[rjc3]

I just picked up an external firewire CD-RW with the "911" chipset. My question is: Do CD-RWs benefit from the additional speed of a 911 firewire enclosure? I have an older non 911 firewire enclosure with a HD in it now, and would like to switch the HD into the 911 box if my CD-RW won't suffer by going into the slower enclosure. Thanks!

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

The CD-RW absolutly will see no benefit from the 911 chipset.

You're on the right track totally... switch the HD with the CD-RW as the harddrive actually will benefit from the 911 chipset. 911 just supports ATA-66 and 100 harddrive transfer speeds. Even the fastest optical drives still operate closer to ATA-33 speeds and the 911 chipset in a Firewire enclosure does virtually nothing for them.

[rjc3]

cool - thanks for the response. A follow up question: Does it make any difference in what order I hook up my firewire chain? Should I have my fastest device plugged in directly to cpu and all others connected to it (the fast device)? Thanks again.

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

I don't believe the order of devices matters with Firewire. Generally I plug my firewire harddrive in first, and daisy chain devices through it when needed, and that works flawlessly for me. I don't think there's any difference if I plug the HD in later in the chain though.