New MacBook Pro FW daisy-chaining

[wlaer]

I have а new MacBook Pro now (with the only one FW800 port) and I'm planning to buy both Eleven Rack and 003 Factory.

As I use sound libraries actively and massively, and many of them at once, I need more than one FW HDD. In the instructional section I've read that only one daisy-chaining method is possible: to connect a chain of Oxford911-operated FW disks via through the FW800-to-400 cable and to place my 003 Factory at the end of the chain.

Is the Oxford911 chipset the only one possible to use? It's hard to buy 911 now. Is it possible to use some other HDDs with the Oxford onboard? Because they may have one FW800 port and two FW400 ports. What if I'll daisy-chain two or three HDDs with newer Oxford chipsets through FW400 ports and FW800-to-400 cable, without using its FW800 ports?

Will it work with a MBP on one end and 003 Factory on another?

[albee1952]

Welcome to the DUC. I'm not the expert, but will give you speculation based on what I have read. All the Oxford chipsets should be fine. I believe the best hookup is computer-FW800 to FW400 cable-firewire drive-003. The Eleven Rack is a USB connection so no problems adding that. The sticking point may be the additional drive you want. I have also heard that chaining multiple drives can cause the firewire bus to get bogged down so you may need to to do testing for your needs. You might be best off installing all your libraries on the system drive so a 7200 rpm system drive could be a wise choice. I would not rule out the possibility of using a USB drive for your sound libraries either.

[wlaer]

Thank you for your reply!
I'll try with one FW and one USB drive.
USB will be cheaper, it makes sense.