i want to buy a firewire hard disk. i pretty much settled on one of the fastest mechanisms (IBM 75GXP - 75GB version).

there are dozens of vendors selling this in different enclosures (getting close to $400)).

unfortunately, seems like the firewire (50MB/sec) & disk potential (30MB/sec) are not yet realized - since most of these external units do only 12 - 13 MB/sec. i guess it means the IDE/ATA - FW conversion is not done effectively?

i'll be using this w/ my G4 AGP's built-in FW port.

RUMOUR:
one vendor told me that they are getting new chips in the next week or two that will up their throughput to 30MB/sec.

QUESTION 1:
any comments on the "new improved chip"?

QUESTION 2:
any advice on a vendor? my priorities are:
- reliability
- performance
- quiet

- size (small may be nice to have, but not at the expense of heat build-up)

[Paul S]

All FireWire drives to date use a standard IDE to FW bridge chip. At MacWorld in January, an ATA100 to FW bridge chip was demonstrated, said to be shipping soon. This will significantly boost the speeds of FW drives. Getting around 30MB/s should be standard on those new drives. I haven't heard of any vendors advertising that they will be shipping drives equiped with the new chip yet, but I suspect we may hear that soon. I have been waiting for this to buy my drive as well. Once I know who's carrying it, I'll look into quality, reliability, etc. I also plan on getting the IBM 75GB. I've heard from many places it's the fastest IDE/ATA drive out there.