Kingwin EZ-Dock HDD Docking Station

Manufacturer: Kingwin
Supplied by: Kingwin
Street Price: $25 (USD)

by Dean Barker (10/15/2008)

Introduction

External hard drive enclosures took a Darwinian step forward with the introduction of the drop in type units.  These drop in type hard drive docks have been around for a little while now and have proven to be wildly popular.  It's also nice to see some competition on the table to take on Thermaltake's BlacX.  The Tt BlacX unit has a street price of $40 whereas the Kingwin EZ-Dock that we have on the review bench today, prices out at $25.  It doesn't stop there either, the Kingwin EZ-Dock comes with a one touch backup feature that does just that with the included software.  How can Kingwin put out a similar product with backup software included for a bit over half the price?

Today we have a sample of the Kingwin EZ-Dock on deck to see if this budget priced alternative gets the job done and how well does the back up software work.  We've seen earlier versions of the PC Clone EX Lite software and come away happy so I am expecting good things here today.  Thanks go out to Kingwin for sponsoring this review on the new EZ-Dock.  Without further a do, let's get started.

Specifications

• Application: 2.5" and 3.5" SATA Hard Drives

• Dimensions: 133 x 123 x 62mm

• Construction: Plastic

• Interface: USB 2.0 and eSATA

• Plug and Play

• OS: Windows (all versions supporting USB 2.0), Mac OS 10X and above

What you get

The Kingwin EZ-Dock is a fairly straight forward package.  Aside from the unit itself you get a USB 2.0 cable measuring, a eSATA cable, a two part power adapter, a small manual in addition to a CD with the back up software and surprisingly Win98 drivers.  Now the back up software is PC Clone EX Lite.  More on that in a bit.

The Unit

Kingwin's EZ-Dock is not an especially large item.  With its base measuring 5" x 5.25", it doesn't take up a lot of desktop real estate.

Straightforward controls rest on the front edge, a data transfer indicator lamp and a power lamp are immediately to the left of the one touch back up button.  The single button for the back up really emphasizes what we found out later on with the ease of use of the back up feature and included software.

Turning things around we have our port connections.  As you saw in the specs, the Kingwin EZ-Dock can connect via USB 2.0 or external SATA which is much faster.  These two data connection ports have the DC Power in and power button next to them.

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