I was looking at constructing a rack mounted PC to use on a few mobile recording projects and started looking at the hardware. A wander around a local major laptop retailer showed that (Apple aside) there weren't any modern laptops that had FW ports any more.

I checked through the motherboards online and found that even Gigabyte don't do a microATX motherboard with LGA1155 or better CPU with 1394 ports any more. Seems a lot of the other motherboard manufacturers have done the same, ditching the FW interface. I'm guessing that this is because DV cams no longer require it, having switched to SDHC cards for video storage.
I've now discovered an 18 month old Intel mATX form factor motherboard that has 2 1394 ports on it and supports the i3/5/7 processors.

Obviously for a rack case I'll need to keep the thermals down so an i3 should be more than adequate for streaming 16 or 24 channels to disc via the FW interface.

Some new motherboards have Thunderbolt though, however it's still a little way off and I'd guess there will be a bridge box that will convert thunderbolt to a couple of 1394 ports eventually.

I'm confused; are you after a laptop with firewire or building a rackmount desktop?

Either way, you probably want to avoid onboard Firewire anyway.

For desktops, I have had no issues with any interface using PyroAV firewire cards:
http://www.musiclab.com.au/products/com ... wire-cards

For laptops, I've used firewire express cards from SIIG (TI Chip), which have worked with *most* interfaces, but not all.

Having said all that, I've been using a MOTU hybrid interface the last few months and I honestly can't notice a difference in performance between firewire and usb. I stick with firewire out of habit (and superstition ), but really connecting via usb hasn't created any noticeable issues.

Also, I recently built myself a new desktop (on the newer LGA2011 socket) and I came across quite a few mobo's with firewire. Have you checked the Asus range?

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai ... s_id=18817

And Mac users call us boring and over complicated, I don't know why!

A rack mount (2RU) mobile unit. I just happened to notice that the usual ubiquitous FW interface on laptops has disappeared.



Gigabyte motherboard had either TI or Via FW chipsets, both worked fine with my MOTU interfaces. I was trying to avoid plug in cards since they are just another thing to shake loose and add to mechanical layout complications.
The formfactor I'm after is MicroATX, which is around 25cm square (smaller than your usual ATX sized motherboard). Fits nicely in a short rack case with 2.5" drives.



I was hoping not to have to buy another rack load of interfaces just yet



Not in microATX form factor though.


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The MAC mini looked like a nice option, but the software runs like a dog on MAC OSX, so I'd rather stick to Win7-64.

Ahh, sorry I somehow avoided noticing the "matx required" bit of your post.

Just found the Intel board I think you're referring to. Looks like its the only one out there??

http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-28023471-In ... 1155_Socke

Yeah..........looks like it disappeared with the H67 chipset.

I remember considering this board about a year ago but ended up getting a Z68 board because one of my soundcards has Firewire if I need it.

http://www.asus.com.au/Motherboards/Int ... 8H67M_EVO/

Might find one in Aus..........still some available O/S.