Radley Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I am soon to be the proud owner of a new 17" MacBook Pro, and am planning to buy a card to maximize the potential of my new setup. Question - There seems to be two routes I can take: 1) Buy a Firewire 800 card for a FW interface. or 2) Buy an eSata card for an eSata hard drive. Any opinions about which might be most effective for maximizing performance of Logic 9 (or any other DAW platform)? Folks on the Cubase forum are getting major improvements by adding a card (usually FW 800), especially one with the Texas Instruments T1 chipset. It seems this is the only way to achieve two high-performance FW ports because all the Mac ports use the same bus. Any info would be much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I would buy an eSATA card for the hard drive, since you already have a FW interface, and it's most likely faster than you'll ever need for an audio interface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Cardenas Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 eSATA is much faster. http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=36727 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nublu Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 Hi Radley, I've been using an eSata drive for a couple of years+ now and I recommend it. It's as quick as any internal drive, and very reliable. A couple of things... Check around the web, as there are some very cost effective deals out there. If you are on Snow Leopard, make sure the drivers are compatible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sesshin Posted September 10, 2009 Share Posted September 10, 2009 I just got a 17" and am using the FW800 port for my audio card and then have an eSATA Expresscard for additional hard drives. I can also swipe out the card for more FW ports if necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radley Posted September 10, 2009 Author Share Posted September 10, 2009 Guys, Thanks for the informative responses One question: Pro Tools seems to believe that having a card or hard drive with the Texas Instruments T1 chipset makes a big difference in overall throughput/performance - do you guys agree, and how can one know which chipset is used? (usually not included in the standard info-blurb) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBA713 Posted September 10, 2009 Share Posted September 10, 2009 I'm a novice compared to these other goofs, but I have the 1st generation Mac Book Pro, and I use an eSATA card in the Expresscard slot, and that goes into my OWC external harddrive. Pretty frickin' great, although I've never used anything else! That frees up my Firewire bus (buss?) for my Duet. Never had any problems with the harddrive/eSATA connectivity. Do it. C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el-bo Posted September 10, 2009 Share Posted September 10, 2009 another option http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/index.html have been wishing to do this myself but funds seem to be evermore distant my macbook pro is almost at the end of its applecare , so i will do the install myself seeing as yours is new, you might want them to do the install....or you may not wish to do anything to your new baby have fun, whatever you chose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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