RE: OT: Help! Need advice about HP and Firewire Audio.

[Jeff Larson <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com>]

> Thanks for the info.  That's not good at all.  Perhaps their desktops
> are more sturdy though... I they're all we use at work, and we're
> doing a lot of 3d work that's pretty processor intensive and they seem
> to hold up well.  Our IT people said they've had good experiences with
> them.

PCs are an ever changing stew of components, drivers, and software.
I've been using PCs for as long as there have been PCs and I've had
good and bad experiences with most of the major brands.  No matter who
the manufacturer is, at various points in history they will all suck.

And for you Mac guys up on your damn pedestal, I've had absolutely
horrible experiences with two Mac Minis :-)

I wouldn't assume things like peripheral chipsets will be the same
from one year to the next, or that laptop quality is an indicator of
desktop quality.  My experience with HP desktops has been generally
positive though none of them were audio computers.  I've mostly had
customized Dells, currently I'm on a Gateway.

You're probably going to be fine with an HP, but I would be sure that
whomever you buy it from has a good return policy so if it does happen
to have an incompatible Firewire chipset you can return it.  As you
mentioned before you could also just buy Firewire card from Newegg.
Last time I checked they were around $50.

Good luck!

Jeff