Card-Reader

This card-reader is a gift. Firstly, it is truly universal, reading the popular Compact Flash (CF) and Secure Digital/MultiMedia Card (SD/MMC) formats as well as rather exotic SmartMedia (SM) and Memory Stick (MS). And there are only two slits for all this wealth!

Secondly, the reader fits fine into the overall design theme of the MEGA. Thirdly, it is a USB 2.0 compliant device, thus is quite quick with its cards.

So, the reader is a nice bonus from Microstar. It is optional, but all MEGA systems I saw so far are sold with this card reader.

The only disadvantage of having this reader is the fact that it occupies the second (and the last available) 3.5” bay, so you may forget about a second HDD or floppy drive. On the other hand, what do you need a floppy-drive for, if you have the reader?

Remote Control Unit

Yet another nice accessory. The remote control is elegant and handy both for its weight/dimensions and the number/placement of buttons. It differs for the better in this respect from the stuff coming with many TV-tuners.

The upper buttons in the remote control are for work with the TV. Unfortunately, the MEGA we got for our tests doesn’t include a TV-tuner, which is an optional component. Anyway, I guess it is convenient to manage every component of the MEGA from a single remote control unit.

One more nice thing about the MEGA is that the IR-receiver is built into the case, but doesn’t hang down on a wire like it is the case with many TV-tuners.