Bandwidth - USB vs. Firewire

[erubio]

I'm about to get a new external drive, and I'm only hesitating whether to get the USB only version, or the Firewire 400/USB combo version. The combo version is considerably more expensive.

I want to use my new drive primarily for audio recording, and since my audio interface is also USB, I was wondering if there would be bandwidth issues having most of my devices (interface, drive, mouse/keyboard) on USB, especially when recording.

My current external drive is connected via firewire 400 and it's wonderful. I've had it for two and a half years, so it's at the point that I'm scared something may happen to it any day now. I love the fact that firewire devices can be daisy chained, but like I said, the price difference is enough to give me pause.

Should I go with the usb 2.0 drive or the firewire? If it helps, my system is a white Macbook 2.4Ghz core 2 duo, 4GB ram.

[Smithcok]

Never go with a USB drive for audio recording (when you have the option of Firewire).

Even with nothing else on the USB bus, it can be very unstable and unable to sustain the bandwidth necessary for multitrack recording.

[TimOBrien]

The short cable distance limit of USB 2.0 (about five meters) limits its usefulness in deployments that require long-haul cabling and multiple sources of data, such as sound stages and studios.

USB 2.0 works in a master/slave arrangement that adds significant overhead to data transfers. FireWire is a true peer-to-peer technology, so two or more FireWire peripherals can communicate with each other directly as peers, sending each piece of data over the bus only once, directly to its destination.

FireWire is also designed to provide useful amounts of power, allowing the user to power—and even charge the battery of—many FireWire peripherals from the computer. While USB 2.0 allows at most 2.5 W of power, enough for a simple device like a mouse, FireWire devices can provide or consume up to 45 W of power, enough to run high-performance disk drives and to rapidly charge batteries. This feature is especially beneficial to users of portable computers, as it can eliminate the need for multiple power adapters.

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/HardwareDrivers/Conceptual/HWTech_FireWire/Articles/FireW_concepts.html

[erubio]

Excellent. It's clear that Firewire is the way to go here. Don't know if it's me, but it seems like there are less Firewire products on the market these days, including FW800.

Thanks for the replies.