CF card reader FW800 vs USB 2.0

[Marcus Vasques Osorio]

Yes I know that FW 800 is faster than USB 2.0... 800MBits/s vs 400MBits/s...

But I am wondering is'nt this dependent on the card used, I am having trouble getting hold of a SanDisk/Lexat 800FW reader here in Sweden and was thinking of buying a USB2 instead....

So any one tested this how long to copy over material??? ( I know the maths, it is not that I am asking I want the real world)

Mahvo

[BigLu]

DONT USE USB if you can avoid it.
Im on FW 400 and i hate it because i know what the 800 can do that i rented.

I am buying an 800 card reader.
I wont go with anything else i just hate these 17min periods with FW 400 on a laptop.

[Marcus Vasques Osorio]

ok cool,

how long does it take to copy a full card (8GB) from FW 800 (about)

thx

mahvo

[Jimmy Shen]

ok cool,

how long does it take to copy a full card (8GB) from FW 800 (about)

thx

mahvo

About 3-4 minutes.

[Marcus Vasques Osorio]

so lexar or sandisk????

[Dylan Reeve]

I have SanDisk it works fine. Heard good things about Lexar too. I just ordered what I could get quickly.

As for USB2 - arguably it's about 1/2 the speed of FW800, although I believe in practice that USB is more efficient, so the speed loss isn't quite that bad. But overall USB is slower. Although I'm not sure it should make that much difference - the maximum read speed of the cards is between 450 and 500Mbit/s from what I can find, meaning that while the FW800 will turn in a slightly better result (as the overhead doesn't impact on the base speed) it shouldn't be huge. But some USB2 readers are apparently crap and slow regardless.

One thing USB2 has going for it is that USB2 (and USB1) is more widely available on a larger range of computers, so you'll almost always be able to connect a USB reader to any computer, at a pinch.

[Marcus Vasques Osorio]

thx great information,

(WRONG.....just found that it does have 800)I have looked at lexar too, it seems only to have firewire 400 capabilities...
but it does have the advantage of daisy chaining....

Marcus

[Marcus Vasques Osorio]

what about an expresscard CF reader, any one seen one of these... surely this must be alot faster than any cable setup (FW 800, 400, USB2)...

mahvo

[Hrvoje Simic]

I got SanDisk's model - gets you data recovery software included. Just DON'T buy a USB model.
If firewire model is not available near you just order from Amazon or Adorama.

[Dylan Reeve]

what about an expresscard CF reader, any one seen one of these... surely this must be alot faster than any cable setup (FW 800, 400, USB2)...

Bus speed on the ExpressCard reader is potentially very good, but in practice I suspect more ExpressCard readers are really just USB2 readers (the ExpressCard specification includes native USB support).

But even if it is an IDE or SATA interface to the card in an ExpressCard profile, the limiting factor will still be the card's speed, which is never going to get much beyond 490Mbit/s. Also, depending on what you're writing to you may find that the the write speed of your target device is a bottleneck.

[Jimmy Shen]

so lexar or sandisk????

I've been using the Lexar.

[Marcus Vasques Osorio]

ok thanks all, especially dylan... looks like I will go with a FW800 sandisk, see if I can find one in uk...

marcus

[sander kamp]

I have a Lexar 800 reader. I use it with a 800 to 400 firewire cable on my MacBook for downloading at shoots and it takes about 5 min for a full 8 GB card.

[Ken K]

I have a Lexar one, but recently one of the FW800 pins bent inside and shorted the whole thing out. They're pretty cheaply made. I'm going to give the Sandisk a try next.

[RyanW]

Hey can anyone post link to each of these models of reader?
I am looking for one and just wanna find the right part or model number.

THX

[Eric S.]

Look at this pro CF card throughput benchmark:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/compactflash-card-memory,2166-11.html

In that benchmark, a Addonics ADSACFW card reader using the SATA interface was used.

At the max, these cards are pulling 47 MB / second. USB 2.0 shouldn't dip much below 30-35 MB/s sustained throughput, max burst throughput closer to 40-45 MB/s. Firewire has better sustained throughput, of course. Still, unless you're RAID'ing your CF cards or something, you have to ask yourself if FW800 is that much more valuable than FW400 (basically 5-7 MB/s more throughput) and if your CF cards are indeed pulling those speeds.

[RikiButland]

I have been useing a belkin 1 in 7 USB card reader without a problem with my MBP,
But it will not read the new updated Red CF cards, Any one have any ideas

[Tom.Wong]

i have a expresscard cf reader, and it's giving me bare minimum 800 megabit out of it. i was offloading cf cards to 2 firewire 400 drives, each one going at equal speeds, a gig a minute. that's pretty much FW 400 speeds. it depends on which card u get, the thing is fast...

[Christian Tanner]

be aware of the fact that on the mbp, fw400 and fw800 are on the same bus.
that's why i usually recommend the use of an express cf card reader if one wants to back up data to an external disk by fw on the mbp.

[Martin Weiss]

Thanks Tanner!

Incidentally, express card readers are cheaper than the firewire ones, while slightly faster. Can you recommend a specific model? The Delkin eFilm ExpressCard 34 CompactFlash Card Adapter is just about 25 USD, which sounds suspiciously cheap. Their 54 model is about twice as much.

While poking around Adorama, I came across this baby:

Anyone doing multiple cards at once, there is an offering from Delkin which lets you insert 4 (or by daisychaining: 8 or more) CF cards at once. USB2.0 and about 90 bucks.

http://www.adorama.com/ICDIMR.html?searchinfo=expresscard+cf+reader

http://www.adorama.com/images/Large/ICDIMR.jpg

[Tom.Wong]

that thing looks awesome. still wish it was firewire or esata based :( it's never fast enough.

all my expresscards are apiotek. esata, fw800, cf card. they all work flawless. lot of ppl use sonnata and even firmtek. i've never had an issue with apiotek even though they are a less known company. keep in mind that a lot of these companies use the same technology and rebrand them. out of 10 expresscards out there, 6 of them are probably all the same components with just a remix of drivers.

[Clifford Norton]

At the max, these cards are pulling 47 MB / second. USB 2.0 shouldn't dip much below 30-35 MB/s sustained throughput, max burst throughput closer to 40-45 MB/s.

Well, that depends on a lot of things, including what else your processor is doing at the time. In real-world comparisons I've done, USB hasn't ever been even close. FW400 is faster.
The only way to take advantage of these newer breed (UDMA 5+) CF read speeds in through a FW 800 reader or pro ExpressCard. Not all ExpressCards are the same. Most are just USB bridges.
Check out this Sonnet model (http://www.sonnettech.com/product/produalcfadapterexpress34.html). There are a few out there that are essentially the same as this, but this one has a better card guide to reduce the chance of bent pins inside. Plus it accommodates two cards at once!

Cliff

[Clifford Norton]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed here or not, but the real Cat's Pajamas in this arena in Sonnet's new QIO (http://www.sonnettech.com/product/qio.html).
Woof.

Cliff!

[Tehben Dean]

I have one of these "Lexar professional" Firewire 800 readers http://www.lexar.com//readers/pro_udma_reader.html f. It seems to be about twice as fast as the equivalent usb2 model that I used before.
If anyone wants me to compare the two I would be happy to.

[Jonathan Smiles]

I have found the Lexar UDMA FW800 CF reader to be faster than the SanDisk Extreme FireWire 800 Reader on the same setup.