few other additions here and ive sorted by speed
as we can see the best technologies for mac os 9 i will bold;)
ISA 8-bit 2.39 MB/s
ISA 16-Bit 8.33 MB/s
100BASE-T 12.5 mb/s
ATA-33: 33MB/s *** (powermac g3/g4 yikes disk interface)
EISA 32bit 33.32 MB/s
NuBus 10 MHz 40 MB/s
FW400 50 MB/s *** (real world: 33 MB/s)USB2.0 60 MB/s *** (real world: 25MB/s)
ATA-66 : 66MB/s *** (most powermac g4 disk interface)
32bit CardBus 1 66.66 MB/s
NuBus90 20 MHz 80 MB/s
FW800 80 MB/s *** (real world: 45MB/s)
ATA-100: 100MB/s ***
gigabit ethernet 125 MB/s32bit CardBus 2 133.33 MB/s
PCI 32bit/33MHz 133.33 MB/s (in most pcs + most short pci cards for mac)
ATA-133: 133MB/s ***
SATA150 150MB/s *** (real world burst:115MB/sec ... sustained: 58 MB/sec )PCI 32bit/66MHz 266.7 MB/s
PCI 64bit/33MHz 266.7 MB/s (most mac pci slots)AGP 1× 266.7 MB/s
SATA300 (sata2) 300 MB/s ***
AGP 2× 533.3 MB/s (sawtooth/gigabit)
PCI 64bit/66MHz 533 MB/s
SATA600 (sata3) 600 MB/s ***
USB3.0 600 MB/s ***
PCI 64bit/100MHz 800 MB/s
AGP 4× 1.067 GB/s (digital Audio / Quicksilver / MDD)PCI-X 133 1.067 GB/s
thunderbolt 1.250 GB/s ***
PCIE 1.0 (×8) 2 GB/s
PCIE 2.0 (×4) 2 GB/s
AGP 8x 2.133 GB/s
PCIE 1.0 (×16) 4 GB/s
PCIE 2.0 (×8) 4 GB/s
PCIE 2.0 (×16) 8 GB/s
PCIE 3.0 (×16) 15.75 GB/s
so u can get better performance using a network fileserver then u can with a firewire drive (use your rotational drives here?)
but the best transfer speed will be sata/esata 150 (best used with SSD) which kicks the crap out of FW400 or FW800
but this is not TOO TOO much better then using ATA100/ATA133 (addon card) with SSD (ide ssd or via sata converter)
(aga133 vs sata150 isnt much different, real benefit is ssd access times + fast writing flash ram)
ATA66 is very much worth spending $$ on upgrading to ATA133 and using a pci slot - especially at low cost of ata133 pci cards
(ata66 is in every powermac g4 practically, so this means sawtooth,gigabit,digital audio, quicksilver models - the mdd adds 1xATA100 but still has 1xATA66 port - make sure u are running your os drive off ata100+ speed connection port) but this mostly applies worst of all to the G3 powermac + yikes g4, which have only ATA-33 speed disk interface.. the worst of all - so adding ata133 or sata150 is a HUGE improvement!!!!!! for these pci graphics macs to jump from 33 to 133+
we can also see that lacking of gigabit ethernet is the biggest handicap (ie: 10-base t network speed SUCKS!)
so everyone with a pre-gigabit ethernet mac should 100% invest in a gigabit ethernet pci card
http://www.everymac.com/mac-answers/mac-os-9-classic-support-faq/gigabit-ethernet-for-macos-9-wireless-pc-cards-macos-9-compatible.htmlthis article helped me - i have 2 of these cards and they work well under mac os 9
im sure there are other cards if anyone knows of one please share that info!
http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-sort/ can be handy when looking up these facts