-
are fw 400 ports slowing down macpro’s fw800 ports??
Hi everyone,
Does anyone out there knows if FireWire ports on the macpro intel computers share the same controller, so if connecting a FireWire 400 device will slow down any attached FireWire 800 devices. For example I have a sony hdv recorder (fw400) plugged in almost of the time, I also have a 400 fw external Lacie drive plugged in, at the same time I use also a Lacie 2tb fw800 conncted to a fw800 port. How do the fw400 affect the performance of my fw800 LACIE on the new macpro.
Best regards
Drazen
-
7 Replies
-
I don’t think firewire shares bandwidth? I could be wrong. I would guess no though.
-
I can’t tell you for certain on the MacPro, but that has been the case in past computer models. I’d say it’s fair to assume it’s the same here, but that’s just me guessing.
I never really thought about it because I think it’s generally best to seperate your media drives from the system bus and get them their own PCI card anyway. So whether or not this is true, I’d still suggest going that way.
-
They’re still controlled by one controller.
Here’s what Apple has to say:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/HardwareDrivers/Conceptual/HWTech_FireWire/Articles/FireW_implementation.htmlAs suggested, get a FW or SATA Express Card.
Ed -
Is there now a firewire card that will work in the Mac Pro? When I sold my G5 and bought the Intel Mac, I had to give up my PCI card, because it would not work in the Mac Pro, and there was nothing available yet.
-
I think there’s a bunch of them. Belkin makes one, Sonnet, I think, CableMax.
Ed -
Hi,
I found this on apple’s site:
FireWire 800 is backward-compatible with FireWire 400. When a FireWire 800 device is properly connected to a FireWire 800 port on a Macintosh computer, the two communicate using 1394b protocols at 1394b speeds. When a FireWire 400 device is connected to that same port, the port conforms to 1394a specifications to communicate with that device. FireWire 800 ports with this capability are commonly known as bilingual.
I think that means if having fw400 and fw800 attached at the same time, fw800 will slow down and will act as a fw400 disk, which as we all agree a bummer…
The solution? Buying a specified fw and sata card….can anyone share some links….and since I am a novice…where could I attach these cards…on a pci-e slot? or somewhere else…does the new apple mac pro computers have a dedicated place for additional fw cards….and what would be the true benefit of such a card and how many outputs do those cards usually have…does someone have a hands on experience whith those…
and one more thing…if I unplug my fw400 devices…then I guess fw800 is working at full speed?
Best regards
Drazen
-
Yes, a PCI-E slot. The benefit is you get a separate buss, no slowdown to FW400 if you have bothe FW400 and 800 on your built-in FW ports. You can get them with 2 or 4, you can also get USB2, FW400, and FW800 on the same card I think. They’re everywhere Other World Computing, Weibetech, any Mac on-line store, etc.
And finally, yes, it goes back to FW800.
Ed[drazen] “The solution? Buying a specified fw and sata card….can anyone share some links….and since I am a novice…where could I attach these cards…on a pci-e slot? or somewhere else…does the new apple mac pro computers have a dedicated place for additional fw cards….and what would be the true benefit of such a card and how many outputs do those cards usually have…does someone have a hands on experience whith those…
and one more thing…if I unplug my fw400 devices…then I guess fw800 is working at full speed? “
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up