Peripherals: FireWire or USB? North Las Vegas NV

Posted by : Dennis Sellers

These days most new Macs come with FireWire and USB connectivity options. And most peripherals are available in either flavor. So, given a choice, which should you choose? Well, several factors are involved, but helping you out is what we're here for, so let's examine the matter more closely:

What's USB and Why Should You Care?

USB is a cross-platform industry standard for connecting peripherals to computers. The standard offers a 12-MB-per-second data transfer rate--which is pretty darn fast, though not earth shattering. In theory, USB offers the ability to connect up to 127 devices to a single computer (though we've never heard of anyone actually doing this). Although USB was developed for the Wintel world, Apple has become one of its major proponents. In fact, its inclusion on the iMac helped spur the widespread acceptance of the technology.

USB is hot swappable, eliminating the need to reboot or restart your Mac when attaching a device. You attach peripherals through interconnected external hubs. When your Mac's ports fill up, just attach a hub that provides additional ports(usually four or seven), and keep on plugging in more peripherals--and hubs—as needed. With USB, there's no need for terminators, memory addresses or ID numbers with USB devices. There's only one kind of cable (USB A-B), which has different connectors at each end, so you can't connect a USB device incorrectly.

Various sorts of devices can plug into a USB por...

Click here to read the rest of this article from Computer User