Any Firewire + USB 2.0 PCI Cards Out Yet?

[BDawg]

I'm looking for something so I can hook my iPod up to my desktop system, and was hoping to get USB 2.0 with it too. I've seen Firewire Cards, USB 2.0 Cards, and USB1.1/Firewire Cards, but no USB 2.0/Firewire Cards. Anyone have an idea?

 

[StormRider]

Adaptec has one (I saw it at Circuit City for around $99). And SIIG is coming out with one too.

 

[Eug]

<< I'm looking for something so I can hook my iPod up to my desktop system, and was hoping to get USB 2.0 with it too. I've seen Firewire Cards, USB 2.0 Cards, and USB1.1/Firewire Cards, but no USB 2.0/Firewire Cards. Anyone have an idea? >>


Yes, but they're expensive.

Personally I don't see the point unless you're really short on slots. A reasonably good Firewire card costs <$35 and most of the better peripherals are Firewire. If you decide you need USB 2 later on, you can always add a second card later, especially considering that the price will drop, and the compatability bugs will be better sorted out by then.

Furthermore, despite the 20% higher spec, in terms of bandwidth supposedly in real life usage USB 2 should be quite similar to Firewire. The real increase is when 800 Mbps Firewire shows up.

 

[BDawg]

Wow, those are expensive....I was hoping for <$40 for plain firewire. I've heard good things from the XPlay people about the ones based on Western Digital circuitry.

I was kinda hoping for added USB 2.0 so I don't have to worry about adding more cards if I need to later.

I'm not sure I understand the target products for USB 2 though. Firewire covers the high bandwidth devices (video I/O, disks, CD Burners, etc) pretty well allready. USB seems to have done well with the peripheral market.

 

[Nova101]

How does the audigy firewire port rate?

newegg has the oem audigy for $61. if you get good sound and a good firewire at the same time it would seem to be a bargin.

if the firewire is good that is

anyone have experience with it?

 

[BDawg]

I believe Tom's did a SB Audigy review and said that while it's 1394 bus was slower than a dedicated card, it wasn't too bad.

I thought of going the Audigy route, but if I get a new sound card, it won't be a Soundblaster. I'm fed up with their bloatware and lack of updates.

 

[Eug]

I bought an el cheapo noname brand with the Lucent chipset and my mobo wouldn't recognize it. So I returned it for an Iwill SIDE-eLink1394 which cost me US$32, and it came with some Ulead video editing software. It's based on the VIA chipset and it works great with XP, which autoinstalled it with my BX mobo. I have it running with a Firewire hard drive (Oxford 911 chipset) and a Lexar Firewire CompactFlash reader. Most cards are based on the TI chipset though. All things being equal I'd get a TI chipset one simply because it's the most common, although I have no complaints about the VIA one, and it seems lately that around here the VIA cards are becoming quite common.

The Creative card comes with a usable Firewire port, but it's only one port. Most other cards come with either 2 or 3 external ports. In my case it was 2 external ports and 1 internal port (which is useless for most people). You can always daisychain devices on the Audigy's single port, but you should remember that if one device is shut off the rest of the chain goes down. (Well, that happens at least for non-powered devices - If I daisychain the Lexar to the hard drive, the Lexar disappears when I shut off the hard drive. Haven't tried a second powered device though.)

By the way, XP installs networking drivers for the Firewire card. Haven't been able to test it though, since only other available Firewire computer is a Mac, and Mac's don't have native Firewire networking drivers. Apple keeps its Firewire port strictly for peripherals. Too bad, since 100 Mbps Ethernet is seeming a bit slow these days.

 

[corkyg]

Expensive is a relative term. The first one out was from OrangeMicro. I have it and it works great. 3 USB 2 ports and 2 Firewire ports. It was about $79 last December. Adaptec also has one, and Siig now has one . . . so the price will drop. My rule is - where technolust is involved, price is not a major consideration.

If you can afford an iPod, it is definitely not a consideration!

 

[Eug]

<< Expensive is a relative term. The first one out was from OrangeMicro. I have it and it works great. 3 USB 2 ports and 2 Firewire ports. It was about $79 last December. Adaptec also has one, and Siig now has one . . . so the price will drop. My rule is - where technolust is involved, price is not a major consideration.

If you can afford an iPod, it is definitely not a consideration! >>


Yeah, but do you have any USB 2 periphs, or do you plan on getting any? I'm just saying if you don't need it, save the money and take your GF out to dinner or something. However, I can see if you want to save a second PCI slot though for in the future. In my case, by that time I'd probably get a whole new mobo anyway since I'm "just" running a Celeron 880 on a BX board at the moment.

 

[GetInMyFatBelly]

I have the OrangeMicro, got it when it came out about 6 months ago and paid over $100. You are right, if you don't use it then it's a waste of money. I haven't used it until this week with the Canon 1250U2F SE scanner, and I didn't even need it for that because the scanner comes bundled with a Adaptec USB 2.0 card. Oh well...

 

[BDawg]

<< If you can afford an iPod, it is definitely not a consideration! >>



Actually, it was my birthday present from my parents.

I think I'm going to wait on any card until XPlay goes final. The current version is still way buggy. I can currently hold down the fort with the firewire on my laptop and my B&W G3 at work (using the iPod with iTunes is way easy!).