- Unit Can Be Docked or Portable
- Faster than USB 1.1 Readers
- Docking Bay Made of Plastic
- Firewire Extension Doesn't Use Motherboard Connectors
- When Docked, Unit Sticks Out Over an Inch from Bay
- PRO-Gear Flash Card Reader plus 3.5" Drive Bay Docking Station
- Support for SD, MMC, Microdrive, CF Type I and II, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MagicGate and xD
- USB 2.0 and Firewire Pass Through Connectors on Docking Bay
- USB 2.0 High-Speed Compatible
- Compatible with Windows 98 SE, 2000, ME, XP, Mac OS 9.1 or OS X
- Drive Bay Dimensions: 4.02" x 1" x 4.92" w/o Reader, 4.02" x 1" x 6.02" w/Reader
5/13/04 - With the popularity of portable devices such as digital cameras and MP3 players, the use of flash memory to transfer data has increased. Most card readers are external, but the Atech Flash PRO-Gear Duo offers the ability to be a portable and internal reader in one package.
The PRO-Gear Duo is essentially the ATech Flash PRO-Gear Solo portable reader with an included docking unit for a floppy drive bay. The docking station connects to the computer motherboard through an internal USB motherboard connector which powers the docking bay USB 2.0 connector and the added pass-through connector. The docking bay also includes a FireWire passthrough, but the cabling uses a standard FireWire connector that is problematic as most computers don't have this connector inside the computer.
Testing of the PRO-Gear was conducted using a Lexar Professional 40x Compact Flash Type I card compared to the MicroTech USB 1.1 CameraMate. Maximum transfer rates for this card are rated at 6MB/s well below the 60MB/s of USB 2.0. Transfers to the card came up at 1.37MB/s on the PRO-Gear and 700KB/s for the MicroTech. Downloads were faster at 2.6MB/s for the PRO-Gear and 1MB/s for the MicroTech.
Overall, the PRO-Gear is faster, but not near the limits of the media. One big problem is that the unit when docked portrudes an inch from the drive bay, making it hard to use in a system with a door covering the drive bays. In addition, the docking bay is made from plastic giving it a cheap feel.
