The IO26 is DICE II. The Sonnett card above works, but not necessarily any better than my older PCI FW card.
 
At this point, I'm likely going to make do with my system as is, and make the move to Macbook Pro with a Thunderbolt interface in a year or two (with Windows/Bootcamp).  Unless of course, TB makes its way into the Windows-lifestyle before then.
 

fireberd
I bought a Sybia card with T.I. chipset for a PC.  I had two Firewire units at the time, an Alesis IO26 and a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.  The Alesis IO26 worked OK with the Sybia, the Saffire Pro 40 would not connect.
 
The Saffire Pro 40 has a DICE II Firewire chipset.  Not sure about the IO26.

YIKES. I just ordered this Syba card for use with my Saffire Pro 40. Same one?

Beagle
 
when you say "don't work well with the Syba TI chipset..."
 
what exactly do you mean by that?  popping and clicking forcing higher buffers?  or doesn't really work at all? or somewhere in between?

Depending on which specific audio interface, it can be any of the above.   
When dealing with UA, Tascam, or Mackie Firewire audio interfaces... we use a SIIG controller.

I have a MOTU, so apparently it doesn't matter, but in my recent scare where my MOTU stopped working in ASIO mode in sonar (a problem I finally attributed to a windows security update!) I almost pulled the trigger to buy a backup soundcard, and I probably still will eventually, just not as urgently needed at the moment.
 
but when I buy a backup I want to be sure my firewire card will work with it, if I buy a firewire based soundcard.

The Syba TI chipset controller works great with MOTU Firewire units.
That isn't the culprit.   

no, didn't say it was. 
 
not sure exactly what happened but when I allowed win7 to do its last security updates it caused the MOTU to stop working in ASIO mode.  I had to roll back those updates to a restore point.
 
but I am looking for a backup soundcard now and didn't want to get one that will not work with my current firewire card.

The Presonus VSL units aren't bad
Low round-trip latency...
 
 

great, thanks.

Note that they're USB2 (not Firewire)

I just wanted to add an update to this thread for the benefit of subsequent googlers who come across it.
 
I had an "oh sh*t" moment after reading the Syba comments, especially when fireberd posted that the Syba wouldn't connect with his Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 - because the day before reading that post I had just ordered that exact same card for use with my own Pro 40. Oh sh*t, said I. I don't visit the Computers forum for a week and this is what happens!
 
So when it arrived I kept muttering the mantra "please work, please work" as I installed it. The good news is it works just fine. Maybe fireberd just got a bad one.