another Macbook-related recording question

[riffmonster]

I have no proper technical data to back up my opinion, but here goes.

I work in an agency that is mostly mac - some pcs (I have a mac book and a pc at home) and use lots of external USB and Firewire devices both at home and at work.

9 out of 10 times firewire is noticeably quicker, so therefore, would be my preference.

I was told about 6 months ago by a techy friend that firewire was redundant and not being featured on new models. I'm not sure that USB is better, just more widely adopted.

[bassdrop]

Firewire has dedicated bandwidth that guarantees a 400 transfer speed. USB 2.0's speed rating is a burst rate and is only about half of that since the chipsets do not dedicate that bandwidth. Hence, why you still see Firewire as the main interface for pro quality audio and video peripherals. Places like Cyberguys and NewEgg carry little FW 800 to 400 adapter/dongles. The FW 800 ports are backward compatible and downgrade to 400 with no problem- don't bother getting an express card. Also, you can daisy-chain FW devices. I've never done this with audio but I have done it with data. The FW ports will recognize each other and create a logical bus- it should work just as well for audio.

[cassiopamusic]

you really want to have two hard drives for recording, one for all the applications(system drive) and one for the actual audio files(external). i have a macbook pro 5400rpm system drive that works fine for the applications and a 7200rpm external that works great for the audio, so if your looking into getting an external then having the 7200rpm system drive isnt a must but hey more proccessing power can't hurt.

as far as the ports iv heard the myth that usb 2.0 is faster then fw400 but i think they are close enough to not make too much of a difference, plus if your usually PT all the mbox stuff is usb 1.0 anyway (expect for the mbox 2 pro i believe) so uh yeh, F digi. like people have said most recording interfaces don't have fw800 anyway, but hopefully will soon.