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May 16

Product Spotlight – Microboards USB Tower Duplicator

Microboards USB Tower Duplicator

USB Key Tower Copier

USB Key Duplicator. 1 to 15 Slots

First Impressions

Straight away the first thing that strikes you about the Microboards USB Copier is that it’s very simple. Simple looking and simple to use. This is exactly what you want if all you have is a master USB Key and you’re just looking to make copies. Well it doesn’t really do anything other than that.

The tower is standalone and has no ability to connect to either a MAC or PC. It has a few options like verification and smart copy but other than that it’s a real, plug your keys in and hit go system. The main advantage of it being standalone is that it can be used anywhere it can get power. This is great for people needing to duplicate USB keys after a show or presentation onsite. Perhaps while delegates wait. It also means that you’re not using your PC.

There are a lot of USB Hubs out there that claim to be good for duplication. They are very low cost and look as if they will convert your one USB port on your PC to ten. Therefore giving you 10 ports to duplicate to. This is not the case. It doesn’t matter how many ports you have on your new hub. The data still goes through one port originally so your speed is the same but now divided between 10 or 20. Basically, very slow. As this is a dedicated tower it can support over 10mb/Sec to 15 ports at once.

Configurations Available

1 – 7 Slots

1 – 11 Slots

1 – 15 Slots

There are no upgrade options so I’d advise going for the 15 slot system if you think you might need to increase capacity in the near future.

The build quality is great and because it’s so simple there’s not a lot to go wrong. This means the reliability is as good as it gets. We’ve been running a few of these in house for the past year and at some points they’ve been on the go almost 24 hours a day without any issues. Occasionally you might get keys rejected but if you use good keys you’ll get good results.

This tower does have the ability to “Smart-Copy”. This means that if there’s only 100mb on your 1GB USB key it can be set to just copy the 100mb. This obviously speeds up the duplication time massively.

Duplication Method

The USB Tower copies using “bit for bit” technology. This is the only way USB Keys should be copied. The reason being is to guarantee formatting, files and any data will be the same as the master. If you copy/paste using a PC you will not be able to guarantee the keys are the same and you can also introduce file corruption without even knowing. Bit for bit duplication copies the data in blocks rather than moving files. This allows us to copy all formats of key.

Cost

£550 – £975 MSRP ex VAT.

Conclusion

Ok, it doesn’t have as many functions and options as a few other systems out there but it’s potentially a third of the cost. There is no networking, copy protection or copying multiple Images at once. However, as professional USB duplicators go this is a great, low cost solution that will just run and run. If your need is to mass duplicate from a master USB key onto blank USB Keys then you won’t find a more simple/cost effective/reliable solution.

Where can you buy one?

Handisc are a Distributor for all Microboards products and can offer some great pricing and package deals on USB Tower Duplicators. We will be able to answer any questions you have on pricing, support & availability.

Call 01264 335118 or Email info@handisc.co.uk

For the full details of the tower please follow this link Microboards USB Tower

Thank you

Alex Ashur

Handisc Support Team