New iMac

Youngbinks · 04-13-2009, 03:31 PM

I got surprised by this over the weekend and I'm pretty stoked. It's staying at home in Tampa but I used it all weekend and love it.

I do have a few questions regarding firewire. I have a standard 500 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive and I was wondering if I can buy a firewire cable for it, or if I need to get an external that supports firewire. This is my first computer with firewire so I'm not exactly sure of its benefit other than faster transport.

dturner · 04-13-2009, 07:16 PM

Way to go Philip. I guess there really is an Easter Bunny.
I have a MBP w/firewire but have never used it. Don't know much about it, but I am pretty sure that you will need an external that supports firewire. Maybe Jack will see this and chime in. I'm sure he will know. If not, PM him.

acosmichippo · 04-13-2009, 08:47 PM

yeah, you need a HD with firewire ports built-in. Firewire is faster, but another benefit is that you can daisy-chain multiple devices.

congrats on the imac.

Saverino · 04-13-2009, 08:49 PM

Congrats on the iMac and the dog.

Youngbinks · 04-13-2009, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by dturner

Way to go Philip. I guess there really is an Easter Bunny.
I have a MBP w/firewire but have never used it. Don't know much about it, but I am pretty sure that you will need an external that supports firewire. Maybe Jack will see this and chime in. I'm sure he will know. If not, PM him.

Yeah I am definitely new to the firewire world too since the MBA doesn't have one.

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

yeah, you need a HD with firewire ports built-in. Firewire is faster, but another benefit is that you can daisy-chain multiple devices.

congrats on the imac.

Do you know if there are any HDs that support both firewire and have a USB 2.0 connection? I would like to be able to move stuff freely from the iMac to the MBA but the MBA doesn't support firewire.

Originally Posted by Saverino

Congrats on the iMac and the dog.

Thanks

jjvaldez · 04-13-2009, 10:25 PM

there are tons out there, the ones that i have all do both firewire and USB, is that firewire 800 or 400 on the imac?

acosmichippo · 04-13-2009, 10:55 PM

Yeah, pretty much all external HDs these days are either USB only, or USB/FireWire/esata.

Youngbinks · 04-13-2009, 11:45 PM

Ah mmk cool. I've been looking for another external anyway.

It was so weird using the 24 inch screen all weekend and then going back to the MBA. It made the 13 inch screen miniscule to look at.

Saverino · 04-13-2009, 11:52 PM

Originally Posted by Youngbinks

Ah mmk cool. I've been looking for another external anyway.

It was so weird using the 24 inch screen all weekend and then going back to the MBA. It made the 13 inch screen miniscule to look at.

OT, but Binks, you have PM...

psylichon · 04-14-2009, 01:27 AM

Hey Phil, what kind of external hard drive do you have? Unless it's a proprietary enclosure, you'll likely be able to extract the drive from it and put it in a new enclosure that supports Firewire (read: much cheaper than a new HD).

We use Firewire drives at the studio to record huge sessions. USB 2.0 is theoretically as fast, but requires a lot more CPU usage, so in reality fall well short of FW performance.

Multi-connect enclosures are cheap as hell at Newegg.com. If you plan on keeping it on all the time, I'd get one with a big heat sink or a fan. I'm also partial to ones with built-in power supplies because I hotswap a lot, but they're pretty hard to find. Hit me up in chat if you need any more help with it.