PCI, Firewire, USB

[Vlashe]

Hi!

Can someone confirm my findings so far that the most advanced (in terms of speed, latency) type of interface at the moment is PCI? Yes, firewire is mobile as well as usb but without a need to be mobile is PCI preferable option?
Also I noticed that there is next generation of PCI - PCI express which is a bit faster than simple PCI (new MACs have only PCI express slots).

OR!!! Is firewire is the same provided there are not many ins and outs are used ?

I'm a bit frustrated since there are so many new products with firewire and just few with PCI.....

Thanks in advance for your comments!

[scribe]

Originally Posted by Vlashe

Hi!



OR!!! Is firewire is the same provided there are not many ins and outs are used ?

Hi I run a mac book pro with an audio fire 12 (firewire 400 - 12 in and out) with an external hard drive daisy chained to it. I havent experienced anything at all in regards to latency or any other issue. It will happily record 12 audio tracks simultaneously and sum through all its outputs all day, no drama.

Cheers

[SomeAudioGuy]

Well, I find it telling that a lot of companies like Digidesign and M-Audio have gone to Firewire for multiple in interfaces. The most I've ever recorded at one time is 8 on a ProjectMix IO. If your computer is fairly recent, single digit latencies on Firewire are totally do-able.

These days, CPUs are fast enough that USB2 interfaces should give you plenty of ins without latency, but I still prefer Firewire. Firewire uses a point to point interface (which shares the work), while USB uses a Master/Slave relationship. Basically with FW devices talk to each other independently where with USB, the CPU has to manage whats going on.

I think it's easier to troubleshoot and upgrade external cards, and it's another thing I can remove from my already full computer case. Some people say external cards suffer from less electromagnetic interference, but if you invest in a good internal card, I can't believe that's a huge issue.

Lastly I like being able to move the card a little ways from the computer case. Most pro PCI cards have a breakout box or a cable dongle anyway, so you're not really saving any space. At least with my external, I can organize my audio cables a little farther from my computer cables.