Firewire cards

Im building a pc which is something i've never done before and i need a firewire connection for my external soundcard but i'm noticing quite a wide range of prices for firewire cards. Do i need to be careful what i'm buying bearing in mind i'll be using the firewire exclusively for music making?

budget?

Do you need lot's of i/o or just something with good drivers?

Maudio firewire solo is a decent budget consideration (200$). You're not going to get a lot of extras or super high end ad conversters but it will certainly get the job done as long as your computer is fast.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FirewireSolo/

Motu ultralite is a great mid priced box, I love their stuff($550)

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UltraLite3Hy/

Fireface is fancier but has pristine ad converters ($1200)

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Fireface400/

Sorry, i'm just talking about the actual firewire connection on the pc. I already have a soundcard.

as long as it offers firewire 800 and if you have pcie slots get one thats pcie. should be like 50 bucks give or take. I'd imgine staying away from anything cheap or low end from like walmart you should be good. I installed a belkin one in my desktop a while ago for my presonus card and never had any probs with it. i think it was like 60 buucks at best buy.

I've forever seen Texas Instruments chipsets recommended. I'd be interested in finding out, though, that if that just stems from a time when TI chipsets were the most reliable and now, years later, everything is more or less the same. No doubt someone on gearslutz has some mindblowing series of graphs and screenshots to back up their position though. I built this computer about three years ago and hadn't heard of the people who made the motherboard's firewire chipset until I just googled it. I haven't had any noticeable problems but I'm not doing anything crazy like recording a whole band.

When are you building the PC? This buyer's guide I read every so often have skipped the latest update due to new things just around the corner.

Still go for a TI chipset.

Can i just say that i am fully prepared to have a non vegatable-based system this time round. I'm prepared to put the work in.

  On 12/12/2010 at 7:58 PM, futuregirlfriend said:

 

 

Can I ask you why this pc has a vegetable instead of a cooler?

Oh come on Adam, lets not play games here. We all know the score.

  On 12/12/2010 at 7:58 PM, futuregirlfriend said:

I've forever seen Texas Instruments chipsets recommended.

  On 12/12/2010 at 8:28 PM, kakapo said:

Still go for a TI chipset.

yeah, actually i was originally looking up texas instruments firewires on ebay and that was the thing that got me thinking about all this. I just put in something like firewire texas and it only brought up a few listings from canada and the US. A couple were like under £5 and then another was over £20 so i started to doubt the cheaper one. Still not sure....

The motherboard you buy should have a firewire port or two these days, look into the chipsets for the various doodads on it, it may be a TI one. If don't see a motherboard you want with a TI chipset, perhaps buy a pci one later if you have problems. On the prices it could be down to the person that's trying to sell it. If it's from a music shop/seller they'll probably try and gouge you a little.

  On 12/12/2010 at 8:39 PM, Rambo said:

  On 12/12/2010 at 7:58 PM, futuregirlfriend said:

I've forever seen Texas Instruments chipsets recommended.

 

 

  On 12/12/2010 at 8:28 PM, kakapo said:

Still go for a TI chipset.

 

yeah, actually i was originally looking up texas instruments firewires on ebay and that was the thing that got me thinking about all this. I just put in something like firewire texas and it only brought up a few listings from canada and the US. A couple were like under £5 and then another was over £20 so i started to doubt the cheaper one. Still not sure....

TI for sure.

Thanks for the help folks