Author: Andrew Schembri Date: April 14, 2008 Manufacturer: Durapower Provider: Durapower

« Durapower CR-104 Card Reader Page 2: Installation

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The CR-104 mounts like any other 3.5” device. Just 4 screws (not included) and it’s mounted. Now comes the hard part: connections. The CR-104 uses a standardized internal USB connection with the wires in a “block” so all you have to do is plug it into the motherboard header for the main card reader. However, the two USB ports as well as the Firewire and audio connections use individual pins that must be individually connected. This is a major pain especially for the Firewire and audio connections which required me to look up the pinouts for them.


Some of you may have noticed the three audio jacks on the CR-104. This is because the CR-104 supports HD audio as well as AC’97. Note that the audio connectors are not color coded as one may expect.

One nice thing about the CR-104 is that all cards are inserted with the label up. Most media readers that I have experience with require some cards to be inserted upside down.


Testing

The CR-104 was tested with a Patriot 2GB SD card. HD Tune 2.55 and HD Tach 3.0.4.0 set for 8MB blocks were used for testing. The CR-104 was tested on the following test system:

Test System:

• AMD Athlon XP 2600+
• Abit AN-7 Nforce 2 Ultra 400 Motherboard
• 2x 256MB PC3200 Corsair Value Ram
• Hitachi 120GB IDE
• Gainward Geforce FX5600 256MB
• Toshiba DVD-ROM
• Sony CD-RW
• Sparkle 300 watt power supply

The Durapower CR-104 performs faster than the Vantec USB media reader. This is a very impressive feat.

Conclusion

Durapower presents some innovative features in the CR-104. The HD audio support as well as the firewire and USB pass-through connections are a nice refreshment to the run of the mill card readers out there. Fit and finish are excellent. However, there are some nagging issues with the CR-104 that could drive some customers away. The major concern is the connections individual rather than in a block. Additionally, the audio jacks are not color coded.

Overall though, the CR-104 is nice addition to any system.

Thanks to Durapower for sending me out the review sample.

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