What if there's NO PCIe coming!?!

NealF · Post by **NealF** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:52 pm

I already have a dual core 2.3. My old computer is a G4.
I've been using the old PCI 324 with a 2408 MKII.
I need the 3 adat light pipes because I'm hooked through a Mackie D8B and I use all 24 chanells for mixing.

Now I'm getting concerned. What if MOTU decides not to make the new cards.
What would be my best alternative?

Thanks.

mothra · Post by **mothra** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:53 pm

1. Upgrade your Mac with a new CPU, from either Sonnet, Powerlogix, or Gigadesign.

2. Get a PC, but be warned because while they still have a couple PCI slots now, theyre on the way out over there too. The Dells I just recieved at work last week actually only had one PCI slot in it, no AGP, and the rest, PCIe..

3. Buy a couple of new Firewire interfaces.

Even if you were to buy the last rev of G5's, without PCIe, your MOTU wouldnt have been working anyways.. PCI-324 cards didnt work in the newer PCI slots and needed to be traded in for a small fee for a PCI-424 card.

I still cant believe everyone is yelling 'The Sky Is Falling' over MOTUs lack of HERES OUR NEW PCIe CARD announcement.
Perhaps MOTU is the only manufacturer thats learned from the past and is waiting until Apple gets its crap together before jumping into the new tech?? Does anyone remember how the first couple lines of G5s had a rather screwed up mixture of different PCI slots in them depending on which generation and which model you bought?

Random side note... I love how everyone compares the PCIe situation with MOTU's already having a PCI solution when the first G5s came out..
What they fail to see is, sure MOTU had a solution from day 1, BUT the PCI-424 card was ALREADY out on the market for awhile before the G5s hit the shelves. It was pretty painless for MOTU to say 'Hey send in your old card and some cash, well send you the 424 card'. This is completely different then MOTU getting caught, possibly unaware of what Apple was going to do, and not having a solution ready..

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:50 pm

I think MOTU would be silly not to make a PCIe card and I'd bet the farm that they will release one... probably with a trade in offer like last time.

jaffi · Post by **jaffi** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 10:24 pm

Eventually they will come out with it. They have no choice unless they think they are going to compete with just FW interfaces. Probably not going to happen. Stop worrying, already. It will come, some day. Until then, get a FW interface. They are very cheap these days and offer enough features. Plus, FW is versatile enough to handle most of the projects that are popular lately.

gseibert · Post by **gseibert** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:07 pm

Did you notice the new USB 2 MOTU interface? Have you seen the reports today that Apple may be dropping Firewire in the new InteliMacs? It all makes buying a new audio interface a real crap shoot, doesn't it.

jaffi · Post by **jaffi** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:34 pm

Oh crap. I have been hearing this stuff the last few days. But, as for that FW thing, look who the source is. The Inquirer! I'll wait to see what happens. I know that Intel prefers USB, but Apple has to know that FW is just better. Especially since almost their entire user base uses it like crazy. The only thing I use USB for is my MIDI controller and me Logic dongle. I know that Apple is trying to get a lot of those PC users and all, but not at the expense of pissing off all of their current users. I know, they have already done that many times, but in the name of pushing their computers in the right direction. IMO getting rid of FW is not anywhere near the right direction. We'll see what happens. Maybe the first few aren't going to have FW and that is where these rumors are coming from. Who knows? Until Appleinsider or Thinksecret say something, I will assume that it is just crap.

mothra · Post by **mothra** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 3:24 pm

Ok heres a brief synopsis of a reply I made earlier on the Motu-Mac list to the exact same hysteria..

Do you really think Apple is going to drop Firewire? Have you heard of the video editing industry at all?? Show me ONE professional video camera that has a damn USB connection on it. THEYRE ALL FIREWIRE.
Apple is not going to kill its big money maker Final Cut Pro and give that market straight to Avid.

iPods dont come with firewire cables anymore.. The poster on MOTU-Mac even claimed that new iPods dont support firewire.. CRAP.. You dont get a FW cable with an iPod now, why? Because Apple now has a rather large market base of PC USERS that dont have firewire ports in their machines.. What do they have however, USB. It makes perfect sense from a marketing viewpoint.

MOTU released a USB version of the 828 a few weeks ago already. It didnt happen this morning.
Why? Well do some research for a second, and read the above statement on iPods. Now on top of this, go search through this forum and you will see what kinds of problems PC users have to deal with regarding Firewire.
Well MOTU just made it a bit easier for PC users to come out with a nice solution to the problem..

Oh and here this was the best thing I read all day regarding that thread at MOTU-Mac.. This was another gentlemans hilarious reply to the initial post

'Next thing they will do is make serial ports obsolete and then
probably scsi.'

Those of you that have actually been using computers for some significant amount of time understand and will probably get a kick out of that..
Do we need to remind new folks how some studios to this day are still running beige PowerPC 9600s and the like.. Hell our friends dad wont even upgrade his blue and white G3 TDM rig past OS 9.04. Why? Because it works.. The industry is not going to stop and go away because someone releases a new format interface. Protocols are not going to go away because someone no longer includes a particular cable in the box.

jaffi I couldnt agree more..

gseibert · Post by **gseibert** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 4:47 pm

Actually I got the Firewire bit from arstechnica who picked it up from ZDNet. Here's the ZDNET link
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=57
Like I said in another post, I think we actually are at a sweet spot with the hardware, Mac OSX, adn DP 4.61. There are a few problems, but generally we have a pretty functional system when you put it all together. I have a real skepticism that any of this will work very well with the new Mac-tells, when they hit the streets next year. Concerning Firewire, at lease a PCI card is not very expensive. Although, I don't remember seeing a PCIe firewire card yet, but then I have not looked either.

Didn't mean to get everyone so excited, but it really is a diffficult time to buy hardware to work with a Mac and expect it to upgrade easily. That was a prime 'feature' of the Mac in the past. You could get a device and expect it to stay with you for a long time. Tech is just moving more quickly now, I guess.