KINGWIN Night Hawk 3.5″ HD Enclosure

SUMMARY: An attractive, sturdy 3.5″ Hard Drive Enclosure

The good guys at Kingwin sent us a sample of their KINGWIN Night Hawk 3.5″ HD Enclosure to check out. I tested the IDE version – there is also a SATA enclosure available.

Key Features:

• USB 2.0 IDE (SATA HD Available)
• Aluminum alloy construction
• Tool-less installation
• Plug & Play (ex Winodows 98)
• Prolific chipset
• 100~240V, 50~60Hz power adapter included
• Fan failure alarm system
• 40 mm ball bearing fan
• PC or Mac system (desktop / laptop) with available USB ports
• 210 mm x 122 mm x 39mm / 8 1/4″ x 4 3/4″ x 1 1/2″ inches

The front is very clean and on the left side is the LED for Power On and Fan Status. If the fan fails, the top half of the LED turns red. The right side is the HD adtivity LED.

The bottom shows the fan exhaust port – you must keep this unobstructed for cooling. There are two knurled screws (not shown) on the right side that you remove to take the top off.

The back shows the USB 2.0 port , power plug and On/Off switch – simple.

To remove the top, unscrew two screws on the bottom, grasp the side of the cover and pull it off. However, the problem is that the cover does not come off all that easily – I had to use a moderate degree of force to get it off. In the next picture

you see that the cover is one piece that covers the top and back – the problem is that it does not just slide smoothly off the back – you must lift the front until it clears the case and then slide it off the back. It’s a tight fit. Note the fan in the back.

The inside of the enclosure is very clean – the white pads are to hold the hard drive in place.

With the cover off, the back shows the PCB, cable connecters and power switch.

The hard drive mounts without any screws – there are two pins on each side of the case’s bottom that fit in the drive’s screw holes. I found it quite secure.

I had no space problem in mounting the drive – it’s snug and you must engage the IDE and power plug before slipping the drive into the enclosure.

Once in, there is air space around the drive for cooling:

Overall, a tight package with good protection – this is not “tinny” at all.

I tested the Night Hawk to see how well the fan cooled the drive. I placed a thermocouple on the drive’s spindle to measure its temp, and measured ambient temps as well. The results:

The fan does an OK job, keeping drive temps almost as if it were in open air. Air is exhausted through the back of the case.

I also ran a quick test on data transfer rates using an older 20G IBM Deskstar – for what it is and as a backup, the Night Hawk does OK:

KINGWIN’s Night Hawk is an attractive, sturdy 3.5″ Hard Drive Enclosure – a nice package for transporting data, etc, among different locations. If you intend to change drives often, you’ll have to put up with a moderately difficult cover changing operation, however.

Thanks again to Kingwin for sending this our way.

Email Joe