[ElPrimero]

Hi Guys,

Could someone let me know what Firewire cable I would need to connect a new MacBook Pro to my IMac??

Many thanks,

James

[olePigeon]

What model iMac?

Your MacBook Pro requires a FireWire 800 (1394b) plug. Depending on your iMac, you'll either need just a Firewire 800 cable, or a Firewire 800-to-400 cable. FireWire 400 is also called 1394a.

[ibook_steve]

I'm assuming you're talking about Firewire target disk mode for a migration.

Firewire 800 to 400: For only $3.64 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 9 PIN/ 6PIN BILINGUAL FireWire 800 - FireWire 400 Cable, 6FT, Black | 9 - 6 pin IEEE-1394B Firewire Cable

You can get a Firewire 800 to 800 cable from Monoprice as well if this is a new iMac.

Steve

[ElPrimero]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

What model iMac?

Your MacBook Pro requires a FireWire 800 (1394b) plug. Depending on your iMac, you'll either need just a Firewire 800 cable, or a Firewire 800-to-400 cable. FireWire 400 is also called 1394a.

Hi,

It's an iMac 24/2.8/2GB/500GB/SD, purchased Dec 2007.

All I'm wanting to do is sync the MacBook Pro with the iMac.

Many thanks,

James

[CharlesS]

Based on that, I think your iMac should have FireWire 800 on it, but you might want to check just to be sure. A FireWire 800 port looks like this:



If you've got one of those on the back of your iMac, get this cable, and it will be very fast:

For only $5.00 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 9 PIN/ 9PIN BETA FireWire 800 - FireWire 800 Cable, 6FT, CLEAR | 9 - 9 pin IEEE-1394B Firewire Cable

(this one's a little cheaper, but is back-ordered: For only $3.64 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 9 PIN/ 9PIN BETA FireWire 800 - FireWire 800 Cable, 6FT, Black | 9 - 9 pin IEEE-1394B Firewire Cable )

[ElPrimero]

Thanks very much for the help and advice.

James

[Spheric Harlot]

A plain Ethernet cable should be nearly as fast as FW 800, since they're both on Gigabit Ethernet (unless your iMac is ancient).

[CharlesS]

True, but there'll be overhead from the networking protocols - and as AFP is really old and dates from the Mac OS Classic days, I doubt it's that efficient. My gut says you'll probably get faster real-world speeds from FireWire 800.

At any rate, FW800 is quite fast. Since the iMac is slightly older, it might be faster than the physical speed of the iMac's drive anyway.