Firewire Hardware Obsolete?

[timesten]

I have an original traveler and an original 8pre, both firewire only. When i upgraded my pc a few years ago, I went AMD. I didn't realize my mistake till it was too late and even though I have firewire PCI cards, they aren't supported.

Now I don't know what to do. AMD also doesn't support thunderbolt, so it seems like the easiest/only option is to get a usb interface and hook up the old devices via adat. I kinda feel like is gonna burn me again in the long run. I don't record often anymore, but I have a lot of mics and equipment that are just sitting around now.

Is the "real" answer to get an intel based pc and a thunderbolt based interface?

Any feedback is appreciated.

[terrybritton]

The ones with the Texas Instruments chipset on board are the ones that purportedly work best with those old units. Here is a search for PCIe Firewire cards having that chipset:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=firewire+pcie ... ts+chipset

[timesten]

Thanks Terry. I already have one of those cards. The issue is that these cards dont work with AMD chipsets, so it is forcing me to find an alternative.

[terrybritton]

By "those cards" what do you mean, exactly? PCIe is PCIe and should not rely upon any motherboard chipsets other than to be maintaining the PCIe spec.

I would try ordering one from a reputable company. I've had good luck on both my Intel and AMD computers using the Siig brand.

Terry

[timesten]

I have/had this card. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006D ... UTF8&psc=1

When I got my Ryzen 1700x build up, and had issues with the firewire connection that I didn't have on my old i5 build, the things I found online were telling me that there there was an incompatibility in the amd chipset. I tried to find these things again, but it doesn't seem as cut and dry now. The bad news now is that after an hour of searching, I cant find that card.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I have a lot of FW stuff (Track 16, external drives, DVD burners, etc). I use Apple TB to FW dongles and they work fine for all my stuff.

[mikehalloran]

I have a lot of FW stuff (Track 16, external drives, DVD burners, etc). I use Apple TB to FW dongles and they work fine for all my stuff.

Although Intel never supported FireWire (FW between 2006–10 was a kludge), they do have Thunderbolt — which supports enough of the FW protocol for this to work.

Technically, FW support in the 2011 iMac was a built-in FW-TB adapter (the FW port does not support the full spec). In 2012, that became the hardware dongle.

Apparently, because AMD doesn’t support Thunderbolt, it can’t support FW.

[timesten]

Thanks for the replies guys. Given that I'm on Ryzen now, thunderbolt isn't an option. I did see one board that just came out, x570 I think, that did have native thunderbolt support, but if I am going to replace the mb and processor, I would just go Intel.

Are any of the usb motu interfaces worth getting at this point?

[mikehalloran]

Thanks for the replies guys. Given that I'm on Ryzen now, thunderbolt isn't an option. I did see one board that just came out, x570 I think, that did have native thunderbolt support, but if I am going to replace the mb and processor, I would just go Intel.

Are any of the usb motu interfaces worth getting at this point?

Of course they are. USB, AVB, Thunderbolt... which one and how to connect depends on your need.

I’d like to see one with Thunderbolt 3 over USB-C but my 828mkII does work over the FW-TB adapter into my TB2 dock into the Apple TB2-TB3 adapter. I’m in no hurry.