I couldn’t find the answer to this via search so here we go…
I have a Dell XPS M1330 laptop. It has a 4-pin firewire port as well as an ExpressCard slot. I’m planning on buying a Firebox in the near future. Ideally I would not have to use an external power adapter. Would an ExpressCard with 6-pin Firewire ports provide enough juice to power the Firebox? I’ve been reading that the ExpressCard Firewires don’t provide enough power for things like hard drives and require their own power adapter, which would defeat the purpose of buying one.
Why wouldn’t I want to rely on the 4-pin? It seems to work OK in the limited uses I’ve had for it so far. I’d rather use that than buy another expansion card when I’ll have to use external power in either case.
Because 4 pin is highly prone to getting knocked out mid-set, i got sick of my 4-pin fallout out so i bought a decent firewire express card just so i have a chunky connector that doesnt fall out so easy.