Firewire or PCI?

[Thadeuss]

If I'm going to invest in a new soundcard (been thinking about the firebox) what is better to get firewire or PCI? Can you advise on which card to get? Thx

 

[TimOBrien]

Doesn't matter. Both will do the job.
Firewire can do upwards of 60 or more independent ins/outs and was designed to handle video (more bandwidth intensive than audio.)

Discussed here about halfway down the page:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

I've gone from PCI on a desktop to using a Motu828mkII firewire on an XP laptop with ZERO problems.

 

[dgatwood]

If I'm going to invest in a new soundcard (been thinking about the firebox) what is better to get firewire or PCI? Can you advise on which card to get? Thx

FireWire.

PCI is an obsolete standard. As you look at new motherboards, you'll notice that the number of PCI slots is dropping steadily, with the average now down to somewhere between 1 and 2, replaced by PCI Express slots (which are NOT compatible with existing PCI cards).

A few manufacturers have already dropped PCI entirely, though this is still relatively rare on the desktop side of things. On the laptop side of things, CardBus (the laptop equivalent to parallel PCI) can officially be declared dead at this point, as ExpressCard is used almost exclusively in all new designs.

On the desktop side, the transition from PCI to PCIe is happening more slowly, but PCI will eventually be relegated to specialized high-end motherboards. The only place folks differ is in their projection of how many years. My guess is that in five years, you'll be paying a hundred dollar premium for a board that still has legacy PCI slots....

 

[dgatwood]

Discussed here about halfway down the page:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

That is a bit stale and inaccurate in spots.

• USB 2.0 was never faster than FireWire. FireWire can do up to 800 Mbps with appropriate hardware. USB 2.0 is 480.
• Cardbus is dead. I don't think anyone still builds laptops with Cardbus. Expresscard (the PCIe-derived replacement for Cardbus) isn't mentioned.
• It doesn't mention that PCIe was designed to replace PCI, so the longevity issue comes into play when buying expensive PCI interfaces. If you get a PCI-based interface, make sure it has a PCIe-based interface card available like the MOTU HD192 stuff.

Beyond that, yeah, that's a pretty good summary.

 

[pipelineaudio]

take it on a case by case basis though, there are MANY firewire cards out there that have way higher latency than many PCI cards

Some companies just suck

Also be wary of SP2 for XP, there are some tech bulletins at RME's stie among others regarding this