Is it safe to use something like the usb version of the motu 828 as your main computer sound card or whatever? Or would latency be an issue?

Would I be safer going with a pci audio interface like the RME Multiface??

PCI is better, but it is on its way out. Diginut is going to come in here all like NO ITS NOT, but it is. It could be gone in 2 years, or 5 years, but either way it will be gone at some point in the relatively near future... it depends on how long you intend on holding onto this piece of equipment AND if you will be able to sell it when you're done with it.

USB will "probably" be fine, as long as it's not sharing bandwidth with anything else. Latency won't be as low as PCI for obvious reasons, but should be ok still... I think USB2.0 is reasonably comparable to firewire these days, except it has higher CPU overhead etc.

I'm not Diginut, but...
...NO ITS NOT. There's already an upgraded version of PCI called PCI-X. It's backwards compatible with standard PCI cards (Unlike PCI-Express which is alot different).
There are also already PCI-Express to PCI-X bridges, so it will be no problem to use PCI/PCI-X when future motherboards only have PCI-Express slots.

I'd say don't go with either one. If you like the 828mkII and have the coin for it, get the Firewire version, and get yourself a Firewire PCI card if you don't have a port. If you ever upgrade in the future, you'll probably have built-in Firewire, and if not, Firewire cards are cheap anyway (compared to audio interfaces at least).

Latency's not an issue for Firewire. I have no problem with 10 ms latency on my 828.

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quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut I'd say don't go with either one. If you like the 828mkII and have the coin for it, get the Firewire version, and get yourself a Firewire PCI card if you don't have a port. If you ever upgrade in the future, you'll probably have built-in Firewire, and if not, Firewire cards are cheap anyway (compared to audio interfaces at least). Latency's not an issue for Firewire. I have no problem with 10 ms latency on my 828.

Yeah I dont have firewire right now, but it is definitely looking like the best bet for me. I plan on getting a new (silent)pc, and laptop before 2008, so a firewire interface will be much more versatile. I havent looked at new computers since 2003 and for some reason i was under the impression that firewire was like a mac thing.