I need to expand my I/O as I currently have a Babyface Pro and the I/O on it is very limited. I spotted an M-Audio Profire 2626 (Firewire) online for 100 euros, which is a steal for what it has and it would more than satisfy my I/O needs, especially since it has ADAT same as Babyface. Any other hardware that comes close to the capabilities of the Profire is atleast twice as expensive however there are a lot of variables that I haven't been able to find answers to.

First, I would have to get a Firewire expansion card but I have no idea if it is compatiable with my motherboard, Gigabyte Designare Ex x399. The only reason I'm wondering is because my old PCIe audio interface wouldn't work with it (E-Mu 0404 PCIe), my guess is the PCIe standard is too new for it. Since nobody really uses Firewire much anymore, Firewire expansion cards are not common for me locally and cost more aswell and I can't be sure if they will properly run, there are more expensive ones that have guaranteed PCIe 3.0 compatibility but the cost of transport makes this not really an option, if the item can be delivered to my country at all, things being as they are. Does anyone have experience with firewire expansions and equivalent computer hardware to answert this?

Second, should the firewire expansion card work on my pc, I still have an X399 chipset hardware and a Threadripper cpu with Windows 7 on it which is not officially supported anyway and I have no idea what kind of compatibility issues may appear. Are the drivers any good, will they work with newer hardware etc.

Any information is much appreciated

 

Do you already have a Windows 7 x64 installed on your motherboard? Because I had a lot of problems to do it but I managed to do it by finding the usb drivers on a chinese site. Intel did not find it necessary to implement these drivers in the new chipsets. But it can be done.
I can tell you that Texas instruments firewire PCIE cards are the best for that. I have a z390 designare gigabyte for Intel I9900k.*
For AMD cpu I don't know. I followed this tutorial. Maybe you'll find the usb drivers to install Win7 on your mobo.

 

Not sure how useful this will be but I've been using this Lindy Firewire PCIe card (link below) in an AMD X470 motherboard for a couple of years and it's done the job perfectly. This card has got the Texas Instruments chipset which seemed to be talked about favourably in a few forums when I did my research. Also if you look a the first review on the product page the reviewer mentions they're using it with Windows 7. Hope this helps a bit.

https://www.lindy.co.uk/components-...rewire-card-with-ti-chipset-2-port-pcie-p2634

 

First of all it is not a matter of compatibility with the m/b but with the audio interface, as long as the expansion card is a pci-e (compatible with your mobo's slots) and not the older pci. As a rule of thumb (@kokorico said it too before me), the IEEE1394 (official name for Firewire) expansion cards which are based on Texas Instruments chips work with most -if not all- firewire soundcards. Some cards based on the (now defunct because of being sold) LSI chips also work. The most quirky ones are those which are based on VIA chips but the ones based on VIA VT6315 or VT 6330 , officially and reportedly work, although if you can get a TI based card it would be best to avoid any VIA based card unless there is nothing available. It takes a bit of searching in specsheets to know if actually the card you are looking at carries a TI chip or not so be careful, or contact the retailer if possible in the case you can't find any info on the card you are interested in.
If i can throw some names, here are some manufacturers of such expansion cards:
Belkin, Delock, Dawicontrol, Startech, SIIG, Syba, IO Crest, Sonnet, ST Lab, Vantec.
Depending on where you reside some of these may or may not be available, so it's time for some searching
Cheers
PS: Most of these cards go for around 25-40 euros, with some having more ports and Firewire800 support going for 60 or even 70 euros. So consider the added cost to your budget as well.

 

Last edited: Jan 18, 2021

@T3NR@ I see you have Hunter S. Thompson in your avatar

I can provide you with my drivers for windows 7, everything works fine on the H370 chipset + i9 9900K

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 18, 2021

I'm running Win 7 on an Asus x370 with ryzen 1700x, got a TI chipset firewire Pcie card for a presonus firestudio project. All is good here!

 

Got the firewire card yesterday with a TI chip as per kokorico's suggestion, it was a very plug-and-play operation and got the profire running and synced with my babyface pro through ADAT. For 137 euros total, I'm happy as a pig in shit. :D Also @taskforce, the mobo compatiability did worry me because of the problems with USB 2.0 (of all things) I faced with installing Windows 7 on a x399 system.

 

The problem does not lie with the motherboard. It is a known issue that Win7 has with all modern mobos both Intel and AMD. There are several ways around it though. We have posted guidelines for this here my friend. The easiest way to install Win7 on a modern mobo, is burn Win7 on a disk (yeah i know remember those?) and install from a sata dvd drive. And it saddens me to say because i like Win 7 best from Ms OS, with Ryzen/Threadripper it gets more complicated, since Win7 has no update to correctly recognize SMT (simultaneous multi-threading) so users have to rely on the main chipset driver and cross fingers it will work properly, but in some situations it just doesn't and users are left without SMT.
Cheers