I have read a few posts on here regarding using the FW16E Firewire expansion board and Notebooks, and its seams there are quite a few issues trying to connect them up and getting them to work properly.

I have an Acer Aspire notebook and its does not have a Firewire connection available, I was thinking of buying an Express /54 card to give me firewire connections, and use that to connect my notebook to Motif FW 16E Firewire.

Any help regarding this will be appreciated, as I don’t want to go buy all these items only to find it won’t work.

Thanks
Shaun

I’m not familiar with the computer you mention. Before you spend a dime do some research… You want to find out does adding a FW card to this computer work for what you want to accomplish. Obviously a computer with FW built-in would have an advantage as FW could be assumed to work already.

In your case you want to find someone that has the computer you have and successfully added a plug-in FW card.for use as an audio interface. Those are two wild cards you are bringing to the table.

You may want use the Internet or call Customer Support as they may have some history / recommendations. Although small notebook computers can boast some impressive numbers - you can bet they are not boasting those numbers for use as a professional recording studio.

Desktop computers and desktop replacement laptops are pretty much the norm for use as studio recording computers. While I’m sure there are some success stories based on the notebook computer end of the spectrum. That is what you want to research.

My recommendation when someone asks about whether a computer will work is: I lean toward recommending the most powerful computer they can afford. And if not then find others who have had success with a specific model… Particularly since it does not sport the FW bus in the first place, and as a notebook it is already at the end of the spectrum towards “minimum spec”, I tend to steer people toward the “recommended spec” or better.

“Minimum spec” means it will at least run, “recommended” means it will work as intended under most normal use conditions. Check the software you want to run, find its “recommended spec”, make sure your notebook computer comfortably exceeds those specs, unless you don’t plan on using any processors or plug-ins.

And make sure you check on if anyone has had success with that computer and a FW card - before you become the test case.

Just some feedback I got the sunix express card and with a little tweaking it’s all working perfect :D