[chumeister]

I just bought a Lacie Ethernet 1TB drive to directly connect to my Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz 17". Connecting it directly via the CAT5 cable they included and setting a specific IP address for the device I only get transfer speeds of about 5-6 MB/sec. My old firewire 400 drive is about 3 times as fast. I was hoping to get 1000 MBs transfer speed. I have no other network devices.

Will getting a ethernet gigabit swtich ensure I get full transfer speed? If so why?

Or is there something else wrong?

I don't currently own a switch or a router. I thought connecting directly with a set IP address should sort it all out but hasn't.

[cgc]

Your speed does seem a little slow. I would suspect there's something wrong but I'd think changing interfaces (e.g. moving from 100BaseTX to 1000BaseTX) would make no difference. BTW, that;s the maximum bus speed, your hard drive can't get close to filling it.

[chumeister]

So if it comes to pure speed of transfer rates - I should choose firewire over ethernet?

Although my current powerbook g4 supports firewire 800, I'm soon going to get a macbook and so will only be able to run firewire 400 - which in my tests still does better than the ethernet connection.

I really don't need a network drive. I only chose it because I thought the transfer speed for faster than firewire.

[Cliff_O]

Originally Posted by chumeister 

So if it comes to pure speed of transfer rates - I should choose firewire over ethernet?

You should probably choose eSATA, assuming the G4 PC Card bus is running off the PCI bus and not USB 2.0. Someone else will have to answer that latter question as I don't have the answer.

[Powerbook]

Originally Posted by chumeister 

I just bought a Lacie Ethernet 1TB drive to directly connect to my Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz 17". Connecting it directly via the CAT5 cable they included and setting a specific IP address for the device I only get transfer speeds of about 5-6 MB/sec. My old firewire 400 drive is about 3 times as fast. I was hoping to get 1000 MBs transfer speed.

I hope you don't mean 1000 Megabytes. Real world you might get around 110 MB/sec. in a perfect Gigabit Ethernet setup. Problem is, Apple uses cheap chipsets, so the transfer rate could be as low as 60 MB/sec.

Regards
PB.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by chumeister 

So if it comes to pure speed of transfer rates - I should choose firewire over ethernet?

Although my current powerbook g4 supports firewire 800, I'm soon going to get a macbook and so will only be able to run firewire 400 - which in my tests still does better than the ethernet connection.

I really don't need a network drive. I only chose it because I thought the transfer speed for faster than firewire.

You could get an 800fw expresscard if you need to.

[Powerbook]

Originally Posted by peeb 

You could get an 800fw expresscard if you need to.

Which won't give him transfer rates higher than 74 MB/sec*., FWIW.

PB.

*with dual disk systems, like the LaCie Bigger Disks