Performance – Using FireWire 800 with SSD vs 7200rpm HDD

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Does it makes sense to buy a SSD HD and use it with the Firewire 800 port? Or should I buy a standard 7200rpm one?

Firewire 800 is slower than internal HD (am I right?) so I was thinking the advantage of using the expensive SSD is screwed if I use it in the Firewire 800 (as opposed to opening my computer and plug it as internal drive).

I'm thinking this because I see almost only internal SSD HD being sold, while I've found none with a Firewire 800 port and a case.

So, will a SSD HD run faster via Firewire 800 than a regular HD at 7200rpm? I'm interested in this as I'd like to use SSD as an external startup disk.

Best Answer

No matter what interface you'll use to connect it, SSD will be faster thanks to zero seek time - but it won't noticeably affect performance unless you want to boot from that disk or use it as an internal drive.

If you ask me, the seek time alone isn't worth that money, at least until you really want that drive to be as fast as possible and have some spare money to throw at it.

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