Firewire, USB 2.0, and PCI...

[Promythia]

I see a lot of discussions on here about which medium to get, but never really see the disucussion get into bandwidth and transfer rates. I've researched it on computer forums, but maybe I'm missing something you guys could inform me to...

I've decided on PCI because the transfer rate is faster than the other ones. I think it's around 550mb/s at 66KHz, but if you have PCI-e it's around 1044mb/s at 166KHz. I don't know of any audio interfaces that are PCI-e though. Firewire tops out at 480mb/s I think. I see a lot of people getting firewire interfaces for reasons other than protability (that's obvious reason for firewire). It's seems you'd want to get the best perfermance you can, ie PCI.

So maybe I'm missing something; is the difference between firewire and PCI that unnoticable? I mean latency issue's and the such. If not I might start looking at these intergrated control surface interfaces.

Thanks for the help!

 

[pikingrin]

I think I just read a thread about this a few days ago around here somewhere. The jist of it was that PCI cards are getting to the point where they are becoming kind of obsolete, whereas Firewire is the new "thing" that is the rage amongst hr junkies (like myself).

Personally I use firewire. I haven't ever recorded through a PCI interface, so I couldn't judge, but I would imagine that unless you had an ungodly amount of information streaming through at the same time, it wouldn't make too much of a difference when it comes to latency. Besides, I'm pretty sure there's always going to be that slight lag time either way you go.

Hopefully others can expound upon this for you. Good luck in your decision!

 

[j-boy]

... but if you have PCI-e it's around 1044mb/s at 166KHz. I don't know of any audio interfaces that are PCI-e though.

That reminds me of the classic definition of a consultant... a guy who knows 100 ways to make love to a woman, but he doesn't know any women.

 

[warble]

I've recorded with PCI and Firewire interfaces.

The Firepod I used own was able to record eight simultaneous tracks through Firewire with low latency, and I experienced no glitches. Mind you, part of this is how solid the driver is - a big part. Presonus did a good job IMO, I just missed a software console (that's another topic).

Now I'm using a Echo Laya 3G which is PCI. I can do the same things with the Layla I could do with the Firepod recording wise, and although in theory or reality PCI is faster, I couldn't tell you that there is that big of a difference. I participated in another thread not long ago where it was said basically not to bother with PCI because it's on it's way out. I don't agree with that point of view. Get whatever you need that has the features you want. I don't give a shit about the thought that "PCI will be gone in ten years". It's just not that big of a deal to me to argue (ok, discuss) about it.

If you want a more portable solution, go Firewire. For me the change from the Firepod to the Layla was features (didn't need the eight pre's on the Firepod, but did want Word Clock, ADAT, etc.)

 

[Mindset]

there are firewire that's speed is 800 also if you have a whole buncha pci stuff along with your pci gear, using the same bus, it'll slow it down too. I also agree, who cares if PCI is phasing out. If your sound is great, and your using a pci card, what makes you think just because it's phased out tomarrow, your sound will be not so great.

 

[warble]

Yeah, there are the new 800 Firewire interfaces - pretty good bandwidth.

I'd agree with not having a bunch of stuff on the PCI bus too. I have my Layla card, and an AGP video card - that's it. When I was doing Firewire, I had one Firewire card with one interface plugged into it, and nothing else plugged into the PCI bus. You can certainly get away with having other stuff plugged in, but it can become an issue of troubleshooting and tweaking, and other BS. Keep is as clean as possible - it's worked for me and many others.

 

[dgatwood]

I've decided on PCI because the transfer rate is faster than the other ones. I think it's around 550mb/s at 66KHz, but if you have PCI-e it's around 1044mb/s at 166KHz. I don't know of any audio interfaces that are PCI-e though. Firewire tops out at 480mb/s I think. I see a lot of people getting firewire interfaces for reasons other than protability (that's obvious reason for firewire). It's seems you'd want to get the best perfermance you can, ie PCI.

The transfer speed from your interface to the computer is basically unimportant, for all practical purposes. What matters is that your audio interface shouldn't be near the capacity of the bus.

USB 1.0/1.1 at 10 Mbps is almost saturated by two channels of 192 kHz/24-bit audio. FireWire 400 (the slower of the two varieties) is almost saturated by... 86 channels at 192 kHz/24-bit. In other words, anything remotely sane is a tiny trickle of bandwidth compared to FireWire's theoretical bandwidth. There are no practical benefits to PCI except the cost of the interface....

 

[sync]

Here's another possible consideration. Some firewire interfaces have problems with certain firewire chipsets. That doesn't mean you should rule out a firewire interface but it might be prudent to check if the firewire chipset is compatible if you are using a notebook computer.