The LaCie 130820 FireWire 400 PCI Card is plug and play so just plug it in and its ready to work for you. Once your device is connected, your computer recognizes the device and automatically configures the necessary software. It's driver-free for Mac OS X 10.1 or higher and Windows 2000, Server 2003, XP or Vista. One standardized port and plug combination makes it simple and quick to connect and use. It has a built-in 4-pin power connector, which provides extra power when connected to the system's power supply. Add three additional external FireWire 400 ports to your computer with the LaCie FireWire 400 PCI Card design by Sismo. Made for users who want upgrade their Mac or PC desktop computer, it's the quick, easy and affordable way to expand connectivity. This versatile card has a Texas Instruments Chipset for best performance as well as being compatible with a 32-bits PCI slot. It also offers transfer rates of up to 400 Mbits/s. With FireWire ports on your computer, you can connect many peripherals using hubs a method called daisy-chaining. Technically, you can connect up to 63 devices to a single FireWire bus, for more than two devices, though, you must make new connections using a hub. A hub, which you hook up directly to a FireWire connector on your computer, usually has four or seven output connections enabling you to connect the same number of peripherals. The FireWire 400 interface is cross-platform, meaning you can use your FireWire peripherals on both Mac and Windows platforms, such as fast external hard drives, camcorders, digital cameras and more. FireWire 400's fast transfer rates makes it ideal for speed-demanding projects, like audio/video editing and regularly saving large files quickly. Conveniently, there's no need to shut down or restart your computer when adding or removing a FireWire device because they're hot-swappable.