• Registered: 2010-09-13
  • Posts: 10

Topic: RME FF400 - should I go with FW or USB-harddisk?

I've worked a couple of years using my FF400 with MacBook Pro and recording to internal drive. Now I've bought an another computer and I'm planning on starting to record on an external hard drive.

Should I go for an USB2.0 or a Firewire-hard drive? I've understood that USB requires some CPU-power but there also could be some problems with linking multiple FW-gadgets (FF400 and hard drive would use the same port, my other computer is an IMac)

Any opinions on these issues?

  • Arnie
  • ADAT user
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-09-08
  • Posts: 11

Re: RME FF400 - should I go with FW or USB-harddisk?

I actually had to get a FW drive because I have a Macbook Pro from the series with incompatible FW controller onboard. I got a Logitech 2.5" 320GB disk for this purpose which has both USB (needs extra power though) and FW with its own controller, and it has never let me down so far! MBP -> Logitech drive -> FW400.

3 Reply by fishbone (edited by fishbone 2010-09-14 21:06:11)

  • Registered: 2010-02-22
  • Posts: 29

Re: RME FF400 - should I go with FW or USB-harddisk?

Some(if not all) FW drives have the nasty habit of send reset commands from time to time, and this can cause all sort of connection problems, specially when you try to daisy chain FW units. USB drives gives a decent performance for audio and are capable of handling  multichannel record/play with no glitches.

In my case, I have a iMac aluminum with FW 800 and 400 ports and a bunch of USB. I have a Fireface 800, a TC konnekt 24D and a Focusrite Liquid Mix. I hooked up Fireface to iMac FW 800 port, Liquid Mix to iMac FW 400 and 24D to fireface FW 400 port(on the back), so I opted for 2 external USB drives for audio stream. This setup works flawlessly with MacOS 10.6.4 and logic 9.1.1.

In the other hand, both my external drives support multiple connections types(FF800, FF400, USB 2.0 and e-Sata) and I've tried all kinds of connections to make one external drive work with FW, and it always gives me trouble, sooner or later.

So my advice is to get an external drive that have both USB and FW and see what works better for you.

Hope this help.