What PCI Firewire Card To buy For WIN7

Steinberg Hardware
1

Hi there, I used to own a mr816 but sold it off … but I recently found one on ebay!
I used my macbook pro previously and had no problems at all! I have since built a new custom pc that is alot more powerful but no fire wire. I will be running windows 7 64bit … What Firewire card would you recommend to avoid high latency, pops/clicks and drop outs?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/

www.amazon.ca

anything here?

Thanks !! :smiley:

2

I should also note I did look over

https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/mr816-firewire-compatibility/

but looking for any in use / real world advice :slight_smile: thanks!

3

Anyone ?
puleeeaseeee … seems like most of the recommended cards are no longer being made lol

4

Hi there!
After finding this thread (careful it’s in German!)

I bought this card: Lindy PCIe Firewire 3 Port (Article No. 51182)
This is the website of the manufacturer http://www.lindy.com/
And here is the direct link
3 Port FireWire Card (2 x FireWire 800, 1 x FireWire 400), PCIe - from LINDY UK

Cheers!

Thomas

5

Oups, sorry! This is a PCIe card… so this won’t helpt you then… sorry.

6

Pretty much any FireWire card that uses TI (Texas Instruments) chipset, will do.

7

+1, absolutely. The brand on the card or printed on the box doesn’t matter. The problem is, it’s not always possible to determine what chip is on the card before you buy. Look for the TI logo on the chip if you can. One brand I have used that has a TI chip on its PCI (not PCIe!) card is Belkin F5U503, but that’s a pretty old card and might be difficult to obtain.

If it’s a new motherboard, why are you looking for PCI, and not PCIe?

8

Yes important point, newer motherboards are using bridged PCI ports, they are not suited for realtime audio transfer. Use a PCIE card.

9

I was planning on using this card for a build I am doing. I currently using the same chipset in a PCI ExpressCard from the same company in my Windows 8.1 laptop. I can’t confirm this actual card works, but the laptop ExpressCard I am using works great!

Cole

10

I have this exact card, on a home-built desktop running Win 7 64, and can confirm that it does work great.

I originally used a PCI TI card that also worked fine. But for whatever reason, after I upgraded the PSU on my DAW computer and added an SSD, the 1394 driver for the PCI (it’s a problem with bridged PCI on newer MBs being unpredictable I think) started behaving badly, both in legacy mode and not. (Error 10). Getting this PCIe card 100% solved the problem. The MR816 runs like a dream with no dropouts at 64 sample buffer.

11

I can now confirm that this card works great under Windows 8.1. I am using the legacy Windows driver though.

Cole

12

Cool, thanks. Good to know in case anyone on Win 7 decides to make the jump to 8.1. I used the legacy driver with my old PCI card, but am not using it now with the PCIe. Since it’s running perfectly there’s no reason to alter anything. “If it ain’t broke” and all of that…"

Back to the OP or anyone still using PCI, this is the card I was using and works great with either native PCI or in the absence of bridged PCI issues:

The card is no longer available at the linked site, and I don’t know if it’s difficult to find now or not. But for me at least I’ve learned the newer PCIe is clearly better if your hardware supports it. Of course YMMV.

13

I did not try the driver that comes with Windows 8.1, since I had issues with the FireWire PCI ExpressCard on my Windows 8.1 Laptop. Once I set my laptop up with the legacy driver, I was golden. I figured it would be the same scenario, so I didn’t even try and just set up my desktop with the legacy driver. I might try switching it back and then report back my findings.

Cole

14

Between two different Windows computers, it’s of course never exactly the same scenario. If you want to do that and report back, it might be helpful to someone, but I’'m more of the school of thought that once you’re golden, leave well enough alone when it comes to drivers, which can be finicky for reasons that are often difficult or impossible to decipher.

Glad you got everything well too.