Hi there,

I was just about to purchase a new Imac and a Motu 828 mk11 (when it becomes available) for use with Logic when I noticed in a review that the iMacs only have firewire 400mbps connections as opposed to 800 on the tower systems. So basically what I need to know is will this be fine - and will I still get the best capabilities from my set-up? I also noticed that the new Imacs don't have usb 2.0 - so wondered if this would cause any problems - I'll be using an emagic Mt4 midi interface as well.

many thanks in advance!

sorry for the double post! There was a problem reported with the post going up so it looked like it hadn't been done - so I did it again. Obviously it did go up though.

The hope for Firewire is to become the media network standard, so that creative and recreational networks will be simple and with enough capacity to do most a/v tasks. If this pans out, then it would be good foresight to have 800 Firewire. On the other hand, if you have no need of a/v networking over multiple computers and appliances for the moment, then it's no big issue today.

Thanks Robert,

no really I'm not looking to network computers. To start off with I'd just have the motu firewire interface and a firewire harddrive and that might be it. Maybe at most I'd have some other a/v firewire device(s) connected to the computer but that's it. I just didn't know what the lowest rate of MBPS I could get away with was. And I'm sure the firewire sockets on the iMac are shared - so presumably 200MBPS each one. I didn't like the idea I might get latency when I'm paying out for a firewire device so I wouldn't get it. But I'm not really up on the data transfer rates and what they meen for someone who is simply trying to make music on a DAW.

Compared to USB, even a shared 400mbps transfer rate over a firewire connection would be superior. And yes, I think the two firewire ports are shared on an iMac, but separate on PowerMacs. Obviously you can't change this on the iMac, but it's still pretty fast - it really depends how much data you want to cram down the line at any one time.

To give you an idea, even a USB connection can handle a stereo mixdown from a DAW as long as there isn't tooo much going on at once - 12-16 audio tracks playing simultaneously, say. With FireWire, even shared, you've got a LOT more headroom than USB so you can go that bit further.

As for 800 vs 400, 400 is still blazingly fast.

thanks rickenbacker!

Yes I'll be using firewire 400mbps to send many multiple audio tracks back and forth via mixing console and motu 828 mk2 to and from Logic/iMac.

Apparently, according to a person at Apple UK, the firewire ports on the iMac aren't shared. Just thought I'd mentioned that in case anyone else was wondering.

Also just got an email from a helpful person at Motu saying the 828mk2 is 400mbps anyway!

I only got concerned about all this when I read a review speculating that Apple saw 800mbps firewire as something for the "pro" domain, and I wasn't sure where it was coming from. What I want to do is from a professional stand point - but I guess like the early post says - that review comment probably had more to do with if you're networking computers etc. I just simply need to know if it was fast enough for my recording needs.

Thanks again guys.