Buying a new notebook. Couple of questions

[OzDog]

Hi All,

Have had my 40Gb iPod since January, and love it. How did I live without it! Anyway, I am looking to do some serious travelling (actually moving from Australia to Europe) and will need to buy a notebook. Hoping to get something small, light & reasonably powerful.

Now, I understand (hopefully correctly) that there are essentially 2 types of Firewire cards. 4-pin and 6-pin. 6-pin has the ability to charge and 4 doesn't, right?

So, then I've noticed that most mentions of 4-pin have been notebook cards, generally PCMCIA cards.

My questions (yes, I'm finally up to them!)
1. Does anyone know of a notebook that has a built-in 6-pin firewire port (not Apple - must be Windows).
2. Does anyone know if you can buy 6-pin Firewire PCMCIA cards?

Thanks in advance!
Dog

[Cameron_Talley]

1. I don't know of any laptops that have the 6-pin ports, besides Apple's. Most newer ones have the four pin port built in.

2. I believe the PC card availble here: http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/71807/wo/1l2EWSAPKhH93hIJQF89Azqkbza/1.3.0.5.10

Is a 6pin card. however, it most likely won't charge the iPod--it can't provide enough power for this. You can apparenlty do some daisy chaining of power cords (I Don't know about this, however), and get it to charge.

My advice: get a notebook with a 4-pin port, and simply take the AC adaptor to use for charging. You'll still be able to sync, just not charge with the PC.

[RentThisName]

Hi OzDog,

I don't know how much power PCMCIA firewire cards can put out, so I can't help you there, but the way I worked around it on my Toshiba with 4-pin connector was to buy a little Belkin powered firewire hub:

This is it on the Belkin site (http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=1968&pcount=&Product_Id=164945) but you can get it cheaper.

It does require AC, but at least you don't have to swap between the charger and the computer.

--Mike

[BillClinton]

Make sure that you absolutely need a PC. I used to think so... but now I love my 12" powerbook - extremely portable and very user friendly.

[IlIlIlIlIl]

i'm pretty sure the Gateway 15" widescreen has a 6 pin firewire port. Otherwise, i can't think of anything else....