First post, by BitWrangler
- Rank
- l33t++
Hi folks,
Recently got a "thrown in" external HDD case, which has USB and Firewire connections, then in another box, got a 3 port Belikin PCI firewire card with the TI chipset. The HDD enclosure takes a 3.5" drive, so I can put a decent size in there. I think I may have had another external that was small and kinda "sealed blob" construction that I ignored for not being real useful in size, and also may have ignored another card or two. The point being, a 3.5 enclosure with USB alternate, feels potentially useful enough to actually want to try using it on firewire.
There feels like there would be a sweetspot to use it for socket7 and 7+, slot 1 and 370 motherboards that have mediocre or entirely absent USB 1.1 connectivity only, and USB 2.0 cards are also all kinds of a pain in the ass. In theory, the S400 speed could exceed the native IDE interface speeds seen on much of this class, with some not even doing DMA33. So if that "small" hdd turns up it might get to be a Win98 swap drive 🤣 (I think 98 refuses to swap on removable though)
So I am interested in exploring whether in general for 100-1000 Mhz systems, firewire cards are much nicer than messing with USB connected external/swappable storage. I have a vague notion about a Win98 based "grand central station" "tweener" rig for supporting all the lower and slower stuff, halfway point from modern modern. So fastish data dumps to and from that would be useful. Stretch goal might be figuring how to switch the USB/Firewire capable drive between USB and firewire, so I can have it hooked up as a network drive via USB to a router, and can just dump from any networked machine, at at least n300 or wired gigabit speeds to that disk and then read it off through firewire on the 98 box.
Though also I hear of firewire "being like a network" "can be used as a network" but not seeing much further clarity on that. Thinking it could be good to have a 98 box twinned with a more modern platform through a firewire link and use it's storage etc. Yeah pretty much meaning I'd use a laptop with nasty screen and keyboard as an oversize external HDD with wifi.
Well anyway, what is anyone else doing with it in a retro context? I was in a "don't bother with it" kind of phase until now when it seemed I had accidentally collected enough of a critical mass of firewire bits to "do something'
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.
