Supported Firewire card for Liquid Saffire 56 and Pro Tools 10

[Erik318]

Hi!

I'm having major problems with my new Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 interface, and I suspect it's related to my firewire card. I currently have a ST Labs F-261 card and it will completely crash my computer when I use the Saffire with Pro Tools 10. It will work for a little while but after using Pro Tools for 5-10 minutes it freezes my entire computer (I can't even move my mouse) so I have to power off and do a hard reset. Before I got the Saffire 56 I've been using the same computer with my old MBox 2 (USB) without any problems whatsoever, so I figure the problem must be with either the Saffire or with my Firewire card. I'm also using the latest version of Mix Control (3.0) and Pro Tools 10.2.0.

I've just read on Focusrite's website that my firewire card may be incompatible (see this document), so I think it's probably best to get rid of my ST Labs FW-card and get a new supported card.

But what FW-card should I buy? I see that focusrite recommends this card: NN-400012-S8

But there's also this card: NN-E20012-S2

Does anyone have any experience with these cards and Pro Tools 10/Saffire 56/Win7? Also, what's the difference between these two cards? Obviously one is PCI-e and one is PCI, but which one would be best for use with Pro Tools and the Saffire 56? (my computer has both PCI and PCIe slots, so I guess I could use them both). Is PCI-e faster/better than regular PCI?

Any other cards I should be looking at?

Also, I live in Sweden (Europe) and it seems to be really hard to buy these SIIG cards here. I can't seem to find a single reseller in europe, so it seems the only option is to buy it directly from SIIG's website and have it shipped (and the shipping is $107.52 so in order to get the card I will have to pay about $170). What's up with that? $170 seems kind of expensive for a firewire card, but I guess there's no other way?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
/ Erik

[Erik318]

In case it will help, here's my Sandra report:

SiSoftware Sandra


Computer
Model : OEM System Product Name To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Serial Number : System Serial Number
Chassis : Chassis Manufacture Desktop
Mainboard : ASUS P5QL
Serial Number : MS1C92BJC901268
BIOS : AMI (OEM) 0507 12/10/2008
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR2

Processors
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz (2C 3GHz/3GHz, 6MB L2)

Chipset
Memory Controller : ASUS P45/P43/G45/G43 DRAM Controller 4x 334MHz (1.34GHz) FSB, 2x 4GB DIMM DDR2 2x 334MHz (668MHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Kingston 2G-UDIMM 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-23-6-3)
Memory Module : A-Data 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-6-6-18 3-24-6-3)
Memory Module : Kingston 2G-UDIMM 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-23-6-3)
Memory Module : A-Data 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-6-6-18 3-24-6-3)

Video System
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216 SM4.0 1.3GHz/1.24GHz 4% OC, 896MB DDR3 2.21GHz 10% OC 448-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16)
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216 SM4.0 1.3GHz/1.24GHz 4% OC, 896MB DDR3 2.21GHz 10% OC 448-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
OpenCL GP Processor : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216SP 27C 1.3GHz/1.24GHz 4% OC, 896MB DDR3 2.21GHz 10% OC 448-bit)
Compute Shader Processor : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216SP 1.3GHz/1.24GHz 4% OC, 896MB DDR3 2.21GHz 10% OC 448-bit)
CUDA GP Processor : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216SP 27C 1.3GHz/1.24GHz 4% OC, 896MB DDR3 2.21GHz 10% OC 448-bit)

Storage Devices
WDC WD7501AALS-00E8B0 (750.2GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 32MB Cache) : 699GB (C:)
WDC WD1502FAEX-007BA0 (1.5TB, SATA600, 3.5", 7200rpm) : 1TB (F:)
HP DVD Writer 840b (ATA33, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D:)
IDE-DVD DROM6216 (ATAPI, DVD+-R, CD-R, 512kB Cache) : N/A (E:)

Logical Storage Devices
Reserverad av systemet : 100MB (NTFS)
Disk 2 (F:) : 1TB (NTFS) @ WDC WD1502FAEX-007BA0 (1.5TB, SATA600, 3.5", 7200rpm)
Hard Disk (C:) : 699GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD7501AALS-00E8B0 (750.2GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 32MB Cache)
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ HP DVD Writer 840b (ATA33, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Optical Drive (E:) : N/A @ IDE-DVD DROM6216 (ATAPI, DVD+-R, CD-R, 512kB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : ASUS LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : T0 A5-13
Audio Device : ASUS HD Audio Controller
Audio Codec : VIA VT1708S HD Audio
Serial Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : ASUS 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
Disk Controller : ASUS 6101 SATA2 Controller
USB Controller 1 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #4
USB Controller 2 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #5
USB Controller 3 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #6
USB Controller 4 : ASUS USB EHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 5 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #1
USB Controller 6 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 7 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #3
USB Controller 8 : ASUS USB EHCI Controller #1
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : 22136 DC-1394 PCIe
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel ICH SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.20) (Ethernet, 100Mbps)

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7601 (Service Pack 1)
Platform Compliance : x64

[Emcha_audio]

Any card with a TI chipset should do.

I have a SIIG NN-440012-S8 and it works.

[Erik318]

Originally Posted by Emcha_audio

Any card with a TI chipset should do.

Hmm.. The ST Labs card I currently own does have a TI chipset, so I thought it would work. But on the Focusrite webpage my card seems to be listed under "Possible unconfirmed incompatibilities to be aware of" so I'm thinking it's probably not good enough

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by Erik318

Hmm.. The ST Labs card I currently own does have a TI chipset, so I thought it would work. But on the Focusrite webpage my card seems to be listed under "Possible unconfirmed incompatibilities to be aware of" so I'm thinking it's probably not good enough

That might be due to other component of the cards or the computer (like the NVIDIA nForce4 chipset) that makes it possibly incompatible.

[Erik318]

I've recently been in contact with the Focusrite support (which is great by the way, quick and helpful replies). They said that they've been seeing some issues with the TI-XIO* based chipset which is used on the ST Labs F-261 card. So I bit the bullet and ordered the SIIG NN-400012-S8 card. I'm waiting for it to arrive but hopefully this will fix my issue (fingers crossed)

/ Erik

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by Erik318

I've recently been in contact with the Focusrite support (which is great by the way, quick and helpful replies). They said that they've been seeing some issues with the TI-XIO* based chipset which is used on the ST Labs F-261 card. So I bit the bullet and ordered the SIIG NN-400012-S8 card. I'm waiting for it to arrive but hopefully this will fix my issue (fingers crossed)

/ Erik

Pretty sure it will, let us know

[Dism]

FWIW...

I am using this card with my LS56 with no dramas: http://www.syba.com/index.php?contro...on=Info&Id=995

Works right out of the box on both OSX and Windows. No drivers needed.

[Obsidian Dragon]

Not that this will help you at all but I just use the built-in firewire port on my 2009 Mac Pro (Nehaliem Based) and it works. On the Windows PC side there are more options (and variables) but SIIG has always been good for me before.

[Erik318]

I just got my SIIG firewire card in the mail today. I've removed my old firewire card and installed the SIIG, but unfortunately this did not help. I still get crashes in Pro Tools that totally freezes my computer! I've tried removing the old firewire card in case there was a conflict, and I've also tried moving the SIIG card to another PCI port. But that doesn't help either.

/ Erik