The FireWire 800/400 card to own for 100% compatibility

[BoomR]

I'm making a mac pro clone with a 2006 mac pro I bought off ebay for too cheap to pass up, so two cd drives, 2x firewire 400, 2x firewire 800 ect. I'd like to fill in all the ports so it looks like a natural rig, verse having that "cut out" slot at the back like most people seem to be a fan of.

I use firewire for my audio interface cards that run directly off firewire. I also have firewire external harddrives, so this can quickly eat up my firewire slots, since this rig only has enough ports to hookup two audio interface cards (16x in/out xlr/quarter inch each) and two other external things such as harddrives, projectors or cameras.

So to be honest I'd like more then 4, but its looking like 3 is what most have so I'll be happy with the 4 if I can make it happen...

I would assume then since my board is a lga 1366 that your firewire card is most likely not compatible to to the UEFI BIOS then? (Or forgive the newb question but how would I know or check?)

~~edit~~
You mentioned you got this card hooked up to your fw front port? do you know if the front is the same as the 5.1 mac case that has two cd drives (not the g5 case with one cd drive) or if theres a link on this forum to where I may be able to find the pin out to a 2006+ front panel?

I raided my old computer parts box and it looks like I actually have a older vr of that card, its a sd-pex-fwb... found a video saying it seems to work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAf4OtTk3FQ

I'ma give it a try tomorrow... any advise to get it to work, or should it just be plug n play?

I can't really speak to your MP case/pin configuration, as it's different than my build. But would assume that it would work - just a lot of hand wiring to get the cases' existing ports connected up to the Syba card.
And again, I can't speak to the compatibility of something that I have personally not tried or used. So you may just have to experiment with it. Having said that, IMHO, if you are using multiple FW audio interfaces AND either a single or multiple FW hard drives on the same FW card, you may be asking for trouble, as that's a LOT of FW traffic on the same FW bus.

If you've got the $$, I'd get an additional FW card (maybe same as you already have if it works - or the Syba card that I use), and divide up your traffic between the cars. Maybe your 2 FW audio interfaces on 1 card, and your FW hard drives on another card. Otherwise, you risk data collision and that could translate into clicks & pops in your audio and/or audio dropping out.

 

[GreenSpade]

I can't really speak to your MP case/pin configuration, as it's different than my build. But would assume that it would work - just a lot of hand wiring to get the cases' existing ports connected up to the Syba card.
And again, I can't speak to the compatibility of something that I have personally not tried or used. So you may just have to experiment with it. Having said that, IMHO, if you are using multiple FW audio interfaces AND either a single or multiple FW hard drives on the same FW card, you may be asking for trouble, as that's a LOT of FW traffic on the same FW bus.

If you've got the $$, I'd get an additional FW card (maybe same as you already have if it works - or the Syba card that I use), and divide up your traffic between the cars. Maybe your 2 FW audio interfaces on 1 card, and your FW hard drives on another card. Otherwise, you risk data collision and that could translate into clicks & pops in your audio and/or audio dropping out.

I'm not sure I'd run them all at the same time, but I would most likely have at least the sound cards always plugged in. The sd-pex-fwb is made by Syba too, its actually the same card you have, just a model older. From what I've seen it seems to work out of the box? Did you have to do anything else or enable something to get it fully working? I can't fully test it atm since I don't have the rack with the sound cards here at the moment, so thats why I ask.

The system is also in a cardboard box atm floating in the air via twine through the mounting holes all around the box & through the cardboard so it hangs like a sideway case, but not touching the bottom of the cardboard (for better airflow ect) I have the power supply sitting beside the box and the cords just going into the top, so not the most mobile setup. The 2006 mac pro I bought, I'm not expecting to get here in the mail for at least a couple weeks so I would like to get this figured out before hand if possible so I can move on to the next thing and maybe have this all ready by the time the case gets here, so I'm not waiting on cords or a new card to complete this.

 

[BoomR]

Did you have to do anything else or enable something to get it fully working?

Worked perfectly OoB... as did the Belink FW400 card that I also used for a while... totally PnP...

 

[NickMrg]

This is the one that you recommend for 100% compatibility, right?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201131871575?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

But it doesn't seem to have TI chipset, as it says [TR="bgcolor: transparent"]

Chipset ID

LSI/Agere - FW643

So, is this gonna work with a Saffire Po 40?

 

[BoomR]

This is the one that you recommend for 100% compatibility, right?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201131871575?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

But it doesn't seem to have TI chipset, as it says [TR="bgcolor: transparent"]

Chipset ID

LSI/Agere - FW643

So, is this gonna work with a Saffire Po 40?

The chipset in this card was the same chipset that was used in the last few generations of MBP with built-in FW. So theoretically it was also "compatible" with devices attached to your Mac. However, the issue is now that, if you have a UEFI BIOS (which is pretty much every mobo nowadays), there are problems with shut-down/reboot cycles and other such issues. It works perfectly fine if you have an older model mobo with traditional BIOS.

Again, I need to get in touch with some of the mods & the author to see about retiring this thread, as the title is now very misleading. For best compatibility right now, look at my Music Studio 2.0 build & check out the FW card. It works 100% OoB, and is compatible with everything thus far. Many of the other music guys use that card successfully.

 

[potatohead113]

Any idea if this Syba SY-PEX30016 works well with a recent Z97 board?:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124107

Thanks in advance,
-Phil

 

[NickMrg]

I hope you're referring to the Syba card because the other one is out of stock...

 

[BoomR]

Any idea if this Syba SY-PEX30016 works well with a recent Z97 board?:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124107

Thanks in advance,
-Phil

A quick Google search for that part number yields the following:
http://www.sybausa.com/productInfo.php?iid=1180

Note that in the product specifications, it lists that it uses a TI 1394 chipset. That is a key factor for success. While I have not used that card personally, I feel confident that it would also be compatible & work out of the box with no additional configuration or drivers needed. (based on the Syba card that I use which looks to be a slightly older model of the same card).

 

[Josser93]

I'm going to be building haswell... GA Z87 D3HP..... any recommended firewire 800 boards? looking for lowest latency and most stable option possible for pro audio..... thanks!

 

[johntheos]

As an FYI - I'm running a Haswell setup with a GA-Z87X-UD4H and Mavericks 10.9.5. I just recieved the SY-PEX30016 from Amazon plugged it in and it works great. I used it to import some old footage using my trusted Sony TRV-730 and there were no dropped frames or anything (footage was from 1996 - taken with a different camcorder and imported for safekeeping).

Among other things, I've tried the sleep/wake thing and there no issues there either.