USB or Firewire?

s.k. · Post by **s.k.** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:16 pm

I know its a lame question and i searched previous posts too but didnt find the answer, so any help is appreciated

After having major problems with silencing my PC (replacing fans, power supplies, lowering the voltage of fans etc...) i decided its just not worth all the hassle and im just gonna replace the PC with a laptop instead.

I need a new soundcard though, and so far i've only had experience with PCI ones, the current one being Audiophile 192. So for the laptop, im gonna need an external one and i want to know what are the main differences between Firewire and USB.

If this will help - i need it only for production, not playing out. One thing though - i am syncing hardware to ableton so i need it to be as tight as possible, and this is my only concern. Thanx in advance.

Robot Criminal · Post by **Robot Criminal** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:43 pm

pc/laptop firewire ports are 4 pin, so no power from there (as i've heard)...

http://www.digit-life.com/articles/usb20vsfirewire/

http://www.google.ee/search?hl=et&q=usb+vs+firewire&lr=

s.k. · Post by **s.k.** » Mon May 21, 2007 6:19 pm

that info was all i needed. thx

PsyTox · Post by **PsyTox** » Tue May 22, 2007 9:26 am

some laptops also have 6-pin firewire, such as the Apple's and a lot of the newer models from Sony and HP

But, USB = 480Mbps and Firewire = 400 Mbps, so I think USB2 is definetely the thing to choose.

codecks · Post by **codecks** » Tue May 22, 2007 10:12 am

PsyTox wrote:But, USB = 480Mbps and Firewire = 400 Mbps, so I think USB2 is definetely the thing to choose.

I don't think it's only about the speed. The method used to send data to and from the host is also important. What I remember from my research is that firewire 'streams' the data and usb sends data using datablocks. For audio and video applications firewire fits better because of the constant stream. This is also probably the reason why usb2 audio devices didn't come through immediately.