Firewire or USB 2.0

[stevendavis]

Hello everyone! This is my first post and I've been a new member for a couple months. I record with my desktop ( PCI interface 8 in/ 10 out M Audio 24/96). I recently bought a laptop and was wondering if I should go with a Firewire or USB interface? I put in my search engine.....firewire vs usb 2.0, and I got back conflicting opinions on what is better. I know the big guys on this forum ( Mazz, Matto, Dave ( hey dave, how are things?), Andre, Steve G and the rest (you know who you are!) will have the straight dope on this. Thanks all for any info Steve

[mazz]

Hi Steve,I use Firewire for everything that is outboard and is audio related. My main audio drives are FW800, everything else is FW400. I think I started using Firewire because at the time, USB was very pokey speed-wise. USB 2 is much faster now, about the same or a little faster than Firewire, but the information that I've been able to glean is that Firewire is more robust.I might be a bit biased because I'm pretty much Mac based and Apple were the first on the block with Firewire. I've used an M-audio Firewire 4-10 with a Powerbook G4 with very few issues. It's cross-platform as well.I think the M-Boxes for Blow Tools (oops, Pro Tools ) are USB 2.Either one will work for a laptop I think. You'll do your heavy lifting on the desktop with the PCI interface anyway.Mazz

[ernstinen]

I've got a Digi002 for Blow, er, ProTools which is Firewire and it works fine (PC). Another PC I have for GigaStudio uses an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile, and it's a little flaky, but it could be GS, I dunno.Ern

[stevendavis]

Thanks Mazz and Ern, Something told me you would be the 1st to help Mazz, Thanks for the info. I think I Will go firewire.....something new is needed I think? Ern, didn't mean to leave you out of the big boys on the forum...you're bad ass too! Also, Martin and Vikki, you are the the big boys and gal too Thanks again guys Steve

[mazz]

Ern, the only issues I've had with the m-audio stuff has been with the drivers, the little mixer app is a bit counterintuitive for me. My wife has a Firewire Solo upstairs and it took a bit of tweaking to get it to play nice with Digital Performer (poor man's BlowTools )Mazz

[zink]

Hey Steve,Just wanted to add a few thoughts. FW 800 is very fast. Twice the speed of FW 400. USB 2 is slightly faster than FW 400. Somethings to look for when your buying a hard drive are the RPM and seek time. You should get a minimum HD RPM of 7200. As for seek time, the lower the better. 8.9 ms is more than adequate.HTHZink

[nickbatzdorf]

The speed means nothing, though, unless you have lots of drives on the same bus. You're not going to saturate a FW 400 or USB 2 bus.

[nickbatzdorf]

The good thing about FW or USB 2 is that you don't have to replace them when you buy a computer with the next version of PCI when they change it every couple of years. On the other hand, PCI cards do perform a little better - but FW and USB 2 are perfectly acceptable.