Is firewire worth it?

My motherboard doesn't have a firewire port. I'm thinking of getting an add-on card to get some firewire ports for future use. I do have a video camera that uses firewire, but other than that I don't have anything else that uses firewire. Would it be worth the extra money to get a firewire card?

I have some PCI Express x1 slots available, so I was thinking of spending a little more for a PCI-E firewire card. A standard PCI card is cheaper, but PCI-E is supposed to be faster, so should I spend more and get the PCI-E card or would I not notice a different in speed compared to PCI? Thanks.

To be honest, all I use my mobo's integrated FireWire for at the moment is camcorder DV, and I'd say it was worth the extra money spent to have it integrated just for that. When connecting your camcorder with a FireWire cable, you can rip recorded video to your hard drive in playback mode (on the camcorder), as well as use it as a webcam in recording mode (again, on the camcorder; you shouldn't need to press the record button to send video info to your PC, by the way). As for the two different expansion card interfaces, I'd generally go PCIe simply because PCI will be inevitably phased out as time passes, making the card more viable to keep as you go through new builds down the road. Of course, you may also decide that every motherboard you buy from here on out must have FireWire integrated, making that point moot. Another factor to consider is what other expansion cards you have installed or may install later on-for instance, if you want to SLI/CrossFire, you don't want to get a card that won't fit because all of your graphics cards' dual-slot HSFs are covering up all the slots of a given type.NamelessPlayer

This is my motherboard. It has 3 PCI slots and 2 PCI Express x1 slots, both next to the PCI Express x16 slot. One of the PCI slots is used for my sound card, so both interfaces would work fine. The main reason I was thinking PCI-E was because of the supposed increased speed, making for increased transfer speeds, ect. But if that wouldn't be the case, I'd probably just get a PCI card.

I'm not smart, but I have a firewire PCI card and it works for video. I say to just get PCI and for your next motherboards make sure it has integrated firewire.siskokidd

Besides a camcorder, you can hook a cable box up to your computer via FireWire to stream video from it. You can also use your computer as a DVR sort of deal, but your computer can't change the channel on the cable box to record automatically. If your cable box doesn't have a FireWire port, there's a federal mandate (in the United States) which states that cable companies are required to provide you a box with a working port if you request it.kodex1717

I have satellite TV. Does the mandate count for satellite receivers? That would be cool.dog64

ive never touched the firewire ports on my computer

USB 2.0 FTW!Lehman

Are you saying that my idea above would work?

[QUOTE="Lehman"]ive never touched the firewire ports on my computer

USB 2.0 FTW!dog64

Are you saying that my idea above would work?

One more question for you. What if I just used something like this? It's a USB cable with a 4-pin firewire port on the end, which will fit into my camcorder. Since it's using the DV port on it, it should work right? Then you wouldn't need a firewire card.dog64