Laptop interface revisited

[redmax61]

I know we've discussed this before, but I'm getting a bit confused on a couple of issues.

The basics: My laptop is an HP 2.66 GHz Pentium 4 machine with an external 80GB USB 2.0 Hard drive for my song data. It also has Firewire and PCMCIA capability. I'm looking for a 24 bit recording interface that will be quick enough to allow at least 24/48 recording, most likely only one channel at a time. I'm on about a $200 budget (I know, it ain't a whole lot!).

Options:

1) M Audio Audiosport Duo. $149, 24/96 2 channel USB interface with built-in mic preamps. Bonus is headphone monitoring capability.

2) Echo Indigo I/O. $179, 2 Channel 24/96 PCMCIA interface.

3) M Audio FireWire Audiophile. $249, 2 Channel 24/96 FireWire interface. Has headphone monitoring capability. A little more than I have to spend at the moment.

4) M Audio Transit. $79, This unit is on the simple side, but it sounds like a reasonable performer for under $100.

My question is, if I'm already utilizing USB for my Hard drive, will I still have enough bandwidth to record? According to the M Audio site, this combination may cause dropouts. Is PCMCIA faster for the recording interface, allowing needed USB bandwidth for the hard drive (remember, my HD is USB 2.0)? Is FireWire faster than both USB 2.0 and PCMCIA?

This setup is a backup to my main Delta 1010 system. I'll really only be using this system while I'm away from home for the next few months.

[Supasso]

Firewire (400mbps) is not faster, but it ultilizes a lot less CPU power than USB 2.0 (480bps). Anyways bandwidth is not really an issue since a single 16/44 audio only requires like 700 kbps, but yes, if you are already using an external USB 2.0 HD, it may cause problems.

PCMCIA is a different animal. It has a full PCI bandwidth (133 M Bytes/sec - that's 1Gbps). It's like having an internal audio card.

[Lyle Long]

Go Firewire if you can. One major difference between USB and Firewire is that Firewire does not rely on the computer for it's processing. That means two Firewire devices can talk to each other without a computer. A USB device must send it's signal to a computer in a Master-Slave relationship. Since data bandwidth is already being handled from your recording harddrive via USB, it would be wise to pick the Firewire option for the audio signals to and from the interface and the computer.

PCMCIA is also great choice, but might not be as usable down the road if you want to use the interface with other computer systems. Also, Firewire allows for much longer cable runs than the other two and provides a healthy amount of buss power.

Just my two cents worth.