VIA versus Texas Instrument Firewire controller.

[Tip Top]

I am interested the Asus a8n-sli deluxe board and the dfi nforce 4 boards.
According to specification, the asus uses a ti firewire controller chip while the dfi uses a VIA.

I am interested in utilizing this firewire for dv camera video transfer so I need it to be very reliable.

At certain points I have read some comments on some forums about dropped digital video frames with certain onboard firewire controllers from one company. And someone said to remedy it go buy a pci card with a TI firewire chip. Do you guys think the TI firewire chipset onboard the asus a8n-sli deluxe board would be as robust as the ones on the the pci card?


Any experiences or opinion would be greatly appreciated.
Or if anyone is having especially good experiences with either of the asus or dfi nforce4 board's firewire transfers mentioned , that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much as this is really important to me.

 

[mofrack]

I had a friend who was having constant problems capturing DV via Firewire a while back using the VIA onboard chip he had on his mobo. He upgraded his motherboard to one wih a TI chip built into it, and the problems went away.

For regular use, like external HDs or CD burners, I've never had a problem with either one.

 

[ribbon13]

TI > VIA

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

Another option to consider would be to buy the Mobo you are interested in for the rest of the features, and then buy a separate 1394 card if the onboard chip doesn't perform to your satisfaction. Separate cards can be had for relatively cheap, and you can choose from many different chipsets.

-D'oh!

 

[ribbon13]

The best FireWire card is the Sonnet. PCI-X though.