Kingwin Jet External Enclosure

With the two thumbscrews removed, the inner drive area slides out of its outer sleeve.  The aluminum casing will allow for some added cooling of an installed drive via conduction while the bottom mounted 80mm fans blows the heat out the rear of the unit.

Here's a shot of the underside of the inner sleeve.  As you can see, the cooling fan has some duct work underneath that channels the warm exhaust air out toward the rear vents. 

Installation/Operation

When it came time to install a SATA drive in the Kingwin Jet we discovered that the compact feel of the jet was more than just a passing impression.  With the drive in place, the 90 degree SATA cable's end is about as crowded as it can possibly be.  Everything worked well and we had no problems because of this or inclination of restricted airflow during testing (two weeks of being 'on' 24/7 and under use by transfer of 200GB of files multiple times daily during that period.)  The Jet's fan when under power made little to no noise and was imperceptible to my ear.

Here's a view of the unit on my desk beside a larger HTPC chassis.  This should give you some idea of the way the Kingwin Jet could blend right into any HTPC system you have laid out in a highly visible way in say a living room or den.

One touch back up.

The included CD has a software backup program on it called PC Clone.  This really brings out the utility of an external enclosure as a backup device in addition to its making large files portable.  The backup program allows for custom file transfers from your machine to the Kingwin Jet.  It also allows you to select a target and destination path so that by touching the backup button on the rear of the unit, the target you preselected is automatically backed up.  Not exactly a full system hardware backup but as far as me backing up my recorded episodes of Pinks for posterity, it does very nicely indeed.

     

What was odd about the back up program was that it would only see drives connected to my computer via a IDE or SATA connection.  Another drive I had connected up via a second USB drive enclosure was not visible to the PC Clone program.  Not a huge deal but a noteworthy one.

Conclusion

Kingwin has released some excellent units in the past but the Kingwin Jet surpasses them all in a big BIG way.  The Jet has clean lines that I think anyone would find hard to call anything other than stylish.  USB 2.0 makes the Kingwin Jet usable in any PC or Mac on the planet for true portability while the external SATA adds super speed to the equation for appropriate machines.  Silent cooling fan, easy tool free drive area access and a very compact size almost round out Kingwin's drive enclosure. 

What really puts the icing on the cake and makes the Kingwin Jet a must have piece of hardware is the one touch back up program that works wonderfully and the price.  PC Clone's included backup program is not a full system backup but for most anything but does a fantastic job.  All this for a street price of under $30 is unbeatable.  I found the unit at MWave for $29.50 as well as a few other resellers at this price point which makes it a real gem.  Kudos to Kingwin on an enclosure made exceptionally well.

Pros

• Super sleek design

• Silent operation

• Makes large data files portable

• USB 2.0 or eSATA interface

• Easy tool free access to drive area

• One touch backup program works GREAT!

• Available for under $30!!

• Worth saying again, priced under $30.

Cons

• Zero

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