firewire through cardbus slot?

[jjlists123]

Is firewire through the cardbus slot very fast?

I am using a usb2 external drive and find it to be quite slow. The external drive also has a firewire connection so I was hoping it would speed up access to the external drive.

Also, I find accessing a compact flash card via a cardbus adapter to be very slow (and take 100% of the CPU!). Anyone using a firewire adapter? Does it peg your CPU at 100%?

[ariadgr]

I use a PCMCIA to firewire adapter and have no problems. I would recommend an Adaptec card. No drivers needed.

[RonS]

I use the LaCie card (www.LaCie.com) and get 64MB/sec, bursting to 77MB/sec.

[Ground Loop]

Also, I find accessing a compact flash card via a cardbus adapter to be very slow (and take 100% of the CPU!).

I suspect you're not actually using a CardBus->CompactFlash adapter, but a passive PCMCIA adapter instead.

Was your adapter less than $15?
Is it lightweight/hollow?
Did it not require special drivers?
Does every different CF card detect as a "new device"?
Does it not have a gold ground strip above the connector?
Is it not made by Delkin?

It's probably PCMCIA, which is just passive (wires) connecting the CompactFlash to your 16-bit PCMCIA slot. It's very very slow -- 16-bit at 8MHz ISA.

A true CompactFlash adapter presens itself as a SCSI controller, and contains "smarts" to use the 32-bit CompactFlash interface to talk to the PC, while using a faster CompactFlash IDE interface on the other side. They cost about $40, and can run at the full speed of the flash.

[jjlists123]

Also, I find accessing a compact flash card via a cardbus adapter to be very slow (and take 100% of the CPU!).

I suspect you're not actually using a CardBus->CompactFlash adapter, but a passive PCMCIA adapter instead.

I'm using this adapter. Not the microdrive, the CF/Cardbus adapter. (the one pictured here)
http://store.yahoo.com/upgradenation/ibm1gbmic10c.html


So you're saying, if I buy a *real* fireware cardbus adapter, it should run a lot faster?

[Ground Loop]

I suspect you're not actually using a CardBus->CompactFlash adapter, but a passive PCMCIA adapter instead.

I'm using this adapter. Not the microdrive, the CF/Cardbus adapter. (the one pictured here)
http://store.yahoo.com/upgradenation/ibm1gbmic10c.html


So you're saying, if I buy a *real* fireware cardbus adapter, it should run a lot faster?

The adapter you are using is a PCMCIA adapter. If you open it, you would find nothing but wire and the two connectors. Zip.

You need a real CardBus adapter. Nobody said anything about Firewire, which would require a CardBus-Firewire card, and then an external firewire reader. Works fine, but probably more hassle.

Here's the full details:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0310/03102 ... ustest.asp

[jjlists123]

Ah, I get it. I wasn't aware there was a difference.

Thanks for the info.

[l3stat]

I'm using a Cardbus Firewire card too, connection's really fast. Sustained 400Mbps vs 480Mbps burst rate. Naw really my T20 is too old to come with USB2.0, can't really comment on that.