Others say...

"Crashes Computer When Hot"
This product works great in my 17" Macbook Pro when it is NOT required to perform any labour intensive task. I reguraly work with Pro-tools LE and as a result my Macbook Pro can get quite hot. Using the Expresscard to move audio in and out of the Mac to reduce buss load for Pro-tools actually causes the Macbook to become super overheated. So hot in fact that the Mac simply stops working. The audio stops, the whole screen freezes and the Mac will not respond at all. (I had to remove the battery to reset it as the power button would not respond.) I've never seen such a crash before! So if you are intending to use this card in a Macbook Pro with a program such as Pro-tools LE which is very CPU intensive, I recommend not buying it.

"Have Vista - Don't bother"
I'm running a nice Dell laptop with Vista Ultimate. I bought this firewire card to connect to a new external SATA drive that supports Firewire 800.

Transfer rates are about 1/8th the speed of USB2.0. I'm hard pressed to get it to max out at 1MB/Sec when my USB easily hits 9-10MB/sec.

I just got off the phone with Belkin support.

"Oh, we use the built-in vista drivers."

I asked, "Do the default vista drivers support Fireware 800".

Answer, "No, they only emulate Firewire 400 support".

"When are the drivers for Vista going to be ready?"

"I don't know. If you need Firewire 800 support you should probably return this one and get another kind."

WOW!

Belkin used to make great gear. This has put me over the edge. I'm done with Belkin.

"Stay Away - this does not work with my MacBook Pro 15" "
I have to say I am very unimpressed by the support from Belkin on this product. It is the only product to ever crash my MacBook AND that has no support documentation on the Belkin site.

Try searching for FireWire 800 Expresscard or part number F5U514

Setup:
MacBook Pro 15"
External Lacie 120gb Rugged Drive

Boot UP:
Plug in card (card comes up as unknown vendor)
Plug in Lacie Firewire 800 drive
This pushes the card in which releases the card - which give you a grey curtain effect and a message saying power of your machine due to a crash.

I now have to pay to have this wondrous piece of technology returned.


"Wait for more information before buying"
Works with my MacBook Pro 15" with powered devices but was very sad to find out that it does not work with my 2.5 inch firewire external drive which is powered off of the computer. There is a power input (no help in knowing how to work it) on the side of the device. Adding power from a USB port lit up the drive but would not spin it up. I don't know if it is a power issue or an interface issue with the firmware on my external drive. Belkin's site is useless as there is no support info, extremely limited info on the product, and they don't respond to email. I would have rated them even lower but I have to take responsibility for buying it right out of the chute.

"Will not work with Dell Inspiron laptops"
I previously purchased a SIIG Firewire 800 Expresscard. After several weeks with SIIG tech support I'm told it is a known issue that card won't work with Dell laptops. So ... i phoned Belkin TechSupport before buying this card. They tell me they know of no such problems. Well, card gives exact same problem as SIIG! Works fine on Firewire 400 but the minute you use 1394b (Firewire 800) drivers, my Dell Inspiron 9400 bluescreens and reboots! Emailed and phoned Belkin tech support but no response/solution. From my experience, Dell Inspiron 9400/E1705's can't support Firewire 800.

Update: after almost 2 months of trying to get a resolution from Belkin, they advise their product development team is "still working on the problem". Would I recommend buying a Belkin product, no way, that level of customer service is a disgrace.