I just got a used Motu 828 mk2 from a local music store. The unit comes with a 30-day satisfaction return policy so if I don't like it, for any reason, I can get my money back or replace the MOTU with something else. I should mention that I'm a total novice with home recording but fairly experienced PC user. Here are my PC specs:
Dual Booting Vista 64 and XP Pro 32 w/SP3. The XP drive a 640 gb WD Caviar Black solely dedicated to music. The Vista drive is for everything else (gaming, work, etc)
2.8ghz Quad Core AMD Phenom (2.6 mildly overclocked to 2.
8GB DDR-800 (of which only 3gb is available to the XP drive with all my music software)
ATI Videocard w/recent drivers
Good Quality ASUS Mobo, 790FX chipset.
Onboard Firewire: LSI L-FW3227 (LSI = Lucent/Agere)
Main Software: Nuendo 3 + lotsa plugins and Guitar Rig 3
Anyway, problem #1 is that my MK2 did not include the manual. Knowing that Motu inexplicably doesn't offer a soft version of their manual, I got the store to give me a MK3 manual. Problem #2, the 'Universal Audio Installer' disk is scratched and unusable. Problem #3, I'm a noobie. Anyway, here are my list of questions:
1) Any important functional differences between the MK2 and MK3 that I should be aware of particularly in relation to the manual? I guess the other part of the question is whether there's much point in forking over $20 for the MK2 manual.
2) Anything important or cool on the 'Universal Audio Installer disk? Is there any software, other than drivers, that I should obtain in general from MOTU?
3) Which driver version would you recommend for my configuration?
4) Should I pre-emptively run one of the firewire fixes such as the SP1 rollback or the 3rd party firewire controller?
5) Anything else I should know?
thanks alot,
Dan.