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Romtec Trios Hard Drive Selector


Date
: 08/7/01 – 12:10:48 PM

Author
:

Category
: Misc

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Romtec USA
Price: $79.95

Introduction

The moment I got the Trios unit at the test bunker, I knew my life was about to change. Like many of you out there, I love to test new software or experiment with new operating systems. Unfortunately my need for the ‘unknown’ has brought me a lot of pain as well … I’m sure you know what I am talking about :). The pain I am refering to is not the same pain as when your cat hits you on the back of your head with a baseball bat, but the pain you feel when your new OS has just wiped out your primary OS and your prescious mp3 collection! Believe it or not, back in the days a similar incident took place at my casa when I decided to try the lastest Linux Redhat release. One wrong keystroke and bye bye data …

Another possible hazard are the people that live with you. If you have a little sister or a nosy dad who has decide they need to get computer skillz and use your superfast rig for it, you just know you are screwed! How many of you ended up with a sweet Barbie wallpaper and ditto startup sounds?

The peeps at Romtec were fully aware of these annoying problems and decided to do something about them. Their solution is called the
Trios
. In short, it is a hard drive switching device that lets you choose the hard drive you will use to work on the computer. This enables you to install Windows and all your other important stuff on one drive, and experiment with other OS’ on the other drives without endangering your data. For the family people out there, you can give each user its own hard drive, so if he/she screws up, the only one who will feel the pain is the one who screwed up in the first place. Sounds good huh? Let’s take a closer look at what could be the revelation of the year: the Romtec Trios RX-910T6.

Page 2 : Specifications

The Specifications

- Uses a 5 1/4′ (cd-rom) slot
- Works on both Mac and Windows platforms (IDE)
- Supports up to three IDE hard drives
- Supports UDMA33/66/100
- Works with Windows 9x/2000/XP, Linux, DOS, BeOS, …
- No drivers are needed
- Comes with all the necessary cables and screws

There is not much to say about the Trios … It is a pretty simple and plain device which is about the size of a cd-rom player, and it installs in the same location as a cd-rom drive too. The Trios will work with all IDE hard drives out there (5400rpm, 7200rpm) and it also supports UDMA33/66/100 which means all the latest hard drives are supported.

Romtec includes 4 single device IDE cables: one for each hard drive and then one to connect the Trios to the motherboard. Of course you can also use the device with only two hard drives …

Because the Trios is not software based, it will work with any operating system our there, because to the OS it will seem as the hard drive is connected to the motherboard directly. This also means that no drivers what so ever are needed to hook this baby up.

Page 3 : Installing & Testing

Installing & Testing

The Trios is one of the most idiot proof devices out there … I reckon even your 5-year old son could install it! After I took the unit out of the box and the plastic wrap, I hooked up my hard drives to it. After that, I simply connected it to the motherboard. Done!

To power the unit and the hard drives, Romtec includes special powercables that are plugged into the back of the Trios. This means you will only need one molex connector to power all three hard drives because they include a sweet power splitter too.

The only thing left to do is screw the unit in place in one of my free cd-rom slots and the installation is over. Easy isn’t it?

Now that the hard installation part is over, I can finally continue with the testing part. I connected two Western Digital 20GB 7200rpm UDMA100 drives to the Trios, so I could install Windows ME on one drive and Windows 2000 on the other. Before powering the computer, you just press the button of the hard drive you wish to use. After you pushed the desired button, boot the computer and from this moment on the installation will happen just like you do when you install Windows on a normal computer without the Trios. The only thing you have to do is set all the hard drives in master mode and set the BIOS detection to AUTO.

After I installed Windows 2000 on the first hard drive, I powered down the computer and pressed button #2. Now I could install Windows ME on the second drive. After the installation was complete, I was the happy owner of an easy to use dual boot system.

Now for all of you who have little kiddies running around the casa, don’t fear the Trios! You can NOT press the buttons while using the computer, so there is no chance of switching hard drive in the middle of an unsaved 15 pages report.

I am also very pleased to see that the Trios does not have a negative effect on the hard drive response time or throughput speeds.

Page 4 : Conclusion

Conclusion

So are there no bad things to say about the Trios? Not really … besides the pretty ‘hippy’ colors which might look a bit awkard if combined with a sweet case like the Lian Li PC70. The price is a bit on the high side as well, and I think the Trios would be even more attractive if the Romtec sales people could get the unit to the users for something more like $60.

After all, I have to conclude that the Romtec Trios is a very handy device that will make life much easier for many many people. The unit proves to be a good value for die hard users who want to experiment 24/7, but also for the family users who have to share their computer with the rest of the peeps living in the casa (I feel your pain ;)).

Good

- Easy to use
- Many applications
- Compatible with any IDE hard drive
- Works on Mac and Windows computers
- Works with any OS and without drivers

Bad

- A bit expensive
- Not my kind of color combo

Update:

Overclockers Online and Romtec are offering you a nice discount when you order yourself one of these devices! When you fill out the order form, please write ‘Overclockers Online’ in the company or fax number field. This will give you a $15 discount + free shipping in the US and Canada! Other destinations will still get the $15 pricecut but wull have to pay for shipping. Go here to order your unit today!