firewire ports on a PCMCIA card & pentium M question

[nathan]

i'm thinking about getting the bottom-of-the-barrell dell inspiron 2200 laptop with 1.7ghz pentium M and 512m ram. according to the online specs, it comes with 3 usb2.0 ports but no firewire ports. are there any downsides to getting a PCMCIA card with multiple firewire ports to use with an external hard drive and firewire interface (will probably be motu828) at the same time? my other question was how a pentium M does with recording. i've actually never heard of the "M" line, but i've been out of the loop for a minute. thanks

[nathan]

sorry to bump, just making sure this doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

[EasyGo]

If you were thinking of getting a MOTU firewire box, check out the MOTU tech support notes on firewire card compatibility.

link

I dunno about how a Firewire card with multiple ports would function with other items plugged in. I'd think about using USB for the external hard drive and leaving the firewire dedicated to the audio interface, but that's just me. Your mileage may vary.

[hammertime]

I was in the same position. I read somewhere when I was researching the exact same problem that pcm-cia firewire adapters actually work better in some instances than the ones built into the motherboard. I got an adapter (an adaptec, i think -- the only one they had at Best Buy) to use with a firewire movie camera I got for christmas. I haven't used it very much (filmed my dog, and took insurance pictures of my gear, and my garden), but it worked fine when I used it.

i'm thinking about getting the bottom-of-the-barrell dell inspiron 2200 laptop with 1.7ghz pentium M and 512m ram. according to the online specs, it comes with 3 usb2.0 ports but no firewire ports. are there any downsides to getting a PCMCIA card with multiple firewire ports to use with an external hard drive and firewire interface (will probably be motu828) at the same time? my other question was how a pentium M does with recording. i've actually never heard of the "M" line, but i've been out of the loop for a minute. thanks

[hammertime]

Here's a guy with a similar problem. http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=641988. If you read the whole thread, a guy talks about getting a cardbus adapter for his dell (an adaptec which is the one I have).

[daede]

I use an Adaptec firewire PCMCIA card as well, no issues.

[shane.vusahm]

If you were thinking of getting a MOTU firewire box, check out the MOTU tech support notes on firewire card compatibility.

Well, crap. Wish I would've known this before I bought all the wrong firewire gear on ebay two days ago. Doh.