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!

[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.