Imac > External HD > 003r daisy chain issue......

[amoretam]

I already know of this new conflic that the new imacs introduced because of the fact that they only have one FW800 port.
I am thinking about buying a new imac 27", 2.66GHz i5 that is going to cost me 2100usa and the 003rack (4 preamps).

All i want to know if i could use my maxtor one touch 4 plus 1tb to do the daisy "chaining stuff".
The maxtor have two FW400 ports, These are the questions i have?
Do i have to buy a FW800 to FW400 adapter?
Is my maxtor copatible with protools? (legacy ports and [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep])
Is the data still going to be travelling at the FW800 speed?

How is the chain order?:

ImacFW800>>adapter>>MaxtorFW400>>Maxtor second FW400>>003FW400 or
ImacFW800>>adapter>>003FW400>>003 second FW400>>MaxtorFW400.
or
Other.

Could any of this chain orders cause possible data loss in maxtor.?

Is this drive going to have problems with snow leopard?

Is this maxtor is not qualified for the "daisy chaning stuff" because it doesn't have FW800 ports, then what would be best harddrive qualified for protools and pristine daisy chaining?

I know this is a problem that many people is having, I hope this thread will help anybody and me to finally make clear this situation...

Thanks a lot for your responses

cheers

[Undertones]

Get a FW800 drive like the Lacie D2, that way you'll get faster transfer speed from the iMac to the drive. Just remember to put it first in the FW chain.

[nst7]

Get these drives from macsales.com:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other.../MEAQ7500GB16/

I have used 2 Glyph drives (with similar connections) and this all in a row (via fw800), then the 003R last in the chain (via 400) from an Imac with no problems.

[CME]

BTW yes order is important. You want to go Computer>Drive>Interface. This way if your interface gets turned off while the drive is still on you won't lose anything. If you have the interface first, and it gets shut off while transferring data, you could ruin your drive.

And I know FW800 is faster but it's not necessary for PTLE. I've ran sessions that were 40ish tracks and HD throughput was never a problem with my Lacie drive (FW400). It might be handy in some situations, but for audio isn't "required".

[Craig F]

Originally Posted by Undertones

Get a FW800 drive like the Lacie D2, that way you'll get faster transfer speed from the iMac to the drive. Just remember to put it first in the FW chain.

Wrong.

The act of plugging the 003 in pulls the FW800 down to 400.
All Macs only have one Firewire bus. (yes, I consider it a designee flaw)

[amoretam]

thanks for your responses, ..I have been thinking about giving it a change to my current PC, which specs are:
XFX MB-750I nVidia nForce 750i SLI SP
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 @ 2666 MHz
8192 MB (4 x 2048 DDR2-SDRAM )
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT
Hitachi (500 GB) (internal)
Maxtor one touch 4 plus 1tb (external)
Windows 7 Ultimate(x64)

I thought about changing to mac because of the crashes dilemma, you know what I mean, reliability and consistency everybody talks about.

If I decide to stay with my pc, do you think i could use an eSata external drive with protools?, (my computer has an eSata port on the back).

Or, how could I know if my maxtor is copatible with protools??

I know I can use protools le on windows 7 64bit, but could I use 64bit plugins inside protools,? or will I need some kind of bridging technology third party program to achieve this?

anyways, sorry if I deviated the subject I just want to make things very clear before deciding if changing to mac or not.

thanks all

[Undertones]

Originally Posted by Craig F

Wrong.

The act of plugging the 003 in pulls the FW800 down to 400.
All Macs only have one Firewire bus. (yes, I consider it a designee flaw)

I'm sorry, but that's a common case of misinformation.

http://www.mhsecure.com/technotes/Te...10/TN_0010.php

"If I connect a FW400 device to a FW800 bus, it will slow the entire bus down to 400 Mbs." -False

In a mixed speed bus, everything after the slowest device runs at the slower speed.
For example, in this FW800 chain:



The FW800 device communicates with the computer at 800 Mbs, and the FW400 device communicates at 400 Mbs. However, in this chain:



The FW800 device's speed is reduced to 400 Mbs, since the slower device is connected between it and the computer.

If you keep the FW800 connections together those devices will run at 800 Mbs regardless of whether there are FW400 devices in the chain. If you intermix FW800 and FW400 devices, you will lose bus speed on any FW800 device connected after a FW400 device.

[Craig F]

believe what you want,
I know what I've tested

now there may be bridge boards that do buffer the 400 from the 800 but I have not found one that does

[Chris7514]

The fact that you plug FW400 to FW800 chain doesn't necessarily slow down to FW400 the whole chain. As long as FW800 devices are FIRST in the chain connected directly to the host computer, they will ALWAYS operate at their maximum designed speed ( actually it's never 800, more likely in 700's depending on a particular model/brand).
I have iMac i7 FW800 quad 2.8 GHz, 8GB RAM 2TB internal HD.
Two FW800 LaCie quadra drives are daisy chained first.
002R is the last in the chain.
The whole thing operates considerably FASTER, compared to when 002R would be the first unit in the chain.
We tested it in our studio, and we can corroborate these results.
The link

http://www.mhsecure.com/technotes/Te...10/TN_0010.php

posted originally by Undertones shows the same statement.
Hope it helps to clear any misinformation.
Chris7514

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by Craig F

believe what you want,
I know what I've tested

now there may be bridge boards that do buffer the 400 from the 800 but I have not found one that does

I have also tested and found the opposite of what you've found.

I run a new iMac i5 > FW800 Sarotech case > FW800 to 400 cable to 003.

It's definitely transferring at FW800 speeds from the iMac to the ext HD.

That Metric Halo documentation is correct.