Firewire -> PCI Cards

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fhbandy

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Thinking about purchasing a FireBox (or something similar, still doing a little research in that regard) but first I need to work out a way of getting it connected to my pc. Fairly simple question: When purchasing a firewire pci card, is it worth the extra money? You get what you pay for, obviously, but is there a true reason why some of these cards cost a mere $10 while others can cost upwards of $60-$70? Is the difference that noticable? I probably wouldn't feel comfortable buying a ten dollar card, but also I have a hard time believing there is a huge difference between something in the $30 range compared to something close to a hundred dollars.

Also, is there a more efficient way to make my computer firewire ready rather than a PCI card? I assume that it is the only option but if there is something else out there I am all ears.


Thanks in advance for the help.
 
If you get a card that is NOT a Texas Instruments chipset, prepare yourself for headaches and problems. There IS a huge difference in cards. Feel free to call Presonus and ask them, they'll tell you the same thing. And the difference isn't a "can I hear the difference" thing, its a "it will not work" thing.
 
I´m using my Firepod with a PCI card with VIA chipset, and i had no problems with... not even once! Well... Maybe i´m just lucky!!! :D
 
I'm using a SIIG PCI firewire card too, and it has worked beautifully.
 
I don't think it's the case that all firewire cards with anything other than a TI chipset will definitely give you problems.

Just that those with a TI chipset will almost certainly work flawlessly. Others might too, but it's more of a gamble.

I use an adaptec fireconnect 4300 (got it dirt cheap on ebay), works like a charm.

One thing that catches a few people out; when you install a PCI firewire card, XP (and possibly other OS's) will automatically enable it as a network adapter. For best performance when using a firewire recording interface you need to disable the card as a network adapter (in network connections).
 
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