[that1guy]

Again. As long as all the 800 drives are at the begining it will work fine. 800 has more connector pins, so if you stick an 800 in the chain after a 400 it will run at 400 because the 400 drive only has half the data pins.

[tfrogh]

Glad to see FW400 disappear. It was long over due. FW800 works great for Hard Drives. I have a FW800/FW400 cable for those rare instances I need to connect something old.
Lack of eSATA on the MacPro makes my blood boil. Even if it was a card, I would be satisfied. 12 keyboard options but no factory eSATA.
I try to be thrilled whenever Apple announces new hardware. Do they even run focus groups? Do they look at sites like this for inspiration? We are all hollering for what we want, do they really not want us to buy?
Tom
BTW, 8GB in the entry level MacPRO!?! How G5ish of them. Glad I upgraded my office's machines this past December. Now we can wait out the 12-18months until the next MacPro and Apple gets a clue.

[that1guy]

A $35 cardbus esata card would stop the blood boiling. But then you wouldn't have much to complain about. Also, you do realise the 8gb limit in the new mac pro applies to the 4 core model only don't you? Anyone wanting to stick more than 8Gb in a mac pro would most likely start with the 8 core model. Anyone sane that is.

[DPG4450Guy]

RE: FW800 hubs



I think you've answered your own question - Belkin (ugh!) discon'd because obviously the market for said product was abysmal.

[KBeat]

that1guy said:

Also, you do realise the 8gb limit in the new mac pro applies to the 4 core model only don't you? Anyone wanting to stick more than 8Gb in a mac pro would most likely start with the 8 core model. Anyone sane that is.

That was my thought exactly. If what you're doing requires, or will significantly benefit from, more than 8 GB of RAM, you're probably not looking at the base 4 core model.

[Wabbitguy]

Contrary to your thinking, in certain areas Firewire 400 devices are far from obsolete. For example in recording studios. There are a large number of audio interfaces that use Firewire 400. These interfaces can cost a lot more than any Mac does as well (the Mac is actually the cheap part).

One the fantastic advantages of the Mac was that we have always been able just plug and play. Now we're going to have to add a card or adapter of some sort, which admittedly seems to be able to be doable but until I talk to someone with the same gear as we have who actually has done it and knows, it's a wait and see situation for me.

As for Sarah, sorry, I don't follow US politics so your sarcasm was wasted on me.

[rsfinn]

Wabbitguy said:

One [of] the fantastic advantages of the Mac was that we have always been able just plug and play. Now we're going to have to add a card or adapter of some sort ...

You may be unaware that there are Firewire cables with an FW800 connector on one end and a FW400 connector on the other. (There's a Belkin cable at the Apple Store, for example, but surely there are better deals elsewhere.) Plug, and play.

[that1guy]

Wabbitguy said:

Contrary to your thinking, in certain areas Firewire 400 devices are far from obsolete. For example in recording studios. There are a large number of audio interfaces that use Firewire 400. These interfaces can cost a lot more than any Mac does as well (the Mac is actually the cheap part).

One the fantastic advantages of the Mac was that we have always been able just plug and play. Now we're going to have to add a card or adapter of some sort, which admittedly seems to be able to be doable but until I talk to someone with the same gear as we have who actually has done it and knows, it's a wait and see situation for me.

As for Sarah, sorry, I don't follow US politics so your sarcasm was wasted on me.

Seriously? Why do you keep spouting the same dumb comment? How hard is it to understand all you need is a $10 cable with a firewire 400 plug on one end and a firewire 800 plug on the other. It's about as plug and play as you can get. Sarcasm isn't the only thing wasted on you...

[reflexologist]

FW800. Half the time to download images from cameras, copy files between drives, watch TV & video without blips. Naughty Apple. Listen to the Luddites and halt progress today!
Luckily for the boring folks in this world you dropped floppies before anyone, added Firewire 400 before anyone etc etc.
Isn't it lucky your customers aren't running Apple, Steve Old Fruit?! Keep up this rate of progress and ignore the whingers.
That said, after the raft of hardware announcements today, what will be heading up the bill on March 24th? New Apple TV? Beatles on iTunes? Plus the new iPhone?

[Mac007]

The really sad thing is all the still cameras and video cameras are all moving to USB. This is especially true when you visit stores like WalMart or Target. Since this is where most of your average consumers shop the trend will not be lost on those who make computers. This is just one more sign that the market forces are trending more and more to one standard which is USB and not Firewire. Firewire may well end up being a very small novelty niche or gradually be phased out altogether.
What follows below is a personal rant so feel free to ignore it. You have been warned. ;-)






Oh and for all those who will boast they never shop at WalMart I have a message for you: No one other than folks like you really care and their numbers are far larger than you. If you don't think this is so just look at the number of WalMart stores and the number of people who shop there. If you really want to change WalMart you should try doing so from inside. Buy stock or get a job and work hard to move into the upper levels where the real power is. I can guarantee you'll be more effective that way than by just not shopping there. Something to think about.

[doglesby]

My only complaint is that if you walk into a store (they still have those) and buy a FW 400 device, you can't buy a FW 800-400 cable/adapter. Even Apple Stores don't carry them. Sure you can get them cheap online, but you have to pay shipping and wait for the thing to arrive. I went to two Apple Stores, Radio Shack, and Best Buy (motto: "What's FireWire?") because I wanted the cable that day. Fortunately I had a FW 400/800 drive that serves as my adapter.

[Grapho]

trip1ex said:

I wouldn't make sure I got a FW800 device. I would actually try to hold out until next year when USB3 will surely (or hopefully) be out. USB3 might be here later this year even.

And say you have to buy a device today. Don't automatically rule out FW400. FW800 is maybe 50% faster, but the question is does it matter to you?

I know in my situation FW800 wasn't much of a benefit. It backed up my hard drive hours faster, but what's 10 or 15 hours? What's 5 or 7.5 hours? It's not like I'm waiting around for my data to be backed up.

And I wasn't accessing external storage often and surely not huge files where I couldn't anything else while they transferred.

In other words don't pay a premium just because.

Well, the real question is not how long it take you to backup. How long it takes you to restore, because then, you will be waiting around for you data to be available and believe me, faster is better.

[richcon]

Wabbitguy said:

Pretty much makes the majority of audio recording interfaces with Firewire 400 obsolete.

No hardware is being made obsolete by this.

The only thing being made obsolete are the cables. FireWire 400 devices are perfectly supported by FireWire 800 ports. You just need a 9-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable to connect them.

[dgrizzle]

It is easy to run a Firewire 400 device on Firewire 800 with a simple cable. The bad news is it makes everything on the Firewire 800 bus run at slower Firewire 400 speed.
Worse still, it will no longer be possible to run pro audio interfaces on Firewire 400 (I use MOTU 828mkII and t.c. electronic PowerCore X8) while keeping hard disks separate on Firewire 800 and eSATA (via an ExpressCard/34 on my MacBook Pro).
Fewer external busses does no favors to Apple's professional customers running extensive configurations for Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro!
I have 9+ terabytes of external storage on my MacBook Pro, plus audio interfaces. Where does all this plug in on the new MacBook Pro?