Thermaltake Muse A2293

Performance:

Although the Thermaltake Muse 5.25" is compatible with IDE 3.5" hard disk drives, we went ahead and installed a Lite-On 52x CD-RW drive. Thanks to the tool-free design, the entire installation process was relatively straightforward and only took a matter of a few minutes to successfully complete. The 14 page user's manual covers the complete hardware and software (for Microsoft Windows) install process. After our CD-RW installation had wrapped up, we connected it to one of our test machines running Fedora Core 4 with 2.6.14-1.1653 kernel, it was immediately detected as an external CD burning device, and the appropriate Lite-On information was displayed inside of the hardware browser. We proceeded to run the external enclosure with our routine drive tests and everything had functioned accordingly for the Thermaltake Muse 5.25" during our read testing. During which, the data meter operated accordingly. Next, however, we moved onto our write tests and for this we attempted to burn a Linux ISO to a 52x CD-R CD. To do this we used X-CD-Roast (v0.98 alpha 5) and first had re-generated the device configuration to take use of the external writer. The Lite-On drive was detected with its 52x capabilities and 4MB FIFO buffer size, however, when it came time to burn the data to a CD we ran into problems with the enclosure. After the CD had fixated and the process began, errors had occurred when writing the tracks. Connecting the same CD-RW drive directly to the motherboard's onboard IDE channel, we had no problems burning media. Although we encountered these problems while attempting to burn data, those planning to use a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM optical drive with the enclosure should not encounter any problematic read situations under Linux with the 2.6 kernel.

Conclusion:

Thermaltake has on its hands yet another exceptionally designed drive enclosure. In fact, this is the first 5.25" enclosure we have come across that has been truly tool-free. On top of that, the aesthetics of the Muse were exceptionally well designed. Along with the aesthetics, the data transfer meter accompanied the external design of the device incredibly well. However, when it came to the Linux performance the Thermaltake Muse was a mixed bag. Our read testing with the Muse yielded perfect results but when it came to testing its write abilities with the Lite-On CD-RW we ran into conflicts when burning CDs, which is likely due to a compatibility conflict with the Cypress AT2+ controller. Thermaltake states official operating system support of Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Millennium Edition, 2000, and XP along with Macintosh OS 9.x and newer. Although this may not be the choice for Linux users seeking to use the Muse 5.25" with CD or DVD writable media, for those using CD/DVD-ROM drives or 3.5" IDE HDDs may find the Thermaltake Muse to be the prime choice for their next upgrade.