eSATA vs. Firewire 800
 

first off, i have a G4 powerbook (running mac os X 10.4.10).
i got a new external hard drive -- seagate freeagent pro, 500 gb, firewire 400/usb 2.0/eSATA.
the thing is, it didn't come with an eSATA cable; i'd need a cable + ADAPTER for my powerbook, but i have no idea what the cheapest/reliable brands are. i've only poked around in best buy (no luck, haha) and amazon.com so far, but i figured someone here would know better. fry's? newegg?

how much would it cost?

i got the seagate for $160 at fry's (sale), but i was previously eyeing the western digital 500 gb with firewire 400/800/usb 2.0; it's about $200 online, a little cheaper on some websites i've never heard of.

so, basically -- if it costs more than $40 to be eSATA-ready, then i'm thinking of returning the seagate and grabbing the WD for the firewire 800.

i just wish i'd realized that firewire 400 is slower than usb 2.0, or i wouldn't have even picked up the seagate... :eagletear:

i would absolutely love any help on this topic, thank you in advance!

Actually, due to the architecture of USB and the overhead involved, more often than not FW 400 will spank USB 2.0 in terms of real throughput.

I'd go with the fastist native interface you can use. No adapters. If its FW800, then go with that. If its FW400, go with that.

after doing a bit more research for myself, looks like my powerbook can support only a PC card adapter - and not sure where that's available! ick.

many thanks for your input, electricsheep! looks like that's what i'll do. i'm going to trade in my seagate for a WD firewire 800. :D

and re: fw 400/usb 2.0... haha, that's great to hear.