Firewire vs USB ?

[LeftEyeNine]

How rational is it to pay more for an external HDD since it has Firewire connectibility as well ?

I'm totally stranger to Firewire interface although it's out there for years.

How does it connect? What is needed? What about data speed ?

Thanks in advance.

[Beskar]

Use ESATA if you got a ESATA port on your motherboard.

As for the other questions, don't bother with firewire unless you already have it. It isn't worth it.

[Lemur]

Firewire used to be the fastest, most stable connector for large-capacity external anythings. It picked up a good following with video people for this reason. However, its time has come and gone. As Beskar notes, ESATA is the way to go these days. I wouldn't bother with USB for large-capacity storage.

On the other hand, if your mobo has firewire and not SATA, I guess a FW drive could make sense.

[LeftEyeNine]

Do you think this one has ESATA ?

[LeftEyeNine]

Apparently it doesn't have one. :/

I had paid $250 for this motherboard.

[pevergreen]

Bummer. Gigabyte uses orange/yellow to mark e-sata ports. My mobo has 2 or 4.

[LeftEyeNine]

Here is what I got as the back-panel:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Tellos Athenaios]

That's quite clearly a motherboard without e-SATA ports on the back. But if your front panel has an e-SATA port you can hook it up to a SATA port on the motherboard.

[LeftEyeNine]

Front panel would actually concern the design of the chassis, right ?

[Beskar]

Yeah, mine is on the back, but some boards have them on the board itself, or you could get an adapter most likely for cheap (though don't quote me on that).

South Bridge:

1. 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
2. Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10

GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:

1. 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
2. 2x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATA2_0, GSATA2_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
3. Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD

Looks like you got enough SATA to set up an e-sata yourself, but it doesn't list one being there.

[LeftEyeNine]

Oh, how how how how how ?!

[Tellos Athenaios]

Well typically you connect SATA port on your motherboard with a SATA cable to the e-SATA port/adapter on your e-SATA output piece (i.e. front panel); and yes the front panel is typically part of the case (chassis?). It's the bit that typically incorporates mini-jacks for AC-'97 audio (green and pink) devices plus some USB ports -- more expensive/modern cases also include e-SATA.

Come to think of it: if you have a bay left (or are willing to replace a device), you ought to be able to fit a card-reader or similar device which incorporates e-SATA ports in case your front-panel doesn't have e-SATA.

[Lemur]

Or if you want your connector in the back of the box, spend the big $19 and get one of these.

-edit-

NVM, this one has better reviews.

[LeftEyeNine]

This is a PCI card, Lemur ?

Edit: I found one alike in Turkey.

[Lemur]

The Turkish one you linked to looks like a connector to your ESATA on your mobo. That would work, too. The ones I showed were independent PCI-E controllers, which might or might not be as much fun. Advantage is they have their own controller, disadvantage is they're routing more data over the PCI bus.

Either route will get you where you're going.

-edit-

Doing a little more reading on this board. Can't tell if it has an ESATA controller onboard. Maybe a more experienced Orgah could advise us here (*cough* Whacker *cough* Xiahou *cough* Pever), can an ESATA port connector be attached to a plain old SATA port on the mobo? I've never tried such a thing. Or is ESATA its own standard, needing a dedicated controller?

[Tellos Athenaios]

At the risk of repeating myself:

Well typically you connect SATA port on your motherboard with a SATA cable to the e-SATA port/adapter on your e-SATA output piece (i.e. front panel)

It's only the cable between external device and e-SATA port that differs.

[Lemur]

Hmm, I see what you mean. And here I thought eSATA and SATA were slightly different standards. You learn something new every day.

[Husar]

There is a new eSATA standard in the works that would probably not work like this because it has it's own power supply like USB, current eSATA devices either need an external power supply or a USB connector to draw power from a USB port(some small sticks), the new technology should make that superfluous so an eSATA stick won't need an USB connector for power anymore.

[LeftEyeNine]

So briefly, should I buy into this method ?

[Husar]

I guess a 3.5" external HDD will have it's own power supply anyway so if you want that, why not?
If you want to use it mainly for eSATA equivalents of USB sticks, you should be aware that the current variants need a USB cable for power, I guess it would be the same for those small 2.5" or 1.8" external HDDs that often get their power directly from the USB port.

[Furunculus]

esata would be better than firewire.

[Lemur]

Another thing to remember; theoretical bus speeds don't match real-world results. Both eSATA and Firewire reach about 85% of their maximum spec, which is fine and dandy for working with hard drives, but USB never came close to that. Or at least, it never used to, don't know if it's been improved with the latest iteration.

I remember that was the issue back in the day of USB v. Firewire; they looked close on paper, but in the real world it was no contest. That's why Firewire became a video standard.

But I contract with a video company based in Chicago, and they've been switched over to eSATA for some time now. That should tell you something. Nobody is more serious about moving large amounts of data quickly and cheaply than a video company.

[Xiahou]

I remember that was the issue back in the day of USB v. Firewire; they looked close on paper, but in the real world it was no contest. That's why Firewire became a video standard.

I guess a 3.5" external HDD will have it's own power supply anyway so if you want that, why not?
If you want to use it mainly for eSATA equivalents of USB sticks, you should be aware that the current variants need a USB cable for power, I guess it would be the same for those small 2.5" or 1.8" external HDDs that often get their power directly from the USB port.

This is a big drawback in my opinion. To me, the point of an external drive is for additional storage and for portability. Currently, eSATA completely loses out on portability. It needs separate power and it's still far from guaranteed that other PCs you want to attach the drive to will support the drive at all.

I think the question for LEN is what do you need the drive for? If it's just for backups or extra storage, I don't see much point in installing adapters and going to the extra hassle and expense for a little speed gain.

[LeftEyeNine]

My extra drive will largely be for storing huge amounts of downloads.

Education. Period.

[Xiahou]

In that event, I think pretty much any USB hard drive will serve. I think drives that have separate power supplies are usually cheaper per megabyte than the smaller USB powered variety. If portability isn't a concern, just get a large capacity drive with a separate power supply and you'll have tons of space.

Just checking Amazon, you can get a portable 500GB USB drive for just under $100. For almost the same price, you can get a 1TB desktop USB drive.

[pevergreen]

Maybe a more experienced Orgah could advise us here (*cough* Whacker *cough* Xiahou *cough* Pever)

Woah, how'd I get grouped with people that know what they're talking about?