What Firewire PC Cards will work with MBOX 2 Pro
 

Hello, I have been searching around on the internet, trying to find an answer to this question, but everything I find seems to old to be helpful. I have an Mbox 2 Pro that was purchased over 10 years ago. I had many years of using it on a Mac, but eventually my Mac died and I want to get away from using Mac.

So I have read about the need to get a Firewire card that will work with the chipset of an audio interface, but have not been able to find info about what Firewire cards will work with my MBox 2 Pro.

Does anyone have this information or any advice about how to find this information.

Sincere thanks for any pointers.
Cicada Dennis

Re: What Firewire PC Cards will work with MBOX 2 Pro
 

Any TI (Texas Instruments) Firewire chipset based card will work. This has been discussed a lot on DUC before.

But why go that route and not purchase a new USB interface? You are investing in old technology with that card, and there are better interfaces available today.

What Windows version are you planning to run on? What Pro Tools version?

If you hope to run old Pro Tools LE software you really need to work out if that will run on the OS version you plan to use. And do you have access to the windows software installers etc. you need?

Re: What Firewire PC Cards will work with MBOX 2 Pro
 

Hi Darryl,
Thanks so much for the information. I had not been able to find it. I did see some references to TI, but the statements referring to it did not say that any TI firewire chipset works.

The reasons for wanting to keep and use my old hardware is that I like it and I hate throwing things away that have nothing wrong with them. I also do not have very much money to spend in trying to get something back up and running. So I decided to piece together a desktop system that will let me continue to use the tools I love and know how to use (if I can). I really detest how everything constantly changes all the time. If I have a tool that works and lets me do the creative work I want to do, why should I constantly have to upgrade to new hardware and software versions and have to relearn how to do what I already know how to do. I believe this to be a waste of my time and money.

With regard to OS, I have read that the MBox 2 Pro driver for Windows is not supported on Windows 10, so for Windows, I would probably have to be running Windows 7, I guess. I hear what you are saying about ProTools LE. The version I own is ProTools 8.

Re: What Firewire PC Cards will work with MBOX 2 Pro
 

Google

TI chipset firewire pcie card

Lots of choices.

You should check for card/driver (if needed) compatibility with whatever vintage Windows OS version you need to run for Pro Tools and interface compatibility. Your choice to be doing this, just work through the compatibility matrix for all this stuff before getting started.

Re: What Firewire PC Cards will work with MBOX 2 Pro
 

Thanks Darryl.

Re: What Firewire PC Cards will work with MBOX 2 Pro
 

Running Mbox 2 Pro here on Windows 10(with PT 12.4) connected to the on-board FW port(Asus X79 Sabertooth, i7 3930K, 32GB of RAM). The only issue I ever have is that sometimes PT won't find the Mbox(a restart solves it every time):o


Search eBay for "firewire card TI chipset"(without the quotes). Look for a card that has a FW400 port(so you won't need to adapt from FW800) and get the proper style card for your PC(look at your available slots so you know to get a PCI card(long slot) or a PCIe card(short slot):o

Re: What Firewire PC Cards will work with MBOX 2 Pro
 

This is the go to for myself. Quality drivers and superb hardware.

They use Ti-chips for the process....I had a few of these over the years...and I had one that ran FW800 and FW400 connections.

Win7 is hard to find these days.....FYI

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...0aAic5EALw_wcB