1394a??

sneakyimp

I want to buy another hard drive. My old mobo is all out of IDE/ATA connectors (it's got two devices on each of the existing two IDE connectors). I was thinking I would get an external firewire drive and was considering this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822154511

But specs say it's 1394a. Will my firewire controller speak 1394a? Sorry If I sound dumb here. I did manage to completely wipe my computer clean and freshly install win xp.

device manager says
VIA OHCI Compliant 1394 Host Controller

the via website says "we don't make drivers, microsoft includes them with winxp".

Please forgive me for posting lowly hardware questions here...i'm off to search for hardware forums now.

Sxooter

considering the throughput of USB is 480Mb/s, and most external hard drives aren't all that blazingly fast, I'd recommend going USB. Yes, firewire's 400 Mb/s or 800 MB/s but most external hard drives aren't that fast themselves.

Unless you're editing video. Then, Firewire is the best choice, because high speed streaming throughput is paramount for that kind of application.

Of course, and external sata drive would likely be faster than either firewire or USB, but I'm not real up on using external sata myself. Looking up some stuff on google, I found a few sata external enclosures, so it looks doable.

sneakyimp

thanks for your feedback!

well, my box doesn't have SATA interface. I'd need to buy a pci card probably if I wanted SATA, right?

The enclosures contribute a significant amount of cost in some cases. I saw a cool raid one that was $89. RAID would be cool but when your rent is late, it's not cool enough.

So, enclosure + sata card doesn't sound like easiest way to new hard drive.

I do have a DVStorm video grab card in this machine...thus my firewire focus. I don't do much video grabbing but I do a lot of flash work and want to make sure i speak firewire for potential clients.

goldbug

I thought 1394a was basically just another name for Firewire 400, aka 6-pin plug w/ 2 angled corners, versus 1394b which is Firewire 800, which is a little squarish plug?

Go thee to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire for more info.

As far as performance/features, the aside from the technical speed difference between 400 vs. 800... 800 devices (at least the ones I have) can be daisy-chained (unsure if 400 can even do that at all).

sneakyimp

i had read the wikipedia site and didn't see any correlation between 1394a and any particular connector. i think you might be right, goldbug.

my comp. definitely has the 6-pin connector there...or at least i think it does. i have attached a photo of my grimy pci bays...

EDIT: I guess that still leaves the compatibility issue unsolved. Safe to assume that windows driver for VIA firewire bus supports 1394a? who knows.