firewire daisy chaining and external fw hdd ???

[elvisvalentine]

Howdy Folks,
this is my first post so hope everyone is well.
Basically i just bought a new laptop the other day primarily for audio recording purposes. Its pretty good spec but it doesnt have a fw input , it does however have an express card slot which i was told once installed works as if it was there all along no better no worse . Firstly is this true? i know that an external usb hdd (generally)is not as good as a built in one right? so is it the same with any express card? also i was wondering if i get an express card with 2 fw inputs will this limit anything (transfer rate etc)? i will be using a tascam fw 1804 for recording but i really need an external drive for all my audio. i hear that fw drives are the best could i run them both at the same time into my 2 input fw express card? or is there a way i could daisy chain them both together?
Thanks a lot in advance for any/all help.

 

[dgatwood]

The only disadvantage to ExpressCard-based FireWire interfaces is that they generally don't provide bus power. Most bus-powered devices also come with power cords, so that's not a huge problem; it mainly just reduces portability a bit because you can't easily record without having a wall outlet nearby. Other than that, yeah, a good (TI-based) EC FireWire card should just like a good built-in FireWire interface (and much better than some of the crappy built-in ones...).

And yes, you can either daisy-chain them or run them both off separate connections on your FireWire card. Shouldn't make much difference which way you do it.