The Kingwin brand name represents a wide variety of computer components including CPU coolers, power supplies, and a large assortment of drive enclosures. While people may be familiar with their external drive enclosures, like the popular Z1 Series, they also offer internal racks for SATA and IDE drives.


This review is going to take a look at the Kingwin KF-4000-BK, shown in the promotional image above. This hot swap SATA enclosure supports up to four drives in the space of just three drive bays. Enclosures like this are not only useful in servers, but as the storage needs of home users increase, they provide a convenient way to keep up and up-to-date.

Before taking a look at the KF-4000-BK 4-Bay Hot Swap SATA Drive Rack provided for review, let's take a look at some published data taken from the Kingwin website...

Features:

» Model: KF-4000-BK.
» 3.5" Internal hot swap rack raid-4 bay.
» No inner tray required.
» Space for 4 H.D.D. w/ 3 bay slots.
» Easy transport and secure valuable data.
» Easy open latch door.
» For standard 1" height, 3.5" SATA H.D.D.
» LED indicator.
» Two rear cooling fans.
» Patent NSS (Non-Scratch SATA connector).
» 50,000 times insertion rate.
» Supports hot swap.
» Supports SATA II (3.0 Gb/s).
» Tool-less design for H.D.D. installation.
» Tray-less design.
» Driver-free support.

Specifications:

» Suitable hard disk type: 1.0" or 1.6" height, and 3.5" H.D.D.
» Interface: Serial ATA
» Fan: 2 x rear fan, 40 x 40 x 10 mm ball bearing
» Color: Black
» LED display: Yes
» Connector: NSS (Non-Scratch SATA)
» Tray material: Aluminum / Plastic
» Dimensions: 7 1/2"(190 mm)L x 5 3/4"(146 mm)W x 5"(126 mm)H
» Weight: 3.5 lbs (1588 g) / unit

The list of features and specifications provide a good deal of information on the KF-4000-BK, but from my experience with other mobile racks, one thing catches my eye right away. You do not need to install each drive into a tray before installation, making installation quicker and easier.