USB and FireWire have become the
standard for connecting our stuffs to our computers, well more USB
than FireWire now, but there’s still a lot out there for it. Since so
much stuff uses these ports it’s very easy to quickly run out of
ports, so we’ve got to purchase an additional expansion card to add
more of these ports to our computer. So today I’ve got a solution for
you, an inexpensive one at that, it’s from our friends at USBFever and it adds eight more ports for you, five USB and three FireWire.
The interesting thing about this care is that it has both external
and internal connections on the card making it a bit more useful that
other card of this type.
Product
Name: IEEE
FireWire 1394 & USB 2.0 8-port Combo PCI Card
Author: Kristofer
Brozio
Sponsor: USBFever
Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
IEEE
FireWire 1394 & USB 2.0 8-port Combo PCI Card
Product Code#:AL397-B062
Price: US$19.99
Features:
– Additional 5 USB Ports (4
external + 1 internal)
– Additional 3 1394 / Fire
Ports (2 external + 1 internal)
– USB 2.0
– Via Chipset
– PCI Interface adapter
USB 2.0 Specifications:
– Compliant with USB
Specification Revision 2.0 fully backward compatible to USB 1.1
– Compliant with OHCI
Specification Rev. 1.1
– Compliant with EHCI
Specification Rev. 0.96
– Data Transfer can be
high-speed (480Mbps), full-speed (12 Mbps) and low-speed (1.5Mbps)
– 32-bit 33MHz host interface
compliant to PCI Specification Revision 2.2
– Support up to 127 devices
– Support devices hot swap and
wake-up
– Support Windows 2000 or
Windows XP
IEE1394 FireWire Specificaitons
– Compliant with IEEE 1394A
OHCI specification Revision 1.1
– Data Transfer rate can be 100
/ 200 / 400Mbps
– 32-bit 33MHz host interface
compliant to PCI Specification Revision 2.2
– 8 isochronous transmit DMAs
and 8 isochronous receive DMAs supported
– Power output:
24W (12V, 2A) per port when
on-board DC jack is connected to the PC power supply
5W (12V, 0.5A) per port without
on-board DC jack connected
– Support Windows 2000 or
Windows XP / Vista
Approvals:
– CE
– FC
– RoHS
Package Contents:
– IEEE FIREWIRE 1394 & USB
2.0 8-port Combo PCI Card x 1
– 1394 / FireWire 6 pin to 1394
/ firewire 4 pin Cable (around 6 feet) x 1
– CD Driver x 1
A
Better Look at Things:
There’s not much too look at with
this product, it’s an expansion card after all, so it’s not very
exciting. The box is for several versions of the card so it’s sort of
generic in terms of information and pictures.
Inside we find the card itself,
driver/software disc and a FireWire cable.
The card is red in color with two
internal ports and six external connections. It’s a PCI card of
course, so it installs just like any other card.
Installation,
Testing and Comparison:
There’s not much to the
installation, if you’ve ever installed any expansion cards then
you’ll have no problem with this one. Just stick it in a free PCI
slot and use a screw to secure it to your case and you’re done.
You’ll need to go into to Windows and install your drivers of course.
There’s not much to testing this
card really, it works just like the USB and FireWire ports on your
computer, they just work. The speeds appear to be the same as those
built into the motherboard so there’s nothing to report there. It’s
an easy way to add more connections to your PC especially if you have
a system that is limited in that area.
Summary
and Comments:
The IEEE FireWire 1394 & USB
2.0 8-port Combo PCI Card is a great product to add more connections
to your computer, it seems most devices out there today use USB ports
and we can quickly run out of them, this product adds more so you
won’t run out.
DragonSteelMods gives the IEEE
FireWire 1394 & USB 2.0 8-port Combo PCI Card a 5 out of 5 score
and our Recommended Award as well.
Pros:
-Inexpensive
-Adds lots of ports
-Easy to install and use
-Internal and external ports
Cons:
-None really
I would like to thank USBFever for
the chance to review the IEEE FireWire 1394 & USB 2.0 8-port
Combo PCI Card and for their continued support of DSM.
review# 554