Thank you for buying via links and ads on this site,
which earn me advertising fees or commissions.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Other World Computing...
B&H Photo...
Amazon
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Upgrade the memory of your 2020 iMac up to 128GB
Upgrade the memory of your 2020 iMac up to 128GB

MacBook Pro eSATA vs Firewire 800

2010-05-18 - Send Feedback
Related: eSATA, laptop, MacBook, MacBook Pro

Firewire 800 provides a crucial performance perspective compared to eSATA, and so it is included here.

Firewire 800 is slow at best

Firewire 800 is slow even when it runs optimally. The problem is, it doesn’t run optimally in a variety of circumstances.

For example, there exists a long-standing bug (for years), in which Firewire 800 performance shows severe impairment with volumes > 1 TB in size, though certain units like the Guardian Maximus evade this bug for unknown reasons.

It is steer manure that Apple has done nothing about it for 3-4 years— it’s misfeasance, especially given that the Mac Pro has five Firewire 800 ports (MacBook Pro has just one). I first reported the problem in 2006, and it also occurs in other circumstances as well, such as connecting more than one device. Bottom line is that verifying performance with DiskTester is your smart move— don’t assume.

Firewire 800 versus eSATA — fast SSD

For the comparison below, the Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro was used.

The Mercury Extreme is capable of ~ 260MB/sec in a Mac Pro, so eSATA via the ExpressCard/34 is a disappointment. Still, it’s far faster than Firewire 800.

MB/sec, longer is faster

Firewire 800 vs eSATA — OWC QX2 RAID-5

For the comparisons below, the Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro was used, but all eSATA cards are much faster than Firewire 800.

Simply put you will never see more than ~ 85MB/sec with Firewire 800, no matter what the setup. And write speed is often far worse.

The graph below is pretty simple—

To work around the Firewire 800 write speed bug, use partitions no larger than 1TB each.

MB/sec, longer is faster

 

View all handpicked deals...

Lowepro PhotoSport BP 15L AW III Photo Backpack (Gray/Black)
$195 $195
SAVE $click

diglloyd.com | Terms of Use | PRIVACY POLICY
Contact | About Lloyd Chambers | Consulting | Photo Tours
Mailing Lists | RSS Feeds | Twitter
Copyright © 2020 diglloyd Inc, all rights reserved.
Display info: __RETINA_INFO_STATUS__