Anyone using the FW800 9-pin connector on his Fireface 800?

[AD Chaos]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently contemplating a PC upgrade, and the mobo I'm looking at doesn't come with an onboard 1394 connection, so I'm thinking of getting a PCIe to firewire card, but instead of getting the typical 1394a (FW400) card, I was thinking if it's maybe a good idea to get a card with a 1394b (FW800) 9-pin connector option, like this one.

Could it represent a performance upgrade? If I remember correctly (until some years ago) there wasn't much (or any) performance advantage over using the standard FW400 connection, however I'm thinking with an up-to-date build and the like, perhaps it's worth the trouble?

I guess I can always keep using my FW400 cable, but I'm curious to know if any of you are currently using the 800 connection on the back of the Fireface.


Thanks much for your opinions!

 

[JeffTD]

The FF800 runs at 400mbps over the 800 line unless you have two of them linked up. A single unit always runs at 400; there is no performance ad/disadvantage to running FW800 cables.

FWIW the FW800 ports on mine are broken and I've been using it via a FW800-FW400 converter cable for 4 years now with zero issues.

 

[AD Chaos]

Yes, that's what I suspected. I've never used the 800 ports, but since the difference in cost to try would be negligible (cheap cable and a couple more bucks for the card) I thought it may have been worth to try.

Thanks much!