# Firewire and USB 2.0 compatibility **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 5, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firewire-and-usb-2-0-compatibility/186361 "2003-07-05T07:57:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firewire-and-usb-2-0-compatibility/186361/1 "2003-07-05T07:57:50Z")
What is the difference between a firewire connection and a USB 2.0 port. More specifically will [this](http://www.bizrate.com/marketplace/product_info/details__cat_id--410,prod_id--6288001,name--LaCie%20FireWire%20(IEEE%201394)%20300173%2080%20GB.html) product work with an usb port? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firewire-and-usb-2-0-compatibility/186361/2 "2003-07-05T08:15:35Z")
Firewire is very very fast. USB is not anywhere near as fast. They each use differing technology, and different sockets for that matter, so are not interchangeable. A firewire drive will only work with a firewire port, which is no real problem - you can install cards for your machine whose only role is to have a firewire port on them. USB is serial, meaning you can link up to 70 (I think) different USB items in a daisy chain, and they’ll work through each other. Firewire can’t do that. Firewire, though, is normally for when you need a really really superfast connection, like a real-time video link. I use firewire to capture digital video from a videocamera as it plays, which is at a rate of about 1Gb per 4 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firewire-and-usb-2-0-compatibility/186361/3 "2003-07-05T10:44:36Z")
FireWire (IEEE 1394) and USB 2.0 are different things alltogether and that drive will not work with USB 2.0. It depends on what interface you already have on your computer, and what your needs are. While Firewire is somewhat faster than USB 2.0 it is also generally more expensive and restricted so it is not like it is just a question of going for the fastest. They both have their uses and, in general, unless you absolutely need the speed of Firewire (like for some video applications) it makes more sense to go with USB 2.0, especially if the product you are looking for is offered more widely with USB 2.0 interface. ---
**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firewire-and-usb-2-0-compatibility/186361/4 "2003-07-05T13:31:09Z")
For clarification of the above posts, Firewire has a bandwidth of 400mbps while USB2 has 480mbps, in theory making USB2 a good bit faster. USB can push only 12mbps. USB and USB2 also support up to 127 devices per channel. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firewire-and-usb-2-0-compatibility/186361/5 "2003-07-05T13:45:34Z")
Those raw numbers do not tell all the story. Firewire can run longer distances and The USB speed is more theoretical than reality. Also, Firewire2 will go up to 800 MBPS. As I say, you cannot just look at the numbers. I would go with USB for anything for which I could use USB and go with Firewire if that’s what I needed. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firewire-and-usb-2-0-compatibility/186361/6 "2003-07-05T14:05:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > \*\*Those raw numbers do not tell all the story. Firewire can run longer distances and The USB speed is more theoretical than reality. Also, Firewire2 will go up to 800 MBPS. As I say, you cannot just look at the numbers. I would go with USB for anything for which I could use USB and go with Firewire if that’s what I needed. \*\* Can you go into a little more detail? I can certainly see the distance as an issue - but assuming I only had the need to run 3 feet, I have been assuming that USB 2.0 (480 MbS) was faster than Firewire (400 MbS). You’ve said three things: [ul] [li]Firewire can run longer distances[/li][li]USB’s speed is more theoretical than reality[/li][li]Firewire2 can go 800 MbS[/li][/ul] Can you expand on the second and third items? Do I just need a “Firewire2” capable card, or must each device be “Firewire2?” What configurations reduce the USB2.0’s theoretical speed? - Rick ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firewire-and-usb-2-0-compatibility/186361/7 "2003-07-05T14:28:34Z")
I remember reading a pretty good article comparing the two in some magazine but now I would not know where to find it so Those points are just general impressions I got which I cannot now support in detail but a Net search should yield plenty of info. I remember Firewire 2 was also called Firewire 800 so searching for those two terms should bring up information. In any case the conclusion of the article was that Firewire was good if that’s what you needed very especifically (mainly it mentioned video applications) but if not, it recommended USB as cheaper and more widespread. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firewire-and-usb-2-0-compatibility/186361/8 "2003-07-05T14:34:46Z")
[USB 2.0 Versus FireWire](http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/supergeek/story/0,24330,3393571,00.html) > [@](#): > > Theoretical speeds and our observations > Don’t be confused by the rated speeds you see emblazoned across USB 2.0 and FireWire product boxes. Despite USB 2.0’s 80 Kbps speed advantage over FireWire, our testing showed that the additional overhead of USB 2.0 made it slower than FireWire. For high-bandwidth devices such as external hard drives, the difference was as high as 70 percent. On a positive note, we noticed that the CPU usage of each interface was similar on our Pentium 4 1.3-GHz test system. During a 1.54GB data transfer from our system’s internal hard drive to an external drive, USB 2.0 averaged 40 percent CPU usage compared to 37 percent for FireWire. > We also found that integrated USB 2.0 solutions matched the performance of add-on PCI cards to within a percentage point. In fact, all of the USB 2.0 cards we looked at offered nearly identical performance when compared to each other; this was true for the FireWire cards we examined as well.