And the difference is?

[Diabetic1]

Hey all, just wondering what exactly the difference between these two motherboards is, on the top of this page:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Gigabyte_Socket_939.html

Is Firewire support the only advantage of the Pro version, and is this enough to justify the increased price tag? (I don't even know what Firewire is....)

- Any help you could give would be great! Cheers.

 

[fishmahn]

Looks like Firewire is the only difference to me...

Firewire is a standard (IEEE1394) for connecting external (and internal, but rarely used for that on PCs) devices to computers. Similar in use to USB, its more like SCSI in purpose. (very gross comparisons for all the nit-pickers out there) Many digital camcorders are firewire only.

Mike.

 

[Whizzard9992]

Check Gigabyte's site. If you don't know what firewire is, chances are you don't need and. IEEE-1394 used to be faster until USB 2.0 came out. You'll only find firewire-only devices on high-end digital cameras and older digital cameras, but most new devices have USB 2.0 now, because it's a better bus (Better PnP, better extensibility, about the same speed as Firewire).

Worst-case scenario, you can get a firewire PCI card, but I doubt you'll ever use it. The only reason it's still around is because of apple and legacy hardware support.

 

[Whizzard9992]

Sorry...

Some later models include updated parts, such as voltage regulators (to support a wider range of processors and RAM). I'd check the hardware compatibility as well.