Aurora R5 Firewire Card

Thanks for your response.I thought about trying that to see if it would work, but with the bracket attached, it doesn't even reach the connector. I would have to remove the card from the bracket. And due to the polarization, I would have to flip the card upside down, which would make the firewire connectors face the front of the computer. I'd then have to feed the cable through the opening where the bracket would normally go. It would be a sloppy installation and also, no mechanical support for the card, besides the connection itself.

The reason I want firewire is to download all my miniDV tapes off my old Sony DCR-PC100 camcorder. I am able to do it now with the Roxio USB capture device that connects via red/white/yellow rca jacks to the A/V jack on the camcorder, but the quality is not as good as it would be with firewire. I've got about 50 of these darn tapes to download, and once I'm done, I won't ever need it again.

Card must be PCI-Express (PCIe) ... NOT old-school PCI.

 

Something like this should work fine:

 

Syba SY-PEX30016 3 Port Firewire 1394B & 1394A Pcie 1.X1 Card TI XIO2213B Chipset                              

Thank you  ! I think I'm going to try your original suggestion first. I never new you could use shorter cards in longer slots. After doing some research, I found this information about PCI Express, which may be helpful to others -

PCIe Sizes: x16 vs x8 vs x4 vs x1

As the heading suggests, the number after the x indicates the physical size of the PCIe card or slot, with x16 being the largest and x1 being the smallest.

Here's how the various sizes shape up:

• PCI Express x1: 18 pins (25 mm)
• PCI Express x4: 32 pins (39 mm)
• PCI Express x8: 49 pins (56 mm)
• PCI Express x16: 82 pins (89 mm)

No matter what size the PCIe slot or card is, the key notch, that little space in the card or slot, is always at Pin 11. In other words, it's the length of Pin 11 that keeps getting longer as you move from PCIe x1 to PCIe x16. This allows some flexibility to use cards of one size with slots of another.

PCIe cards fit in any PCIe slot on a motherboard that is at least as big as it is. For example, a PCIe x1 card will fit in any PCIe x4, PCIe x8, or PCIe x16 slot. A PCIe x8 card will fit in any PCIe x8 or PCIe x16 slot.

PCIe cards that are larger than the PCIe slot may fit in the smaller slot but only if that PCIe slot is open-ended (i.e. does not have a stopper at the end of the slot).

PCIe Versions: 3.0 vs 2.0 vs 1.0

Any number after PCIe that you find on a product or motherboard is indicating the latest version number of the PCI Express specification that's supported.

Here's how the various versions of PCI Express compare:

• PCI Express 1.0: 2 Gbit/s per lane (32 Gbit/s in an x16 slot)
• PCI Express 2.0: 4 Gbit/s per lane (64 Gbit/s in an x16 slot)
• PCI Express 3.0: 7.877 Gbit/s per lane (126.032 Gbit/s in an x16 slot)

All PCI Express versions are backward and forward compatible, meaning no matter what version the PCIe card or your motherboard supports, they should work together, at least at a minimum level.

"All PCI Express versions are backward and forward compatible"  actually this is wrong.  Fitting into the slot does not mean working.  Speed and Protocol used are completely different.  128b/130b encoding, is used by PCIe 3.0  and  8b/10b    encoding, is used by PCIe 2.0.   Older boards that have PCI-E version 1.0 do not work with PCI-E 3.0 cards because they changed the speed and power from the slot.  The other fly in the ointment is that UEFI cards that work in newer machines do not work in old convetional msdos INT13 compatible bios.  In many cases the combination of the power and bios and speed problems make cards not work at all.   Forwards compatibility via PHI Speed with 1.0 or 1.1 or 2.0 PCI-E version is also an issue because 3.0 bus motherboards will NOT downclock to accommodate 1.0 cards.  Secure boot and 64 bit versions of windows also require WHQL Certified drivers and certificate in the bios for the hardware or cards DO NOT INSTALL OR LOAD. In many cases this causes the card not to be "seen" by the bios let alone the OS. This is why version 1.0 TV Tuner cards and mass storage Raid Controllers do not function in newer systems unless they meet PCI-E 2.1 spec.   This is also why New Video cards aka PCI-E 3.0 cards DO NOT WORK and WILL NEVER WORK in a Precision 490 or 690 even when they have 1000W power supply because the speed of the slot and the power from the X16 slot is not sufficient.  PCI Express 2.1  (March 4, 2009) supports a large proportion of the management, support, and troubleshooting systems planned for full implementation in PCI Express 3.0. However, the fallback speed is NOT the same as PCI Express 2.0. The increase in power from the slot breaks backward compatibility between PCI Express 2.1/3.0 and older motherboards with 1.0/1.0a which means there is little to NO support for backward compatibility of cards with PCIe 2.1.

Just wanted to post and update-

I determined my eyes are the problem. When I put the computer on it's side under good light, I was able to plug the card in just fine. I was surprised  you could plug the smaller card into the larger slot. Everything works great. It was plug and play. Thank you to everyone who commented. I appreciate the assistance!!

I don't expect he will have this problem, however ... this PCI-E Version issue is real and I've seen it in the field. It is not fun.
 
Personally, I'm surprised the industry allowed this to happen (with all the time and energy spent on industry protocols and interface compatibility standards). There should have been slot keying (incompatible cards wouldn't insert) or jumpers on cards (to switch between both) to prevent this scenario in the first place.

 

The other UEFI card issue also pops up here in the forums. Seems to follow video cards and certain older model machines.