I unfortunately require a PCI Firewire card, advice?

[dyerseve726]

I'm having issues with my Apogee Duet Firewire, and I've read that the built in firewire ports on most motherboards have problems with audio devices in OSX. I've been having difficulty finding relevant info on good PCI firewire cards out there and was wondering if there was a preferred model? One PCIe is covered by my video card and the other is taken by a wifi card, so it has to be a standard PCI.

:EDIT:
Now that I study my MOBO schematic, it appears I have two PCIe x16 slots, so I suppose I could move the GPU to the lower one, if PCIe is the only way to go.

I was looking at this one http://www.amazon.com/SD-LP-TIFWB-Profile-1394b-1394a-Chipset/dp/B001JTTVS8/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1338182546&sr=1-3

Or maybe this one, since it's 64bit? haha...totally clueless here http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connectivity-SD-FWB-64B-Chipset-800Mbps/dp/B000Z80JZI/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1338183675&sr=1-1

Thanks

 

[patto]

Sorry I can't suggest a card since but I have read on here the FireWire cards with Texas Instruments chipsets are the better ones which both those Syba brand ones have.
I'm looking for a PCIe one myself that's also for audio.

edit: looking at this thread viewtopic.php?f=264&t=44226
he suggests a Syba card as well. they sound like the one to get.

 

[Jamesbond007]

I'm having issues with my Apogee Duet Firewire, and I've read that the built in firewire ports on most motherboards have problems with audio devices in OSX. I've been having difficulty finding relevant info on good PCI firewire cards out there and was wondering if there was a preferred model? One PCIe is covered by my video card and the other is taken by a wifi card, so it has to be a standard PCI.

:EDIT:
Now that I study my MOBO schematic, it appears I have two PCIe x16 slots, so I suppose I could move the GPU to the lower one, if PCIe is the only way to go.

I was looking at this one http://www.amazon.com/SD-LP-TIFWB-Profile-1394b-1394a-Chipset/dp/B001JTTVS8/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1338182546&sr=1-3

Or maybe this one, since it's 64bit? haha...totally clueless here http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connectivity-SD-FWB-64B-Chipset-800Mbps/dp/B000Z80JZI/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1338183675&sr=1-1

Thanks

The first one should work, provided your motherboard have a free PCI slot.

 

[dyerseve726]

Sorry I can't suggest a card since but I have read on here the FireWire cards with Texas Instruments chipsets are the better ones which both those Syba brand ones have.
I'm looking for a PCIe one myself that's also for audio.

Yep, pretty much all I could find was that TI chipset was best. I just ordered the 64 bit card, since I read that some people had problems with 64 bit Lion not recognizing 32 bit firewire cards. I will update to let you know how mine works.

For PCIe, this one looks great. http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Profile-PCI-Express-Chipset-SD-PEX30009/dp/B002S53IG8/ref=pd_ybh_3. I have seen a few builds with good reports and I know it works in a Mac Pro.

 

[dyerseve726]

edit: looking at this thread viewtopic.php?f=264&t=44226
he suggests a Syba card as well. they sound like the one to get.

I just saw your edit and see that this person suggests the very card I suggested to you. I wish I didn't have to move my GPU to get to that PCIe slot. I'm pretty sure the lower x16 slot only runs at x8...but I've also read that GPU's can't utilize the full x16 anyway. Can I get a confirmation on that? Or does it not even matter which slot I use?

:EDIT:
I decided to say F it and get the PCIe recommended by others. The newegg price was under $35 with shipping and there were tons of positive hack reviews there as well. I'm sure my GPU will be good on the x8 slot.

 

[dyerseve726]

I would like to add that this firewire card did the trick and my Duet is now stable and noise free. http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Profile-PCI-Express-Chipset-SD-PEX30009/dp/B002S53IG8/ref=pd_ybh_3?ie=UTF8&tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[ax42]

I bought that card (the PCI-e one) and it is only half-working. FW400 seems to work OK, however FW800 seems dodgy. If I plug a drive into the FW800 port, system profiler says:

FireWire Bus:

  Warning:	Unable to list FireWire devices.
  Maximum Speed:	Up to 800 Mb/sec

And in console I get:

05 Jul 12 8:17:01.553 PM com.apple.systemprofiler: 2012-07-05 20:17:01.552 system_profiler[16654:60b] SPFWR ERROR: FireWire bus may be unstable. Other FireWire devices may be present.
05 Jul 12 8:18:36.000 PM kernel: FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 823f PCI: 819 bus resets in last 3 minutes.
05 Jul 12 8:21:48.000 PM kernel: FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 823f PCI: 873 bus resets in last 3 minutes.
05 Jul 12 8:25:00.000 PM kernel: FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 823f PCI: 862 bus resets in last 3 minutes.

Any ideas?