Kingwin Jet External Enclosure

Manufacturer: Kingwin Inc.
Supplied by: Kingwin Inc.
Street Price: $31

by Dean Barker (3/03/2007)

Introduction

One of the many items Kingwin is known for are their external drive enclosures.  Several models have been offered over the years bringing function and a clean look to portable mass storage.  The Kingwin Jet is offered in a sleek and stylish plastic/aluminum casing whose design seems intentionally set to blend in with any home theater PC.  Aesthetics aside, there is also a one touch back up button that allows for a user preprogrammed backup with a single touch.  With a street price of under $30, Kingwin's new portable drive enclosure offers quite a bit for its low price point.  Let's have a closer look.

Specifications

• Application: External 3.5" Drive Enclosure

• Interface: USB 2.0 / eSATA up to 3GB/sec transfer rate

• Observed Dimensions: 210 x 40 x 115mm (w/o stand)

• Construction: Plastic / Aluminum

• Cooling: Bottom mounted 80mm fan

• Power: External Power Adapter

• Hot swappable

• One touch back up with included software

• Colors: Black or Silver

What you get

Even the Kingwin package has portability in mind with a handle on the top of the box.  But that's marketing fluff, it's what's inside that counts.  Enclosed is the Kingwin Jet unit is a vertical stand, USB cable (six feet in length), an external SATA cable (38" in length), power adapter, driver mounting screws, driver/utility mini CD and an instruction booklet.

The Unit

As you can see below, our review sample is black... jet black.  It has just enough curvature at the corners and edges to give it a soft appearance without taking on too "trendy" a look.  The included vertical stand makes the unit much more practical to place out of the way requiring only a space 85mm wide.  A very efficient compact storage option to be sure.

     

Turning the Kingwin Jet around we see the exhaust vents immediately below the connection points.  From left to right with find the DC power in, one touch backup button, eSATA port and USB 2.0 port.  Having the ability to utilize external SATA allows the end user to jack transfer speeds of files up to 3GB/sec on the appropriate SATA II drive.  At each side are thumb screws whose removal allows access to the inside of the Kingwin Jet.

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