Best Firewire Card for laptop?

[kjcoral]

i'm looking at some belkin cards to add some firewire ports to my new dell inspiron dual core laptop running PT7 but i am unsure of which model to get. anybody have any recommendations on the best firewire adapter cards for a dual core laptop?

TIA!

[steveninkster]

I think it depends what you plan to attach on the other end - I've learned the hard way that MOTU and TC PowerCore are both pretty fussy about the chipset they connect to. (MOTU - TI; TC - VIA 6306)

Steven

[kjcoral]

Originally Posted by steveninkster

I think it depends what you plan to attach on the other end - I've learned the hard way that MOTU and TC PowerCore are both pretty fussy about the chipset they connect to. (MOTU - TI; TC - VIA 6306)

Steven

well, thankfully i am just connecting to a hard drive to run with PT7.

[kjcoral]

bump!

come on, no one here is using a firewire adapter card for their laptop?

help me out!

[stag]

http://www.thomann.de/thoiw10_the_tp..._prodinfo.html

VIA chip, bus power, works great.

[jcschild]

LAcie or Siig

do not use anything BUT TI chipset

Scott
ADK

[kjcoral]

Originally Posted by jcschild

LAcie or Siig

do not use anything BUT TI chipset

Scott
ADK

hey scott, is that because of the PT 7 requirements??

[johnjm22]

I recently bought a Dell Inspiron and it came with a firewire port.

It's weird though. It's very tiny, definatley not the size of a regular FW port.

Does anyone know if there is an adapter for this that will allow me to use regular FW stuff with my notebook?

Thanks. Sorry for jacking this thread.

[Finnish]

4-pin FW-cable???

[johnjm22]

Originally Posted by Finnish

4-pin FW-cable???

After doing some research I've discovered that there is 3 different types of FW connectors (I had know idea!).

4 Pin

6 Pin (Most Common)

9 Pin

Apperantly I have the 4 pin.

Does anyone know of a 4 pin to 6 pin adapter? Assuming there is an adapter for this...Will and 002 work with it?

[theblotted]

Originally Posted by johnjm22

After doing some research I've discovered that there is 3 different types of FW connectors (I had know idea!).

i think the 9 pin is FW800. i could be wrong tho.

FW is backwards compatible, so if you have a cable with different ends, they'll still work.

difference between 4 pin & 6 pin is the ability to supply power. so if you got the 4 pin, won't be able to feed power to the interface.

[Slaytex]

I use the Lacie 800 PCMCIA card. It gives me 2 FW800 and 1 FW400. Works flawless with my Fireface 800 and FW800 external HD. ~$75.

[kjcoral]

Originally Posted by theblotted

i think the 9 pin is FW800. i could be wrong tho.

FW is backwards compatible, so if you have a cable with different ends, they'll still work.

difference between 4 pin & 6 pin is the ability to supply power. so if you got the 4 pin, won't be able to feed power to the interface.

the reason i am going with a card is that i found that even using a 4-pin to 6-pin FW cable, it still was not fast enough for PT. i kept getting errors, so hence my need to get, in the case of my laptop, a firewire express card...

[Sirocco]

the TI chipsets have always worked best for me..then again...dont have protools (thank god)

[stag]

Originally Posted by theblotted

i think the 9 pin is FW800. i could be wrong tho.

FW is backwards compatible, so if you have a cable with different ends, they'll still work.

difference between 4 pin & 6 pin is the ability to supply power. so if you got the 4 pin, won't be able to feed power to the interface.

I bougth i 6 pin adaptor with TI chip, it can´t draw power by itself, it came with an adaptor wich is a major pain.
Also i own various PCI controllers with various chipsets, including the famous LaCie 800, i didn´t notice any improvemment over the Conceptronic FW 400.

The ones that were not able to do it were NEC chipsets.

However the hot plug feature on VIA i don´t know if works well, to be frank i don´t know if works weel with TI, i don´t feel confident about trying it after hearing about so many horror stories.

However the cardbus i posted earlier works great both with Ozonic, which requires Bus power, FireFace 800 and i hope soon with Onyx 400f.

Bye.

[johnjm22]

Originally Posted by kjcoral

the reason i am going with a card is that i found that even using a 4-pin to 6-pin FW cable, it still was not fast enough for PT. i kept getting errors, so hence my need to get, in the case of my laptop, a firewire express card...

If the only difference between 4-pin and 6-pin is the ability to power, I don't see why it would affect performance.

[dvldogg]

There are different types of firewire devices. Firewire was originally developed by Mac. Then Pc picked it up. The 4 pin does not supply power. On most pc laptops even the 6 pins do not supply power to a lot of devices. There is another problem. I am technical support for a music/dj software company. The chipset on your dell is not working well with firewire devices. I am contacting dell now to try and find a solution to the problem.
I have the same processor and specs as you do. The duo core and ram are the exact same. I was recording a show last saturday. Project mix io firewired into laptop.The firewire was not keeping up with the amount of information that i needed. I researched the problem and discovered that there is a problem in service pack 2 and windows.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222
That is a link to microsoft that explains the problem. It does not matter if you have a 4,6,or 9 pin. The operating software is wrong. It is programmed to communicate at 100 mbps. It needs to be 400. Follow the link and it will explain all.
Good luck.

[kjcoral]

Originally Posted by dvldogg

There are different types of firewire devices. Firewire was originally developed by Mac. Then Pc picked it up. The 4 pin does not supply power. On most pc laptops even the 6 pins do not supply power to a lot of devices. There is another problem. I am technical support for a music/dj software company. The chipset on your dell is not working well with firewire devices. I am contacting dell now to try and find a solution to the problem.
I have the same processor and specs as you do. The duo core and ram are the exact same. I was recording a show last saturday. Project mix io firewired into laptop.The firewire was not keeping up with the amount of information that i needed. I researched the problem and discovered that there is a problem in service pack 2 and windows.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222
That is a link to microsoft that explains the problem. It does not matter if you have a 4,6,or 9 pin. The operating software is wrong. It is programmed to communicate at 100 mbps. It needs to be 400. Follow the link and it will explain all.
Good luck.

man, i wished i would've stayed with mac! just kidding...sort of...

anyway, wow, this is good info. thanks for pointing it out. here's my question though. i am not going to be using the firwire port on the laptop but am using the express card slot to insert a firewire express card from siig into. will i still have the same problem or is it merely with the actual port?

thanks,
kevin