ExpressCard/34 Question

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Level 1

5 points

ExpressCard/34 Question

I have a Macbook Pro, OS 10.5.8, with one firewire 800 port.

I need to hook up a firewire audio interface to it, but would also like to plug in a firewire 800 external hard drive (for recording music).

I've been told that daisy chaining is not ideal in this situation, or even using a firewire hub.

The MacBook help menu said that the ExpressCard/34 slot can be used for external drives. Does anyone have experience using an ExpressCard/34 for this application?

iMac Intel Core 2, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 2GHz,1GB,150 GB. Also iBook G3:900 MHz,640 MB,40 GB

Posted on Dec 7, 2010 2:47 PM

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Answer 1

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Ronald_in_Denver

Level 1

10 points

Dec 7, 2010 4:33 PM in response to motc

Go to the OWC website and take a look at the express/34 cards. I am using an eSata express/34 card. Similar cards are available for firewire 800. They are cheap, too.

Ronald

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Answer 2

motc Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 8, 2010 12:42 PM in response to Ronald_in_Denver

Thanks for the tip, Ronald. Will check it out.

BTW, am I right in assuming that even with two firewire 800 ports, there's still just one internal firewire bus? So with one device connected to the MacBook firewire port and one connected to the card slot, it's the same thing as daisy chaining them?

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Answer 3

Asatoran

Level 4

2,532 points

Dec 8, 2010 1:24 PM in response to motc

BTW, am I right in assuming that even with two firewire 800 ports, there's still just one internal firewire bus? So with one device connected to the MacBook firewire port and one connected to the card slot, it's the same thing as daisy chaining them?

The card would provide an additional bus. So connecting your audio interface to the built-in FW and a hard drive (or whatever) the the card's FW port would put them on separate buses.

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