Belkin F5U503-APL FireWire 3-Port PCI Card

From the Manufacturer
The FireWire 3-Port PCI Card from Belkin brings the revolutionary speed of FireWire to your desktop computer, quickly and easily. The best solution for adding FireWire capability to desktop computers, the Card enhances peripheral connections with speed, accuracy, and ease. The FireWire 3-Port PCI Card from Belkin maximizes your use of ultrafast disk, Zip, and optical drives, scanners, printers, I-Pod, and other peripherals.

Product Description:
Add 3 Firewire ports to your system with this expansion PCI card / Requires a free internal PCI slot / Up to 400Mbps / PC & Mac

Average customer rating:

Getting a Mac iPod to work on the PC!!
No sleep, little power, limited, shaky?

Belkin F5U503-APL FireWire 3-Port PCI Card

Manufacturer: Belkin Components
ProductGroup: CE
Binding: Electronics

I/O Boards | Upgrades | Products |
Similar Items:

Apple 30 GB iPod with Video Playback Black (5th Generation)

Product Features:

Maximizes the use of ultrafast disk, and optical drives, scanners, printers, iPod, and other peripherals
Data transfer rates of up to 400 Mbps
Easy plug-and-play setup connects FireWire devices without restarting your computer
Supports up to 62 Firewire devices f

ASIN: B0000YB7QC

Product Description

Add 3 Firewire ports to your system with this expansion PCI card / Requires a free internal PCI slot / Up to 400Mbps / PC & Mac

Customer Reviews:

Getting a Mac iPod to work on the PC!!.......2007-01-20

Brilliant! I got an old Mac-formatted iPod. It was a cinch to install this card on my PC (Windows XP) and presto! Working iPod. It's also made my PC able to use FireWire backup drives/external drives, and I think I can probably network it to a Mac laptop (or desktop?) now, though I haven't tried. As I said, installation was a cinch. I feel I have Mac-ified my PC a bit, and that makes me happy. Belkin's lifetime warranty makes it worth the price.

No sleep, little power, limited, shaky?.......2006-07-01

This card, using a TI chipset, has always been annoying.
My son saw a lot of mysterious firewire issues with devices connected through the card, though we were never able to pin down the culprit.
While advertised as compatible with a wide range of machines and systems, it is a 5 volt only PCI card, limiting it to older hardware.
At least on my example of the card, F5U503 Rev.S-3, there is no internal power connector, limiting the useful capacity to one bus powered device, e.g. iPod or 2.5" hard disk, but not both at once. This is not an issue if you plan to use 3.5" or 5" firewire drives which have their own power supplies.
The failure to support deep sleep is the most infuriating aspect of the card. Macs are competent and reliable sleepers, going months before rebooting. The Belkin card prevents deep sleep, something I only learned on the Belkin support site long after I bought the card.

Whether for PC or Mac, I'll choose more carefully next time.

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