USB speed vs Firewire speed?

It all depends. After all you are going to have to by the cord to hook USB to your Ipod. That is what I did instead of buying Firewire. Let's see, I saved about 15 bucks by not buying Firewire (the chord cost something like 25). The USB is slower but not that it matters! I can upload 100 songs in 5 minutes with USB 1.1. I can also charge while doing this because the cord has two wires, one that plugs into the wall jack.

USB 1.1 = 12 Mb/s
USB 2.0 = 480 Mb/s
Firewire (current) = 400 Mb/s
Firewire (future) = 800 Mb/s

Note: MB = Megabyte, Mb = Megabit (8 Mb = 1 MB)

Before you jump to the conclusion that Firewire = USB1.1x40, the real-life transfer speeds of Firewire is limited mostly by the iPod's hard drive which is the weak link in the chain. On average, I get about 5-6 MB/s transfer speeds using EphPod. Since USB1.1 doesn't come near to maxing out transport and drive speeds, you will end up getting closer to its theoretical max of 12 Mb/s (1.5 MB/s). I would guess probably around 1.2 MB/s. So, Firewire is about 5 times faster than USB1.1.

Originally posted by NooBiE
thanx for the replies... but u guys transfer surprisingly fast... i think i have a usb 1.1 and it takes me like 30-45 minutes for like 200 mb of music... i don't know why it takes so long... maybe it's the volume equalizing feature i have on my musicmatch or something

or maybe it's what tonicboy said about the ipod hd being slow or something...

hmm... still thinkin about the firewire card cuz it's like $35... too much money for me!!

Well, software can be a big part of it. First of all, I used MMJB for the first month that I had my iPod and got about 2 MB/s (with Firewire mind you). With EphPod, I get 5-6 MB/s. Add to that your use of volume equalization (which definitely takes processing time), may account for your slow speeds. Try a one-time volume normalization which can be done with numerous utilities (just Google for mp3 normalization).