I think no matter what brand you buy is gonna make a noticable dif with pipeline speed.
I think every brand has a lemon in the bunch. I know my first cable was goofy and when I exchanged it, I never had a problem afterwards.
That thing cost 50 bucks though. Radioshack sells them for 19 bucks. I heard the firewire system is being phased out for some newer kind of firewire. Anyone know anything about this?