Review on 🌟 StarTech.com Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Expansion Chassis with DisplayPort and External PCIe x16 Slot for Thunderbolt 3 Devices (TB31PCIEX16) by Brian Piecuch

I had high hopes for this extension. My use case is simple: I want to enable Firewire on a new Windows 10 Pro x64 laptop with USB-C and USB 2.0. The main problem is that no laptop has a usable Firewire-capable hardware interface anymore. It used to be possible to enable Firewire via a PCI Express card and they went the dodo route too. Allen & Heath ZEDR16 mixer for Firewire only. Very good, very expensive, and I can't use it anymore because Firewire compatibility seems to be isolated only from desktop PCIe expansion. I bought a package from StarTech. The TB3 case was "assumed" to be USB-C compatible (which I have). I installed the device correctly and it was recognized in Windows 10 Pro x64 and immediately gave me a warning message saying "Limited functionality may occur due to compatibility issues". After further research I found the following (via Microsoft): A Thunderbolt host can recognize and use a USB-C device, but a USB-C host cannot use a Thunderbolt 3 device. I have confirmed to StarTech that they don't have cases that can plug a PCIe16 card into the USB-C host. I asked about PCI Express USB adapters - no. I asked about a PCIe case for USB 2.0 - no. I have a really hard time believing that. So now I have a doorstop for $350. Seems StarTech should have mentioned this limitation FIRST OF ALL. THING in the product description. Designed for Apple Mac users who want to expand their systems with a PCIe16 card slot. variations, it is impossible to know what works and what is compatible with each other (for the average layperson). Is it M.1, M.2, USB-C, USB 3, USB 3.1 or Thunderbolt 1/2/3?