windows and pc can suck a fart outta my ass... Lol

[@bleachboy8]

@MrSamm88 Its an Adata 8GB Flash pretty standard, my mobo is the P55 which has a feature of USB3.0, the drivers are up to date.. there pretty much nothing else i can do.. thanks though :)

[@Tkhan45]

i have a (Power eSATA Esatap Male to 1 USB Female and 1 eSATA Female Adapter ) how do i use this,because i cant it to work please help

[@909Thumper909]

Thats FW400, the old standard. FW800 is what's current and has been on new Macs for the last year or so. FW has many strengths over the others because it's a non-host communication unlike eSATA and USB-(X). Besides, I think FW is just there for decoration on PC's. He's right, FW is for professional Mac users and PC guys who know what they're doing ;)

[@MainelyElectrons]

@joel4581 No because Usb 3 has more pins on the connector. So since your flash drives is Usb 2.0 it has less pins than USB3. It's those connectors that speed it up.

[@VideoStefan17]

@chaldoking6969 hehe, i never had a problem with the firewire... using it every day (on both, PC and Mac). Plug it in and work... but maybe i do something wrong :D greetings

[@katiemilker]

I've got fire wire for my computer which I use mostly for the video camera, it transfers pretty fast, I would say it's definitely the fastest at 6.4 Gbit/s.

[@xb4b1x]

2 questions then, if usb n eSATA is so fast, why dont we use it for gaming keyboards / mice? n is usb 2.0 GOLD connectors faster than usb3.0 standard? :O

[@JetJL]

Is there a way for me to get usb 3.0 card working on a non pci express (mini) motherboard? I found one on newegg but I'm not sure that it will work.

[@Hirotoro4692]

@scottwilliam9 it does! the beauty of usb 3.0 is you can still take your drive round to your friends house and play music through his USB 2.0!

[@iHeatsWorkshop]

@NCIXcom could you make a tutorial explaning how to pick a good video card?

[@n33oh]

@lukeblack1000 You're right, eSATA has no power but USB 2.0 ports also need external power to run 3.5" drives. Not sure about USB 3.0

[@Phenomental1ty]

@davejsa71289 I got my Logitech G9x plugged into the USB 3.0 on the back of my Rampage III Extreme board, and it works just fine.

[@splice247]

firewire is from apple, and people say apple is good lol PS: thats not firewire hes using its 1394 bec firewire is apple only

[@Zaradrak]

Just to fill in on Firewire or IEEE 1934. It's technically better than the USBs though less than either SATAs and most find that USB 3.0 is a bit more reliable and faster. The whole reason why is because it bypasses the normal I/O design for most devices which wait for response through an interrupt system on the CPU and OS level. Instead Firewire has a tendency to allow bypasses straight to the CPU's cache explaining its performance boost, though leaving some security issues.

[@Burnitnow567]

It really is worth the add-on card upgrade. Even when using a USB 2. Flash drive on the USB 3 port, the transfer is faster. It seems like all it takes is one slow device on your USB 2 ports to slow everything down. USB 3 flash drives are pretty cheap now. But be aware I have noticed that some name brand drives perform better than no name or store brands. I have personally verified this myself.

[@LaveaFirmis]

If Firewire sucks ass why is it used on nearly all professional devices such as top end hard drives, cameras and external sound cards. In these places USB 2 is awful, painfully slow and unreliable. I use Firewire 400 and its much faster than USB 2 and Firewire 800 destroys it completely. You can use something like a Lacie FIrewire 800 external hard drive as if its an internal drive for photoshop files, while playing music off it too. You cant do this with USB 2 its way too slow.

[@SomeRandom778]

I think you'll find that they are theoretical maximums, not to mention that what you say here is wrong... Its actually 4.7Gbps (GigaBITS per second) which is about 600 MegaBYTES per second for USB 3.0. and 470Mbps (MegaBITS per second) which is about 60 MegaBYTES per second. yes, that is a 10 times difference, but as i said theoretical maximums. I think you need to do some math. and learn some facts before trying to tell people you know more than them.

[@TalesOfWar]

@lilHippo Macs use FireWire 800, and have for years. I've NEVER seen 800 on any PC motherboard apart from the expensive Xeon workstations from HP and Dell and so on. I have no idea why, 400 is ancient now, it's older than USB 2.0 by a fair bit (and still faster). FireWire also has the advantage of being able to daisy chain devices. I run 3 external hard drives from one FireWire 800 port on my Mac with no issues. I could run more if I wanted too.

[@TalesOfWar]

@freshgino No USB 3.0 is because Intel don't support it on their chipsets. Ivy Bridge will, but right now, not a single Intel chipset does. What's wrong with the headphone jacks? I've never had of heard of any issues. There's nothing wrong with the iPhone 4 antenna, if where was, how come the "issue" people complained about somehow magically fixed itself despite apparently being a "hardware flaw"? The 4S battery is an issue, they've admitted as much and are working on fixes.

[@TalesOfWar]

@pcfreak1992 Windows has pretty craptacular FireWire drivers. They were pretty good in XP, but since Vista they've reduced a lot of the support (like networking for example) and the transfer speeds are a hell of a lot slower. You need to make it use the legacy driver if you want decent speeds under Windows Vista or 7, or install some third party drivers. FireWire 400 kills USB 2.0 with decent drivers under Windows, it completely destroys it (and 800 more so) on Macs though, for obvious reasons.

