Firewire 400mbps Or 800mbps? Options

[Drainland]

Hi there,

I was just about to purchase a new Imac and a Motu 828 mk11 (when it becomes available) for use with Logic when I noticed in a review that the iMacs only have firewire 400mbps connections as opposed to 800 on the tower systems. So basically what I need to know is will this be fine - and will I still get the best capabilities from my set-up? I also noticed that the new Imacs don't have usb 2.0 - so wondered if this would cause any problems - I'll be using an emagic Mt4 midi interface as well.

many thanks in advance!

[Drainland]

sorry for the double post! There was a problem reported with the post going up so it looked like it hadn't been done - so I did it again. Obviously it did go up though.

[robertirvine]

The hope for Firewire is to become the media network standard, so that creative and recreational networks will be simple and with enough capacity to do most a/v tasks. If this pans out, then it would be good foresight to have 800 Firewire. On the other hand, if you have no need of a/v networking over multiple computers and appliances for the moment, then it's no big issue today.

[Drainland]

Thanks Robert,

no really I'm not looking to network computers. To start off with I'd just have the motu firewire interface and a firewire harddrive and that might be it. Maybe at most I'd have some other a/v firewire device(s) connected to the computer but that's it. I just didn't know what the lowest rate of MBPS I could get away with was. And I'm sure the firewire sockets on the iMac are shared - so presumably 200MBPS each one. I didn't like the idea I might get latency when I'm paying out for a firewire device so I wouldn't get it. But I'm not really up on the data transfer rates and what they meen for someone who is simply trying to make music on a DAW.

[rickenbacker]

Compared to USB, even a shared 400mbps transfer rate over a firewire connection would be superior. And yes, I think the two firewire ports are shared on an iMac, but separate on PowerMacs. Obviously you can't change this on the iMac, but it's still pretty fast - it really depends how much data you want to cram down the line at any one time.

To give you an idea, even a USB connection can handle a stereo mixdown from a DAW as long as there isn't tooo much going on at once - 12-16 audio tracks playing simultaneously, say. With FireWire, even shared, you've got a LOT more headroom than USB so you can go that bit further.

As for 800 vs 400, 400 is still blazingly fast.

[Drainland]

thanks rickenbacker!

Yes I'll be using firewire 400mbps to send many multiple audio tracks back and forth via mixing console and motu 828 mk2 to and from Logic/iMac.

Apparently, according to a person at Apple UK, the firewire ports on the iMac aren't shared. Just thought I'd mentioned that in case anyone else was wondering.

Also just got an email from a helpful person at Motu saying the 828mk2 is 400mbps anyway!

I only got concerned about all this when I read a review speculating that Apple saw 800mbps firewire as something for the "pro" domain, and I wasn't sure where it was coming from. What I want to do is from a professional stand point - but I guess like the early post says - that review comment probably had more to do with if you're networking computers etc. I just simply need to know if it was fast enough for my recording needs.

Thanks again guys.