Originally Posted by Rich LePage

Another tip learned the hard way on older systems is that it is often easier to get a F/wire card into an older machine than to add USB2. Most USB cards have multiple ports and they try to steal all the IRQ's, machine hangs. Most of the lower end F/wire cards we've tried don't though, and work OK.

Most of the big external drives we run are in combo boxes that can run either USB 2 or F/wire to allow for connecting to a variety of machines. We do that with a few outboard DVD drives too that attach to the older systems when needed.