The card my PC came with had a connector on the board, and a plate with a piggyback MIDI (and a couple of other) connectors was available as a special order item. My problem was not wanting to "waste" another card slot. There are very few cards that can be plugged in if the plate hole isn't available.

The internal Audity2 equivalent had plenty of connectors, but also required two slots. The external one uses only one slot, and has a couple of more choices for how you can plug in (the same connections, but front and back options on a couple).

I don't recall that I looked at the Digifire, but a couple of other mid- to top-line cards did have layouts similar to my OEM card (requiring two slots, for example) that were not described in the specs. Once I was aware that newer cards might need two slots, I was usually able to tell what a given setup had, or didn't, but only by carefuly examining the pictures, and in some cases user manuals posted at the manufacturer's web pages. The "specs" were on some seller's sites, but didn't necessarily show good enough pics to let you really know what you were about to buy.

If you have the extra slot available, virtually all that I looked at included, or had available, piggyback connectors on second plates,and all the "normal" connections if you used both plate positions. A few newer PCs that I've seen actually have plate holes that don't have an adjacent connector - maybe on purpose for just such needs, or maybe just because they got a deal on the box(?).

I'd like to be able to comment on how good the Digifire is, or how it compares to the Audity2; but frankly I don't do enough audio to offer anything very pertinent.

John