Firewire chipset for new HP's?

Nightfire

Nightfire

Aspiring Idiot
Hi,
I found a refurbished HP at the BestBuy here that is going for $399 (tower only, with keyboard and mouse).
Its got AMD Athlon dual core procesor, 3gig, and 500 gig hardrive.
Now this seems like a pretty good price, but I need to know what kind of firewire chipset it has. The people at the store werent able to tell me since they didnt have a display unit. Does anyone know what chipsets HP uses for their desktops?
I need this guy to jam with a Firepod/FireStudio. I have decided not go make my mac mini the recording rig but go with something that has more than 1 gig ram.

Mike

p.s> on a sidenote, this guy will also have to do the job for video editing. Does anyone know a good pc base video editing program?
 
Heres the specs on the processor:

Processor Type AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 5000+
Processor Speed 2.6GHz
RAM 3072MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive Speed/Capacity 500GB 7200RPM

I understand the PreSonus interfaces need a TI chipset is that correct? What if it doesnt have one? Are there ways around it?


Mike
 
There is another chipset, VIA I think that worked ok with certain Presonus cards.

If its a Presonus Dice-II card like the firestudio, just having a TI chipset is no gurantee itll work. I would avoid those until they really get their drivers worked out

One of my desktops is a 2.2ghz 4400+ and I have an extremely hard time running out of power in a normal mix, you should be flying on that system :)
 
Allright, thanks a lot for your help Pipeline.
It will be either a Firepod/FireStudio or the Focusrite equivalent.

Mike
 
The firepod isn't dice 2, it is actually pretty stable, though it shares other presonus units' extremely high failure rate. Our place in Tolleson is on its third firepod. As long as you can return it directly for exchange I wouldnt worry about it, its a very handy unit. Be aware that GC are starting a new policy not to take back or exchange any soundcards that come with driver software(which would be every soundcard they sell). Make sure you are extremely clear up front that you want a no questions ask direct exchange with whoever you buy the firepod from.

I would stay away from the firestudio, sadly

The focusrite 24 whatever thing is supposed to be BeBOB based. I have seen in other forums that people were running hacks to bring the latency down on the drivers and actually doing ok with it. I'm going to have to get a unit for testing, as I had mistakenly written it off as dice-II and ignored it up till recently

The best bang for the buck right now if you need more I/O is the MOTU 8pre IMHO. Its got 8 mic pres, an adat port, midi and the lowest latency in the business. Be sure to use the 3.6.7.x drivers though, as the newest ones suck big time. Don't expect any help or support from motu. The performance of the unit is worth putting up with that though usually.
 
Allright, thanks for the tips.
My current setup is 4 indivual tracks via internal soundcard, but I need to upgrade to 8.
Since Im on a college budget I have to stay on the cheap side. I can pick up a Firepod from ebay for around $250, that would mean no return though.
I had heard so many good things about the Firepod that I was pretty much banking on it being a reliable unit.
I'll check out the MOTU.


Mike
 
Just get a PCI firewire card.
I just bought a FireStudio Project and a Belkin firewire card from Staples works great with it. It's got a TI chipset, but damn Staples prices are high as hell.

The FSP is working great and I also got a free FaderPort with it and it's very very cool.

Check out UNIQUE SQUARED on eBay.
they've got a deal:
FIRESTUDIO PROJECT + FADERPORT + 5 Whirlwind XLR cables + the PreSonus rebate to get a free INSPIRE 1934 interface
= $499
 
Sloan said:
Just get a PCI firewire card.
I just bought a FireStudio Project and a Belkin firewire card from Staples works great with it. It's got a TI chipset, but damn Staples prices are high as hell.

The FSP is working great and I also got a free FaderPort with it and it's very very cool.

Check out UNIQUE SQUARED on eBay.
they've got a deal:
FIRESTUDIO PROJECT + FADERPORT + 5 Whirlwind XLR cables + the PreSonus rebate to get a free INSPIRE 1934 interface
= $499
Click to expand...

I just bought a spare firewire card through newegg with a TI chipset and it seems the units with the TI are some what higher in price. My motherboard has a built in TI firewire connection and I use it. But its always nice to have a spare.
 
Allright, I bought it yesterday. Turns out the processor was Inter Dual Core and not Athlon. Its a refurbished unit but I considered it a steal at $399.
Thanks for the link Sloan, Im reading reviews on the FireStudio right now but its not looking too good.:(

Mike
 
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