• Use a card that is specifically "approved" for DV editing packages. These cards have better stability (free of jitter) and performance than other Firewire cards.
• It is recommended that the card you get is using an up to date TI or Lucent AGERE FW323 chipset. Some manufacturers are starting to change to VIA for cost reasons. Other chip sets, such as VIA may work fine, but the TI and Lucent products seem to be the most compatible.
• For one of these cards, you are going to pay between $15 to $60 (USD)
• Do not use a Firewire card that also has USB or any other interface ports integrated on the same card (aka a "combo" card).  These are not designed to be high throughput devices are are not best suited for using with FlexRadio Systems' FireWire based transceivers.
• Do not use Firewire cards that are combo 1394a and 1394b host controllers unless you are using Windows 7.  The 1394b host bus adapters do not have native support under Windows XP and Vista.
• If your motherboard has a specialized PCI slot for communications (usually it is orange), install your Firewire adapter in that slot. These slots usually do not share IRQ (system interrupts) with other motherboard peripherals.
• If your motherboard has a PCI Express 1x slot, this is the best bus type for a Firewire host controller since it does not share interrupts with other motherboard peripherals.
• Use high quality Firewire cables with multiple shields and gold connectors. Also use the shortest cable possible.
• If you have an existing Firewire port on your computer, try it out first before buying a different Firewire controller.
• Buy your Firewire card at a local retailer. If it doesn't work you can easily return it.

1. Adaptec FireConnect 4300 card
2. Any Adaptec PCMCIA based cards
3. SYBA-PCI-Express 1x 1394A model SD-PEX-NEC4F
4. StarTech PCI-1394B_3
5. StarTech PEX-1394A2 PCI-Express Card
   

• Confirmed to work with FLEX-5000 on Windows XP-Professional

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ADS Pyro PCI 64R2 or ADS Pyro PCI 64 (http://www.adstech.com/)
Bus Type: PCI (64-bit)

Note: This FireWire host controller uses the TI chipset
Note: The ADS PYRO PCI 64R2 has replaced the ADS Pyro PCI 64

• Confirmed to work with FLEX-5000 on Windows XP-Professional
• Confirmed to work with FA-66 on Windows XP-Professional

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SIIG (http://www.siig.com/)
Bus Type: PCI

Many of their FireWire host controllers use the TI chipset. Below is a representative picture of a 1394a PCI host controller

• Confirmed to work with FLEX-5000 on Windows XP-Professional

SIIG
Bus Type: PCI Express 1X

• Confirmed to work with FLEX-5000 on Windows XP-Professional

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Sonnet (http://www.sonnettech.com/)
Bus Type: PCI-E

Model: Allegro Express FW400 (FW400-E)

• Confirmed to work with FLEX-5000 on Windows XP-Professional and Vista

• TI Chipset
• External power connector for powered devices
• three (3) 1394a 6-pin connectors (2 external/1 internal)
• RoHS Compliant

• Confirmed to work with FLEX-5000 & FLEX-3000 on Windows 7

• Two external and one internal 1394a connectors
• TI chipset
• Supports data transfer rates of 100,200 and 400 Mbps
• Built-in 4-pin power connector for receiving extra power supply
  

• Confirmed to work with FLEX-5000 & FLEX-3000 on Windows 7

• Supports IEEE P1394b and backward-compatible with 1394a-2000 and 1394-1995 standards
• 2 port Firewire 800 ports (1394b)
• 1 port Firewire 400 port (1394a)
• Built-in 4-pin power connector for receiving extra power supply

• Confirmed to work with FLEX-5000 on Windows XP-Professional
• Confirmed to work with FA-66 on Windows XP-Professional

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Micro Innovations (http://www.mi-products.com/)
Bus Type: PCI

• Confirmed to work with FLEX-5000 on Windows XP-Professional
• Confirmed to work with FA-66 on Windows XP-Professional

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Best Connectivity - A division of Syba Technologies, Ltd.

• Confirmed to work with the FLEX-5000 on Windows XP-Professional

• Texas Instrument Firewire Chipset  XIO2200 Chipset
• 2-ports FireWire 1394a with 400Mb/s
• Compliant with ExpressCard/34 standard
• IEEE 1394-1995 Standard compliant, for High Performance Serial Bus and P1394A Supplement 4.0
• 1394 OpenHCI Specification V1.0 and V1.1 compliant
• Data transfer rate: 100/200/400 Mbps
• Fully plug & play and hot plug supported
• For Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP/XP 64-bit/Vista

Best Connectivity
Bus Type: PCI

Best Connectivity 1394b/a PCI card w/ TI chipset

• Confirmed to work with the FLEX-5000 and FLEX-3000 on Windows7

• Firewire 1394b ports x 2
• Firewire 1394a port x 1
• Transfer rate up to 800Mb/s
• Support 32-Bit 33MHz PCI Interfacing
• Compliant with 1394 OpenHCI Specification V1.2
• Full Backward compatible to FireWire 400 1394a specification
• Support 800/400/200/100Mb/s data transfer rate
• TI Chipset

• Delivers single-lane (x1) PCI Express throughput support rates of 2.5Gbps
• Complies with ExpressCard 34mm-wide module specification
• Built-in 2 external, independent 6-pin FireWire 400 ports
• Supports 1394 Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) Specification 1.1
• Features IEEE 1394a-2000-compliant ports at 100, 200 and 400Mbps
• Equipped with 1 DC jack for using power adapter to provide 12VDC power output
• Complies with IEEE 1394 and 1394a
• Allows you to connect/disconnect devices without powering down the system (hot-swappable)

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