I'm in the market for a new interface. Amongst others I'm contemplating the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 plus an Octopre (hooked up via ADAT). Right now the Win8.1/firewire situation seems a bit of a minefield, with lots of opinions on certain forums but very little that seems to come from actual experience (not here, I hasten to add).

Has anyone any experience of the Saffire range using firewire under Windows 8.1? Using the Win7 legacy driver doesn't seem to be an option because MS never signed it (and I haven't a Win 7 machine to get a copy from anyway).

Yup. Works great... BTW with the latest mix control you don't use the legacy driver (focusrite documents this) for Win 7 or 8.x... Earlier versions the advise was different. Cheers...

Thanks. Can I assume this is using one of Focusrite's recommended PCIe cards?

Saffire Pro 24 on Windows 8.1, PCIe and one of the correct chipset options. No issues or problems on SONAR X3 Pro. Since I stopped using PCI for anything I have had real stability. And I have the latest Mix Control update.

In the end, and after much head-scratching, I decided to splash out and go for the other item on my shortlist, an RME Fireface UFX, with an Octopre added to get another 8 in/out channels.
 
Thanks for the helpfull comments though, they're appreciated. Finding out what interfaces can actually manage in terms of latency and compatibility in the real world isn't easy at the moment.

tlw
Thanks. Can I assume this is using one of Focusrite's recommended PCIe cards?

I have a Saffire pro 40 with recommended chipset built into my motherboard.. Cheers..