Testing (continued):

The final test was to monitor the drive's skin temperature using a thermal probe affixed to the center of the top surface while sealed inside the enclosure. With the drive active from a full test from HD Tach, the digital display from the thermal probe was monitored for the maximum sustained temperature. Here we see that the drive does get warmer than while in other configurations, but the temperature is not excessive. A cooler drive is a healthier and happier drive, so lower temperatures are always welcome.


Conclusion:

The Kingwin Z1-35EU-BK USB 2.0 and eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure is sleek and sporty, and in general the performance backs up the appearance nicely. The eSATA test results were respectable and the USB 2.0 test results were particularly strong. While typical use shows that the eSATA data transfer rates would be as good as a direct SATA connection to the hard drive, the burst rate indicated that performance was capped at 1.5 Gbps values, even while using a 3 Gbps drive.

While there were a few minor issues that many might be able to over look, one issue was not as trivial, but was hopefully an isolated incident. During eSATA benchmarking, the drive would occasionally lose connection with the host system, causing the test software to hang and for the drive to drop out of the list in Window's Explorer. I could not duplicate this in normal usage, but happening during benchmarking could imply something about heavy usage that I could not recreate under normal conditions. Losing any data from such a failure would not be acceptable, and I hope that this was not only isolated to test conditions, but also to this individual enclosure.


A search of PriceGrabber finds the Kingwin Z1 available from a few familiar online stores for under $30 (US) before tax and shipping. This is definitely a competitive price, and if the one issue with eSATA connectivity could be attributed to an isolated incident, the Z1 is worth adding to a short list of enclosures worth considering.

Pros:

» Sleek and attractive housing available in three colors
» High quality USB and eSATA cables included
» eSATA performance (other than the burst speed) was strong
» USB performance was strong

Cons:

» Connection was occasionally lost while testing in eSATA mode
» eSATA burst speed limited to SATA 1.5 Gbps performance
» No real consideration for drive cooling
» Vibration / noise dampening on stand would be nice

Special thanks to Kingwin for providing the Kingwin Z1-35EU-BK USB 2.0 and eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure to Bigbruin.com for review!