USB vs USB 2.0

[monalisa]

I'm looking to get a compact flash card reader for my G4 Mac, but they all seem to be USB 2 at Circuit City and I have just regular old USB.

And none of the available readers seem to be firewire enabled... though I do have firewire.

Will the USB 2.0 card reader work with a "USB" device?

Brand name and model recommendations are welcome here... as well as souces to get them.

Thanks - I love this forum!
:monalisa:

[Andre]

Look around for the SanDisk Ultra (model SDDR-80) - it is Firewire, and very fast.

[crabby]

I agree with Andre. I have both USB 1.0 and Firewire readers. USB 2 readers will work on a USB 1 machine but at the USB 1 speed. It takes me 25 minutes to offload 1 gb on USB 1.0 and 5 minutes on firewire. USB 2.0 is about as fast as firewire, but the new firewire 800 is alot faster then the old firewire and USB 2.0

[Rockyw]

I have a 30 gig picture pad that I download to at weddings. At home on USB1 it took 20 min to download a 1 gig file folder. I upgraded to a USB2 conection and now it takes 1 min. Thats 1/20th of the time and I love it. I think if you have USB2 on your PC I would use it over fire wire.

[Swampy]

USB 2.0 and Firewire aren't much different in speed. It's a total toss up as to which to go with. Some equipment you won't have a choice on though. My money follows firewire though. I've been using firewire products for a long time and at 400mbs speeds, it whooped the daylights out of USB 1 at somewhere around 12mbs. Now USB comes back with 480mbs USB 2.0. So what. Everything gets better with time. USB 2.0 will still not run my firewire products. Now, as Crabby mentioned, Firewire has hit back with thier new line at 800mbs. That will still run my firewire equipment (card readers, DV recorders and harddrives) at 400mbs and will run anything new that I want to run with the 800mbs speeds.

USB is USB and Firewire is Firewire. Both are backward compatible along thier own lines. The choice is yours. Most computers and laptops will come with USB 2.0, if not 1.0 though. I will always add firewire if it doesn't already come with it.

Think of it like buying a car, where the price is the same for all models. It will get you from point A to point B, but how fast do you want to get there is the question.

[larc]

Don't forget that you can always slap a USB 2 PCI card into one of your available PCI slots.

Your's truly

[Wichita Wayne]

I see no difference between USB 2.0and Firewire. I like Firewire because it can be daisy chained easily while you need a hub for USB. But Firewire appliances are sometimes hard to find. USB1.1 is slow for data transfer, too slow for my work. USB 2.0 is fast enough, but you would need to get a USB 2.0 card for your computer. In your situation I think I would look for a firewire card reader (Google it if necessary). If you do not like what you see then get a USB 2.0 card and reader.

[larc]

Hi Wayne...I love firewire as well, being a long standing Mac user. I currently have 2 of the older slower USB card readers. However, USB 2 is actually faster than FireWire and it's really not a bad idea to have a USB 2 card in a PCI slot to take advantage of some of the newer hardware. That was my suggestion to Mona if all she can find locally are USB 2 readers. There's also FireWire 800, faster than USB 2 but still would require a PCI card for Mona's computer.

Larry

[monalisa]

Thanks Larc, that is a great idea, but you know what a penny pincher I am. About how much would that card cost and can I still use usb1 devices with that card? You think I can switch out the card myself or will you come over and help me purdy please if applicable???

[Face]

For what i know all devices USB2 are autoswitched to the type of connection , so u can use an card reader USB2 on a USB1 port but the speed is diferent.

Installing a USB2 PCI card is too simple , Shutdown ur computer, unplug the power cord, open the chassis , find a free slot , generaly the PCI slots are coloured as White on the motherboards, remove the back cover on the chassis that prohibits u installing the PCI card, insert the PCI card firmely in the PCI slot , close , plug the power cord and power on your computer, after powerd on the computer u need to follow instruction that comes with the card and also install the device drivers providet with the PCI USB2 card if necesary.

This is a solution if u can't find an firewire reader that is better than the USB2 .

[Wichita Wayne]

Any USB device will work on any USB computer plug. All USB prots are compatable with each other. The connection will only work as fast as the slowest component, but they will always work.

[ianmcc]

get a firewire card reader,.. cheapest solution.