USB 2.0 + Firewire???

[clueless1773]

PLEASE HELP!!! I went and lookd around for a USB cable for my ipod. But all i keep finding is a USB 2.0 + firewire??? What the hell is that?? does that need a dock thingy??? i got a windows XP professional laptop and it doesnt have a firewire port only 2 USB 1.1 ports. so can anybody please help me out and gimme a link to a picture of wat i need to buy to get this ipod thing to work.. id really appreciate all the help i can get. thanks in advance! =D

[AndyH]

The USB 2.0 + firewire cable is the one you want.

You're supposed to hook the FireWire portion of the cable up to your AC adaptor and the USB portion of the cable to your computer. That way you can charge the iPod while you transfer music.

And no, you do not need to have a dock for this cable to work.

[MikeM]

You could also get a firewire PC card. They're fairly cheap. Faster transfers than with USB, espcially USB 1.1.

Here is Apple's list of recommended cards for use with the iPod (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93405)

[clueless1773]

thanks for all the input guyz! but i got another question..if i use the USB 2.0 + firewire thingy does it transfer songs fairly fast??? does the USB thingy work wid an ipod 10 GB???

[bhb399mm]

USB 2.0 is backword compatable.. meaning it is compatable with USB 1.1...

if the USB ports on your laptop are USB 1.1 then it will only transfer at 1.1 speed even if you are using a 2.0 cord. the specifications of the cord dont matter .. its the specs of your computer you want to look at..

for example.. if your ports are 1.1 you will transfer music at 12mbps. if they are 2.0 you will transfer at 480mbps

transfer speeds:
USB 1.1 -- 12mbps
USB 2.0 -- 480mbps
Firewire -- 400mbps

[MikeM]

Those transfer speeds don't hold up in real-life. Every test I've ever seen has put firewire ahead, sometimes by large margins.

Here's the first result of my google search of usb 2.0 vs. firewire. There are many more tests with similar results:

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/supergeek/jump/0,24331,3393574,00.html

[AndrewHarrison]

i tested USB2 vs FW about 2 weeks ago.
i did 2 tests on each one, the first was transferring about 3 and a half gigs of various files by draggin and dropping to the iPod, and the second was dragging and dropping songs in iTunes to the iPod, about half a gig worth.
In each and every test, USB2 outperformed FW everytime. not by particularly much, but in a 27 seconds vs 22 seconds is a big enough deal when you multiply it out.

[tombo77]

USB 2 is always faster than the paticular version of FW used in the iPod which is not the same or as fast as the version used on PC cards or even the MAc natively. NOrmally USB 2is slightly faster but in the case of the ipOd's version of FW it is much faster.