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Product:
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Romtec RX-910T6 Trios Hard Drive Selector |
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Price:
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$80 (CAN) / $49.95 (U.S)
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Supplied By:
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Romtec
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Author:
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BigDaddy
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Date:
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August 1st, 2002
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Rating:
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Click image for larger view
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Click image for larger view
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The rear of the unit houses all of the connectors required to operate the drive. There are four IDE connectors, three
2-pin connectors and two 4-pin connectors. Three of the IDE connectors allow you to hook up the hard drives to the unit,
while the fourth connects the Trios to the motherboard IDE channel. The 4-pin connectors control power to the unit,
with one supplying the unit itself with power, and the second distributing power to the hard drives. Since all three
drives receive power from the unit, the hard drive selection process is handled by the unit’s IDE controller. One caveat
to this is that since the motherboard is unaware of the other two hard drives at power up, the idle drives will not take
advantage of any power management features you may have enabled on the board or in your OS. The 2-pin connectors are
used in the products external application, providing power to the HDD activity LED’s on the external enclosures for the
hard drives. The unit mounts in a 5 ¼ inch bay, and mounting holes on the side of the product secure it into place. I
would have preferred to have seen threaded holes at the very least, and brass fittings at best, but sadly they were
absent. This may have been an aesthetic decision for the unit’s external application, but I would have rather seen
engineering win out and have a more solid mounting hole.
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Click image for larger view
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Click image for larger view
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Installation itself is extremely straightforward. Slide the unit into a free bay, secure it with the mounting screws,
and connect the IDE and power cables. I had originally wanted to put the Trios in the top bay, since my hard drive
cooling unit’s filter is removed by sliding it upward, and the convex plate of the Trios would obstruct it. However,
the IDE cables are not quite long enough to reach the bottom hard drive in the 3 ½ inch bay, so the Trios occupies the
second bay, and I will have to move my HDD cooler to the lower bay in my setup. One major issue with this product is
cable management. The first picture shows only the cabling required for the unit and hard drives, and already you can
see there is quite a mess. I thought rounded cables might help, but the boots on the ends of them are typically bulky,
and having so many connectors in such a small space meant it was next to impossible to secure them correctly. The right
hand picture shows the unit connected, with power cables from an Enermax supply and a CDROM drive installed. Needless
to say, with standard wiring, airflow will be seriously impeded by all this cabling. Homemade rounded cables, split
loom and tie wraps will all come in handy for cleaning up this bird’s nest.
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Click image for larger view
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Click image for larger view
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If you don’t have a coloured case, the unit provides a little bit of flair to a boring beige box. One downside, however,
is that it doesn’t sit flush with the rest of the bezel, so users with doors on their front bezels will have to recess
the Trios further into the bay to allow the door to close properly. Operation is a snap, push the button for the drive
you wish to boot up with, and power up your system. Once the system is powered, the hard drive selection is locked,
regardless of any new push button selection. So, even if your curious toddler comes by and decides to give his/her
little digits a workout on your Trios, the LED will show which drive is running.
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Conclusion:
As a hardware solution, the Trios doses exactly what it is designed to do, and does it with ease. Having three hard
drives connected to a single IDE channel expands storage and OS abilities on different levels. The unit can be used
to control multiple operating systems on the same PC. Alternately, it can double as a triple workstation for individual
users or when Internet exposure risks are high, can isolate an individual drive for security reasons. Since there is
no software to install, installation and operation are a snap. However, the unit does mean having triple the amount
of cabling internally, which could hamper airflow. As well, since the two inactive drives are isolated from the
motherboard, they don’t take advantage of any power saving features, meaning that even though they aren’t in use,
they are still going through wear and tear while they spin idly. The biggest drawback, though, is the unit’s price.
For the same price, a user can purchase a mobile hard drive rack and two additional inner rack units, which perform
effectively the same job as the Trios. Where the mobile rack gains an advantage is that for the same price, users are
also getting the added benefit of hard drive cooling, and don’t have to deal with the extensive internal wiring and
the airflow issues it presents. Aside from these issues, I’m rating this product a 7.5 out of 10
and would recommend it to users looking for multiple hard drive management contained in a single enclosure. If you have
any questions regarding this review be sure to visit the Romtec
website for more information or discuss them in our forums.
NOTE: At the time of this review Romtec has released the second generation of the Trios aptly named the Trios II.
This new version fixes some of the issues noted and incorporates all of the functions we covered in this review. The
Trios II adds support for ATA 133 HD's and includes a Internet Firewall card. More information on the Trios II can be
found at http://www.romtecusa.com/trios/product/rom_t2_main.htm.
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Pros:
- Run multiple Operating Systems with ease
- Easy installation
- No software required
- Disks are hardware independent
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Cons:
- Cable management issues
- Mounting holes could use improvement
- Idle drives will still power and spin when not in use
- Not as cost effective as mobile racks
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