Firewire 400 And Firewire 800, Do They Have Their Own Bus

[Football]

I have a Dual 2.7 G5. I am wondering if Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 share the same bus or are they completely independent?

I am going to buy a new external drive and want to see if I'll benefit from Firewire 800. I always have either a Digi 002Rack or an Apogee Duet on the Firewire 400 bus already.

[Nordkrog]

I'm pretty sure they share the bus. If you have a free PCI slot you might consider buying a firewire card (they are extremely cheap). This will give you a seperate bus

[6strings]

Originally Posted by Football

I have a Dual 2.7 G5. I am wondering if Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 share the same bus or are they completely independent?

Same bus.

I'd spend the extra $20 and get the 800 regardless. It can't hurt and if you use the drive down the line as a backup drive, you'll be kicking yourself for getting the 400. They are such a dog in comparision.

[Football]

Thanks for the information.

I ended up ordering one of the Quad OWC drives and a eSata card for my Mac tonight. That way I can avoid any strange firewire problems that could arise. Hopefully that will be cool. If something doesn't go well with that I am going to use the 800 port.