MacAlly PCI to FireWire 3 Port Adapter FH-CARD3
Price: $99.00
System requirements: MacOS 9 or later, a Mac with PCI slot
Date of Review: March 10, 2001
Rating: (5 out of 5 stars)

MacAlly’s PCI to FireWire adapter is even more minimalist than their PC card adapter. The package includes the device, an internal FireWire cord for the card’s internal port, and another tiny manual.

However that was all I needed. I simply unpacked the card, stuck it into one of the six PCI slots in my UMAX S-900 (a five-minute job), booted up the UMAX, and it worked. No software to install; no drivers to download (I’m running Mac OS 9.1), no hassle. It just worked. I love plug and play!

The MacAlly’s PCI to FireWire adapter powered up the Que! M2 hard drive through the FireWire bus with no problem, and nicely supported the Que! Fire16x10x40x CD-RW drive I tested with it as well.

I should note that some suggest that even if your FireWire adapter card supports bus-powered devices, that can put a strain on the motherboard, so it is preferable to use an external power supply for all FireWire devices connected to a PCI FireWire card. This will ensure that the devices have enough power to work reliably, and forestall any problems.

The Macally PCI FireWire 3 Port Adapter provides two external and one internal FireWire ports. However, while preparing this review I checked the MacAlly web page, and it appears that this product has been superseded by the MacAlly PCI to FireWire and USB Adapter which provides both FireWire and USB ports on one PCI card, including three 6-pin 1394a ports (two external and one internal) and two external USB Type A ports. Ae will look at these as soon as we get units for review.

There doesn’t seem to be any downside to this. The Macally PCI FireWire 3 Port Adapter was selling last fall for $179. The new MacAlly PCI to FireWire and USB Adapter has a MSRP of $99, and adds the USB support without taking anything away. I already have a MacAlly PCI to USB adapter card in the S-900, reviewed here on Applelust last October, and it works great too. Having the functionality of both cards combined in one product is a value solution. The new card also wants USB driver 1.3.5 or later.

System requirements for both cards include:
Mac OS 9.0 and FireWire 2.3.3 or later
Any Macintosh with an available PCI 2.1 slot.

I have no hesitation in giving this product a full five stars out of five.

These products were respectively tested on a Macintosh PowerBook G3 Series 33 MHz/192MB/Mac OS 9.1/Mac OS X; a Macintosh PowerBook G3 Series/233 MHz/2G/192MB MacOS 9.0/MacOS 9.1; and a UMAX SuperMac S-900 200 MHz//120MB MacOS 9.1