How simple is it to add a firewire card? (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Going to add a firewire card to my computer.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....9&type=product

It also has USB 2.0 ports.

How easy is it to hook up? Does it just plug into
an empty PCI slot or do you also have to plug it into
a cable inside the computer?

Plugging into a PCI slot is easy. Hooking it up to
one of the internal power cables always confuses me.

Thanks

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I added a similar card to my desktop system. No sweat. PCI cards draw power directly from the motherboard via the PCI slot - there's no need for a cable connection to the main power supply. Windows XP should automatically recognize the new USB and Firewire ports as soon as you power back on after installing the card, or at worst install the needed drivers on boot-up and then make you reboot to finish the installation. My card came with a CD I didn't have to use it to enable the card.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Mike Fassler]

yep no psu connection needed, they are powered directly thru the pci slot.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Isn't $79.99 kind of expensive?

Newegg has what looks like the same card for $63.99 (+$1.99 shipping). They also have some cheaper (~$20) cards, such as this one.

I'm not sure why that Adaptec card is so expensive, though.

 

[Mike Fassler]

Adaptec is always expensive, cause Adaptec cards are considered the high end of pci upgrade cards. But then again he did link to a page from BestBuy who's buys are not the best nor the cheapest unless you go to one of their uber sales.

 

[Christian Behrens]

If you're not in a rush, eBay saves you a lot of money on peripherals like this. Because $80 is really quite steep, and for firewire there are generally no issues, as no drivers should be needed ...

-Christian

 

[Tekara]

Adaptec tends to use hardware solutions as opposed to software solutions. That is to say, the information that the card needs processed is done on the card itself and not by the host cpu. This is especially true of adaptec raid controllers, though I cannot say for sure about their firewire card.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

CompUSA has a "house brand" 2 Firewire/ 3 USB 2.0 card that I happened to see today that was about $36.99. I think I paid a couple of bucks more for a similar card there and that one came with video editing software. If there's a store in your area, I'd check it out. Their stuff is always OEM'd by reputable companies and between CompUSA's volumes and the lack of the brand name on the packaging they can save you a bundle. I use wireless mouse/keyboard combos on both my laptop (when using it at home) and my desktop. Each set (with wheel optical mouse) cost $29.99 on sale, barely more than a decent corded set.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think SIIG also has a combo USB2/Firewall card for around $35 as well. I bought one about 10 months ago.