Bridging The Flash Format Gap With Multi-Format Readers/ Writers

Atech-Flash - Pro II & Pro III - Multi-Slot Card Reader

Atech has been on the radar screen at THG for some time now, due to the innovative form factor that the Atech Pro II Multi-Slot Card Reader offered. Ever since we caught a glimpse of an early prototype of the product at last year's Comdex, we liked the idea of being able to install the Pro II into any 3-1/2 bay. The option of installing the flash card reader/ writer into the case was one we had not seen previously. In an effort to reduce the amount of clutter around your desk area and to take advantage of the USB ports that are offered on many motherboards, the Pro II and the newer Pro III offer a solution that is very unique. The Pro II or Pro III can be used as an external device as well, but the internal case mounting ability is what makes this product shine.

The Pro II offers support for all of the major flash memory card formats, while the Pro III offers the addition of support for Memory Stick and a front-mounted, 4-pin 1394 FireWire port. These are the only real differences between the two units.

Once installed and connected to your USB port, the Pro II/Pro III will appear in the devices manager as separate drives per flash card slot. This arrangement makes it very handy to copy data among flash card formats, should the need arise. The Pro II/III is directly supported under Windows XP, while Windows 98, 2000, and ME require the use of a driver for full support.

Yes, the Pro II and Pro III are available in colors other than silver. Black and beige are also on Atech's menu, so it is easy to match the color and look of your case and other drive devices.

Atech is moving toward phasing out the Pro II in favor of the newer Pro III model, which should come as no surprise, since the Pro III is mostly an upgraded Pro II. The Pro III is available in a variety of faceplate colors to match your case. The faceplate on our test unit was sliver, but black and beige are also available.

The performance of the Pro II/Pro III was the same in our testing, and in line with the other USB readers/ writers. We encountered no problems with the Pro II/III in our testing and found it to be an excellent solution, and perhaps by far the most integrated solution. A new updated version of the Pro III (it may be labeled as Pro IV) is currently in development, which will offer USB 2.0 support; however, no additional release information was available from Atech, but several sources indicate that you might see this updated product before the end of the year.