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MP 7,1 Firewire PCI Expansion Card

choreo

choreo

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 10, 2008
910
357
Midland, TX
Does anyone make a compatible Firewire 800/Firewire 400 PCI expansion card for the new Mac Pro?

I have about 20 external Firewire Drives with old data from various clients I need to access at different times.
 
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Yes, there are - and some of them even have support for OSX - however, I haven't seen one that specifically supports 10.15. There is at least one on newegg.com that supports 10.14.

www.siig.com

FireWire 800 3-Port PCIe

SIIG’s FireWire 800 3-Port PCIe instantly adds three FireWire 800 (1394b) ports to your desktop computer. The FireWire 800 (1394b) 3-Port PCIe host adapter supports data transfer rates of up to 800 Mb/s and allows you to hot-swap devices (connect and disconnect) without first turning your system...
www.siig.com www.siig.com

You will probably need to contact them to see if they bothered to make a 10.15 driver.
 
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choreo said:
Does anyone make a compatible Firewire 800/Firewire 400 PCI expansion card for the new Mac Pro?

I have about 20 external Firewire Drives with old data from various clients I need to access at different times.
Click to expand...
Non-PCI alternative—Thunderbolt 3 to FireWire 800. This takes two adapters, unfortunately, TB3 to TB2, TB2 to FW800.
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Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter

Effortlessly connect your Mac to a Thunderbolt 2 device with the Apple Thunderbolt 3 Adapter. Buy now at apple.com
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I actually have these sitting here, waiting for my delayed Mac Pro to show up tomorrow. I have a digital mixer with FW interface card to migrate from old Mac Pro to new.
 
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I just got one of these:
www.amazon.com

StarTech.com 3 Port 2b 1a 1394 PCI Express FireWire Card Adapter - 1394 FW PCIe FireWire 800 / 400 Card , TAA (PEX1394B3)

This 3 Port PCI Express FireWire adapter card can be installed in a PCI Express slot to add two IEEE1394b (FireWire 800 - 9 pin) ports and one IEEE1394a (FireWire 400 - 6 pin) port, providing broad compatibility with a wide range of FireWire devices (e.g. DV camcorders, external hard drives, digi...
www.amazon.com

I installed it in my 2019 Mac Pro and it "just works". I attached my Gen 2 Drobo to one of the FW800 ports and it's working fine.

~f
 
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Generally speaking, be careful with devices that rely solely on the old FW drivers. Especially if you're on Catalina. Many are/were 32-bit based and the device apps are not updated (therefore not compatible).

The money spent trying to get that older FW hardware working correctly is often not worth the tradeoff. It's cheaper to use a standalone MP4,1/MP5,1 for those needs specifically and transfer the data to the MP7,1. Most FW-based tape decks like DV, DVCPRO/25, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO100/HD are the same. Unless component or SDI outputs are present on the deck, getting them to "work" properly with signal and deck control via FW (not through TB) in Catalina is an abysmal headache since Apple dropped a lot of the native FW tools in Catalina.
 
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bsbeamer said:
Generally speaking, be careful with devices that rely solely on the old FW drivers. Especially if you're on Catalina. Many are/were 32-bit based and the device apps are not updated (therefore not compatible).
Click to expand...
I believe Mountain Lion (10.8) ended 32-bit kext support, so it would have to be pretty old.

The money spent trying to get that older FW hardware working correctly is often not worth the tradeoff. It's cheaper to use a standalone MP4,1/MP5,1 for those needs specifically and transfer the data to the MP7,1. Most FW-based tape decks like DV, DVCPRO/25, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO100/HD are the same. Unless component or SDI outputs are present on the deck, getting them to "work" properly with signal and deck control via FW (not through TB) in Catalina is an abysmal headache since Apple dropped a lot of the native FW tools in Catalina.
Click to expand...

In my case the device is a digital mixer, when kexts are no longer supported so be it, but not ready to upgrade prematurely.
 
FYI - I have been giving this card a workout the past couple days with about 12 of my old Firewire G-Drives - has not missed a beat...

www.bhphotovideo.com

SIIG 3-Port FireWire 800 PCIe Adapter

Buy SIIG 3-Port FireWire 800 PCIe Adapter featuring Texas Instruments TI XIO2213BZAY Chipset, 3 x External FireWire 800 (1394b) Ports, Installs in Any Available PCIe Slot, Hot-Swappable, Onboard Power Connector, FCC, CE Certified, RoHS Compliant. Review SIIG null
www.bhphotovideo.com www.bhphotovideo.com
 
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Resurrecting this old thread. Any PCIe firewire cards you would recommend for a 2019 Mac Pro? I want to get an old iSight camera working.
 
Hi, I'm running Big Sur on a MP 5,1 installed using OpenCore. Since the upgrade, I've been having random issues with my FW FireFace 800 which sometimes works but mostly not. I get digital feedback or glitchy audio. After further investigation and options, it was suggested I try the following FWcard from star Tech:
StarTech.com 3 Port 2b 1a 1394 PCI Express FireWire Card Adapter - 1394 FW PCIe FireWire 800 / 400 Card (PEX1394B3)

I bought the card from amazon and installed. Although the Mac can see the card in system report, the FF800 doesn't, as the host light stays red. AFAIK, there are no additional drivers required to use this card so I'm assuming the issue lies with the FF800 as others have posted above that the card works out of the box?

Would be grateful for any insight or pointers,

Thanks,

McD
 
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