Better to add a card. Each port only has so much bandwidth and feeding that to a hub doesn't make the pipe any fatter.
Bob.

uha .. thanks guys , i just bought this PC , and it has an Asus A8N SLI Deluxe mother board with one port already available , does this mean i already have a FW card that must be removed first? or should i just add another FW Card? anything else i should look for (compatability .. etc)

just add another one, I have three with three ports each, works better (on my system) using just one port on each card.

great info guys , it would take me hours to figure out your 5 min input :O)

Edit: heres my plan , 2 of those:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=357869&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

3 port 800 FW card , 2 for the drives and one for the Cam

Try to find a Firewire card based on the TI (Texas Instruments) chipset, something like the SIIG NN-400012. This card is specifically recommended by AVID which is incredibly picky about the hardware which they support. I have several and they have been 100% compatible and trouble free.

The Belkin card mentioned above may have a TI chipset, although the Belkin web site does not specifically say what chip they use. Perhaps someone on the forum can confirm what chip it uses.

Regardless, it is probably best to avoid Firewire cards that use either the NEC or VIA chips.

John

John , i forgot to mention i want FW800 (1934-b) , somthing like this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=cart&A=details&Q=&sku=357875&is=REG

thanks allll

According to the G-Technology web site about that card, "your computer must be equipped with a 64 bit PCI slot to achieve FW 800 speeds." Very few motherboards come with a 64-bit PCI slot. However, it may work in a 32-bit PCI slot, but not at full speed. You may want to investigate this.

John

John , the motherboard is ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe:

- Supports AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64FX/Athlon 64
- AI Cool-Pipe
- AI Selector
- AMD Cool 'n' Quiet! Technology
- nVIDIA NFORCE4 SLI MCP
- PCI Express Architecture
- SATA 3Gb/s

and its an AMD 4400+ :O)

Looks like a great motherboard, however, it still doesn't have a 64-bit PCI slot which is required for full speed 1394(b) Firewire 800.

The A8N motherboard does have a couple of PCI Express slots, maybe someone is making a PCI-E Firewire 800 card.

John,
Both SIIG and ADS Technology make 1394b/Firewire 800 PCIx cards. I haven't seen the ADS in action, just have noticed it in their booth at trade events.
Ive got the SIIG, it comes with a 9 to 6 pin adapter. Don't try connecting a 4 pin adapter to the 6 pin adapter, Windows won't see a cam that way for some reason. But if you connect a 4pin to 6 pin cable to the 6 to 9 pin adapter, it reads just fine. Go figure.
http://www.siig.com/product.asp?pid=380&catid=1&subcatid=103

Try as I might, I can't find where either SIIG or ADS make a PCIe Firewire 800 card. They both make 64-bit PCI Firewire 800 cards and SIIG makes PCIe Firewire 400 cards (but not Firewire 800.)

And like I've said, all mainstream motherboards have 32-bit PCI slots, but very few have 64-bit PCI slots. Most 64-bit PCI cards will work in a 32-bit slot, but not at full Firewire 800 speeds.

John

I've got a 2x1394b + 1x1394a card that's in a PCI-X slot, the board even gets it's own feed from the power supply however I've also had the same sort of issue DSE mentioned. 1394a drives work OK off the 1394b ports but decks and cameras can be a real crap shoot.

I've been using 9 pin to 4 pin and 9 pin to 6 pin cables, might see if I can track down an adaptor and try that, maybe it's the 1394 chips in the decks? DSR-PD250 camera is a real no goer as well.

Bob.

farss .. what card are you using?

Don't know, I was supposed to get a 2 port el cheapo card but the system integrator threw this monster of a thing in at no extra cost.
Technically with all ports going flat out that's 2GBits / sec, no wonder it's in a 64 bit slot.

looks like a SIIG NN-400012 card , just hope everything works fine.

bump

John,
here is the link to the ADS,
http://www.adstech.com/products/API_810/intro/API810_intro.asp?pid=API_810

API-810 card. It is a true 64 Bit card. Note that it is PCIx compatible, but not PCI Express.

"i forgot to mention i want FW800 (1934-b)"

Wouldn't do you any good since most Firewire devices can't even transfer 400 Mbit/sec, let alone 800.

Also you can check out Unibrain they have a Fireboard 800.

http://www.unibrain.com/1394_products/fireboard_800/fireboard_800.htm

800 is overkill for video capture as cameras only run at 100. There are only a couple of firewire hard drives that are 800 compatible.

What makes you think that it requires a 64bit PCI slot to run FW800 at full speed?

This test: http://www.cyberfarm.dk/produkter/lacie_bench.htm was done on a Dell P650 with a Lacie FW800 card in a 32bit slot...

Sort of makes sense to me since the 32bit PCI segment has a bandwidth of 133MB/sec.

Kim.

Ok .. heres what i got from SIIG and G-Tech and others on Ebay ..
i emailed and was told that to take advantage of FW800 you need 64bit .. if you only have 32bit then you will not get full speed.

i wanted 800's cause the HardDrives am looking for have 800 ports , so why not use them(not for capturing).

i realy dont know whats the Diffrence bitween PCI and PCIx and PCI Express , maybe somone will explain? i dont know what slots are available on my MotherBoard , but i know i have 3 PCI express slots and 3 PCI's ..

"i wanted 800's cause the HardDrives am looking for have 800 ports , so why not use them(not for capturing)."

The box may have FW800 compatible ports, but the disk inside won't substain anywhere near that data rate. Today's IDE/ATA hard disks are designed to operate with an interface speed of 100 MB/s, but their sustained transfer rates are barely pushing 40 MB/s. This means the 100 MB/s speed only applies for the occasional transfer in and out of the buffer that does not require actual access to the hard disk platters.