Firewire cable?

[Chipell]

Hi all,
Being one of the latest newbies I have some more questions:

1. What type of firewire cable should I get? I ordered teh Belking USB/Firewire hub, but I don't know which cables to get for the firewire side.

2. I have looked at Elgato and Hauppauge for TV tuners. I am leaning towards the Elgato. Anyone have any experience?

3. I ordered my upgrade RAM from Crucial (THANK YOU BASEBALLBOY828), how hard is it going to be to put in?

TIA everyone.

Chip

[baseballboy828]

1. You'll probably need a 6 pin to 6 pin firewire cable to hook it up to your iMac if it doesn't come with one. Many external firewire drives use the same cable.
2. I have heard great things from a lot of people about eyeTV. I'd go with that.
3. RAM is very easy to install on an iMac. There is a small under the iMac that you open with a small screwdriver. You just pop the RAM in, and you're set. I believe Crucial as well as Apple provide instructions if you need them.

[Yuiichi]

Hey Chip,

Here's an article from Apple that outlines how to install RAM. As BBB said, it's very simple.

[houltmac]

Hey Chip, sounds like you have placed an order; what did you get?

1. If we are still talking iMacs then they all have both FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 ports. FireWire 400 is often used for peripherals because the transfer speed is "about the same" (I'd argue it's faster) as USB but it also passes a decent amount of power if required (to power a small hard drive for example, so you don't need to power it from the wall). FireWire 800 isn't as widespread, but some devices do use it. It's effectively the same as 400, but twice as fast. It does however have different connector so you can't use the same cable.

The real question is what do you want the cable for? If you don't have a specific purpose then don't worry about it; most devices which require FireWire will come with the right cable in the box. FireWire 400 is known as 6-pin to 6-pin.

2. I have only used Elgato, but always really like it. They also have great support so I'd stick with that.

3. RAM is really simple to install in the iMac, just one screw and push it in. The screwdriver you will need it just a standard philips.

[Chipell]

Hi Houltmac,
Thank you so much for you answers. Is the Firewire 800 the 4 pin if 400 is the 6 pin?

I ended up buying a refurbed iMac 24', 2.8 extreme from the Apple site. As I was shopping I clicked on 'chat now' and this wonderful woman came on and was so helpful. She also gave me a $100 discount. Cool! Puts Dell to shame.

I ordered the Elgato USB as well.

Thank you again.

[houltmac]

No problem. If you take a look at this page you will see the 4- and 6-pin connectors (red, near the top on the right). These are both FireWire 400, but the 4-pin doesn't have the two power pins of the 6-pin. If you look below them you will see the 9 pin FireWire 800 cable also.