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    firewire type for m860tu

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by kevindd992002, Dec 4, 2008.

  1. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    is the m860tu equipped with a firewire 800 or firewire 400 port?
     
    kevindd992002, Dec 4, 2008
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  2. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

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    it think the standard for the current notebooks is that they have 4-pin or 6-pin firewire 400.

    I think Apple came out with the Firewire 800 with a beta 9-pin connector.
     
    Gophn, Dec 4, 2008
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  3. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    ahh. is the speed of the 800 double to that of the 400?
     
    kevindd992002, Dec 4, 2008
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  4. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

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    again... the band of the transfer limit does not mean its twice as fast.

    like with HDD's....

    the current standard of SATA-II (300MB/s) does not mean its twice as fast as the previous SATA-I (150MB/s) standard.

    In fact, the only HDDs that can even utilize that kind of transfer rate are the 10,000+ rpm drives and the high-end SSDs.
     
    Gophn, Dec 4, 2008
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  5. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    ahh. do you have a link that I can refer to?
     
    kevindd992002, Dec 4, 2008
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  6. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    so in getting a wd passport portable hard drive, i should just stick with the essential edition which has only USB interface, or with the studio edition which also has FIREWIRE?
     
    kevindd992002, Dec 4, 2008
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  7. captchaplus

    captchaplus Notebook Enthusiast

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    If performance matters to you, choose the FireWire option. The FireWire version has both USB and FireWire for best compatibility. Note that you'll need a power cable with FireWire because 4-pin FireWire (the kind installed in most PC laptops) doesn't supply power. 6-pin and 9-pin FireWire do supply power.

    Otherwise, USB-only is OK and should be somewhat cheaper.
     
    captchaplus, Dec 4, 2008
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  8. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Ah. Is the M860TU equipped with the 4-pin or 6-pin?
     
    kevindd992002, Dec 4, 2008
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  9. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

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    4-pin.

    As for choosing USB or firewire for external HDDs... they perform comparable to each other... but USB is much more "bang for the buck"

    firewire has slightly better latency... but I dont notice the difference when using either.

    If you were talking about pro-audio soundcards, then firewire is the way to go.
     
    Gophn, Dec 4, 2008
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  10. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    thanks for the info.

    about the pwoer cable of a 4-pin firewire connection, where will it plug in to? ac outlet or usb port?
     
    kevindd992002, Dec 4, 2008
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  11. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

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    a 6-pin port provides power to your firewire device.

    a 4-pin port will not.... meaning your firewire device will require external power (usually AC power).
     
    Gophn, Dec 4, 2008
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  12. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    how many pins does the wd passport studio provide? considering that it is mainly for being "portable". well, the reason of buying this hdd is for portability. i hate the power supply that comes with the external cases for desktop HDDs.
     
    kevindd992002, Dec 4, 2008
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  13. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

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    4-pin I believe.

    just get a standard WD Passport... works fine on all systems and is fully powered by one USB port.
     
    Gophn, Dec 4, 2008
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  14. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    i also think so.. thanks for the reply. hophn, were you already able to reply on my thread regarding the intel memory module?
     
    kevindd992002, Dec 4, 2008
    #14