MacBook – Use *Two* Thunderbolt/Firewire adapters on MacBook for 400 and 800 devices

audiofirewiremacbook properformancethunderbolt

I'm completing an audio recording setup.

Equipment:

  • Macbook 13" Retina late 2012 with Two Thunderbolt ports
  • One Focusrite Saffire audio interface (Firewire 400)
  • One OWC Mercury external SSD drive (Firewire 800)
  • I already own One Thunderbolt/Firewire adapter

Question: what is the optimal setup for these devices? Specifically, will I get full Firewire 800 speeds if I purchase a second Thunderbolt/Firewire adapter and run the external FW800 drive alone on that port?

I gather from reading other threads that, if I am to use only the one adapter, I would place the FW800 drive first in the chain, and the FW400 audio input last. However, it also appears that, if the FW400 device "talks a lot," it can still slow down the speed of the FW800 device. So, the question is whether that same behavior might happen even if the devices were each on its own adapter through separate Thunderbolt ports?

One might presume both devices would operate at optimum speed if on separate ports, but perhaps the internal architecture of the Macbook still handles them as if on one port?

Thanks.

Best Answer

Each Firewire controller will be treated independently by OS X, and each controller will have its bandwidth set by the slowest device connected. So you could daisychain your devices but will only see 400Mb/s throughput, requiring you to use separate Firewire adapters if you wish to see your OWC drive running at full speed.

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