[@Xcenda]

@Blatenly FIrewire or i.Link or IEEE 1394 was on market since 1995 so it's funny compare it with USB 3.0. In that time we would compare with USB 1 with speed of 12Mbit/s, Firewire has 400Mbit/s. Cable used it this video is Firewire 400, there is also Firewire 800 and it's speed is 800Mbit/s, USB 2.0 has 480Mbit/s. Mac's in these days are using Thunderbolt which has 20Gbit/s. FYI eSata internal has 6Gbit/s and USB 3.0 4Gbit/s.

[@fiveangle]

@davejohnson3000 Anecdotally, NEC,Texas Instruments, and Oxford (911/922) chipsets are the most reliable, while PLC (probably what you have) are the most problematic. I would be highly interested in the same test performed under more empirically accurate test. To do so would likely require: -PCIe add-on card for each interface (to eliminate issues relating to the motherboard's implementation) -Windows realtime buffer flushing enabled (no cache, or "optimize for quick removal" option) -etc.

[@fiveangle]

@davejohnson3000 (continued 4...) If you could pitch baseballs to a catcher continuously, the number of balls/sec arriving at the catcher is the bandwidth. The time it takes to throw to the catcher, and have the catcher throw it back to the pitcher, is the latency. You can see how this affects communication; bandwidth is most relevant for 1-way data streaming (large file copy), but latency governs how fast the balls can be exchanged. (continued in 5...)

[@fiveangle]

@davejohnson3000 (continued 2...) Realtime buffer flushing allows a drive to be removed at any time by pulling the cable (USB, Firewire, eSATA). This needs to be checked to ensure each drive is set to the same settings, as they may be different, depending on the version of Windows, the driver settings, or the particular chipset capabilities. Without assurance that they are the same, these tests are not valid. (continued in 3...)

[@NoHemlockForMe]

1) Firewire drivers on Windows kindof suck. Sad but true. Would have been better to test on mac or Linux. And while firewire works, it hasn't had the semiconductor vendor competition you see on USB, and therefore the drive semiconductors are often of lower quality. 2) The difference in performance between eSata and SATA was almost certainly due to using a SATA controller on a single lane PCIe. 3) USB3 lacks NCQ and therefore is much slower than an "ok" SATA controller.

[@atm6887]

Most people use FireWire for recording studios. I know i use to use a USB2.0 Microphone for recording and it had a bunch of lag and after a bunch of research i found that by upgrading my microphone and using a phantom power box that plugs into my Mac Via FireWire cable the recordings are alot smoother and there is zero lag from what i can tell. FireWire studios smoke check any usb studio by a long shot.

[@OyePressStart]

FireWire didn't work for you? Perhaps it's just broken on the enclosure (at least on the firewire side of things). I've bought a ton of enclosures and there's always more than a few with issues some work fine for a week then break some usb dies some firewire dies and it doesnt even matter which brand you buy or how expensive it is. These things are just problematic for the most part I stick with internal if i want reliabality now.

[@theINQBS]

n the end, this test is unreliable and anyone who sees it should immediately discredit any of the findings merely due tot he fact that he doesn't know diddly squat about FireWire and doesn't know much about the rest of the connection types other than USB 2.0, deeming him a regular every day home user who is less inclined to spend the money for the best quality and instead settles for what gets the job done at the best savings.

[@tyeikyl]

I don't have an opinion about every brand of bikes or cars or anything... Why is Mac so special - And where are all the iPod bashers.... The people who just hate it when someone is happy they just got a new iPod. You can get mp3 players for 100 times less than an ipod - I never hear about those - For good reason - the same good reason people shouldn't have an opinion that is not founded on relevant experience. I'm really sick of hearing this debate Canon/Nikon Mac/Windows Apples/Oranges....

[@tyeikyl]

@chronofusion See, and this is very telling, windows users often make this point abt overpriced hardware from Apple, not mac. The hardware is the same, although wrapped a little more thought out. What you pay for is a complete system Software /hardware matched to fit and work together. Like Hasselblad camerea system, is it H3 or something. And OS X development. Ok sorry I just read your comment/reply about Floppy, I don't know what to say. I... Ah. no. sorry Other than FLOPPY DISK 4-EVER!!! : )

[@chronofusion]

@tyeikyl ..i explained all the thorough troubleshooting tips i tried to ABSOLUTELY rule out my system, my software, and gear as the culprit. the store rep nodded saying " dude..you should work here" I replied with " i put in an app. im guessing they dont believe in hiring a 30 year old that knows his stuff rather than 18 or slightly older teens and very young adults that own a lot of apple products (* shruggs). either way he didn't give it a 2nd thought and gave me a brand new one, it was 09

[@tyeikyl]

USB vs FW 4/800: USB relies on CPU power for data translation, FireWire chips do their own. So no CPU strain when using FW. FW also has better sustained speeds over USB. USB and FW vs (e)SATA: SATA needs no translation of the data, it goes straight through I do think though that USB works better on Windows, maybe FW works better on Macs. Would be logical since Apple was involved in developing FW. My 2 cents

[@MisterCalebBailey]

@chaldoking6969 FireWire is Apple's name for the IEEE 1394 High Speed Serial Bus. It was initiated by Apple (in 1986) and developed by the IEEE P1394 Working Group, largely driven by contributions from Apple, although major contributions were also made by engineers from Texas Instruments, Sony, Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM, and INMOS/SGS Thomson (now STMicroelectronics). SO IT WAS NOT "MADE BY APPLE"