SIIG’s FireWire 800 cable is another great example of a well-made, durable and flexible FireWire cable. This one uses 24K gold plating for the internal contacts, which keeps the connectors corrosion free. These cables' higher price isn’t too bad, especially considering the 24K gold plating, but they're still more expensive than similar cables. The company's help and support options are a little weak, but it does offer a lifetime warranty. Overall, this manufacturer's cables earn our TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award for their quality and warranty.
SIIG uses 24K gold-plated connectors with its FireWire 800 connectors, which is great because gold won’t corrode and is a very good conductor. Although it's not as good of a conductor as silver is, gold is still quite good. The cables' connectors are 9-pin (male) and allow a constant signal speed of 800Mbps (Megabits per second).
Having this type of consistent speed, FireWire is superior to USB 2.0 (which has a top speed of 480Mbps, but is not constant). These cables make backing up your computer or transferring large files between drives with FireWire 800 ports a quick and easy process. Storage space is up and prices are down, so there’s no excuse not to back up the files on your Windows PC or Apple computer.
These FireWire 800 cables are backwards compatible with older FireWire 400 technology, so there isn’t an issue if you use an adapter (6-pin or 4-pin) or a FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 cable if you need to connect to a computer or device with FireWire 400 ports.
Aside from using the SIIG FireWire 800 cable with an external hard drive for backing up data, you can also store video clips for use with computer-based, non-linear editing (NLE) software to edit video. FireWire is the recommended transfer medium for professional and enthusiast video-editors who store video clips on an external hard drive, such as a FireWire device, to keep the start up hard drive in the computer safe from the heavy toll that video editing takes.
SIIG has gone the extra mile with shielding its cables to give its FireWire 800 cables the best protection against wear and tear from daily use while also protecting against potential sources of signal interference. These include radio frequency (RF) and electromagnetic (EM) signals that can severely disrupt or stop the signal flow in an unshielded FireWire 800 cable.
The color of the cable is black, which is true of all of SIIG’s FireWire cables, which can make organizing your FireWire and USB cables a real headache. Most computer and HDTV cables are black or silver, and at first glance, they all look alike.
While some cable manufacturers use different colors to differentiate specific types of cables, most don’t. So, to keep your cables organized, we recommend using adhesive labels. Consumers likely won’t have as many cables as those in an office environment likely will, at least.
Another advantage with the SIIG FireWire cables is how flexible they are; it’s easy to wrap the cables up for travel or further organization to keep your workspace relatively free of clutter. There is nothing worse than a desk or workspace covered in cables.
SIIG offers a nice selection of FireWire cables and lengths, along with FireWire devices and cards. The cable lengths start at 6.6 feet (2 meters) and go up to nearly 16.5 feet (5 meters), with only one other length, 9.8 feet (3 meters), in between. We’d like to see other length options, such as 3 feet or even 1.5 feet.
The company sells FireWire 800 (9-pin) and FireWire 400 (both 6-pin and 4-pin) cables, plus a variety of mixed ends. These include FireWire 800 to 400 (9-pin to 6-pin or 4-pin) and FireWire 400 (6-pin to 4-pin). If you have an older FireWire 400 (6-pin) device, you can use a special adaptor to plug onto the end of a FireWire 800 cable to connect it to the older device. Generally, 4-pin FireWire 400 cables are used for capturing video from tape-based digital video and HD cameras.
SIIG also sells several FireWire cards that you can install in a desktop computer to give yourself access to this fast I/O (input and output) connection. If you have a laptop without FireWire, SIIG carries CardBus and ExpressCard cards for portable computers as well.
SIIG offers several help and support options, but it’s somewhat limited when it comes to FireWire cables. The company offers a lifetime warranty, so if the cable stops working, you can submit an RMA request, and then use it to send back the cable for a replacement.
If you have any questions or need further help and support, you can reach SIIG directly by live chat, email or telephone. The company keeps normal business hours (California time) and is open Monday through Friday, so be sure to visit SIIG’s website for updated hours to chat or call customer support.
Although SIIG FireWire 800 cables are affordable and have 24K gold-plated connectors, they're still expensive compared to most other FireWire cables. The company's support options are a little weak, but the cables' lifetime warranty makes SIIG a solid option to consider.
