Kingwin Serial SATA HDD Mobile Rack

A “cool” mobile rack – Joe

SUMMARY: Simple, effective, removable SATA mobile hard drive rack.

The good guys at Kingwin sent us a sample of their Kingwin Serial SATA HDD Mobile Rack KF-91 to check out.

Key Features:

• For standard 5.25″ drive bays
• Ball bearing 40 mm fan
• For standard 1″ height, 3.5″ SATA hard drives
• Push-pull handle design
• Dust shutter
• Direct SATA to SATA bridge connection for fastest performance
• LED indicators for power & fan status
• Shock absorber system
• Aluminum material and ABS plastic
• Metal power keylock

The hard drive pulls out by lifting the handle and pulling the drive carrier out of its tray:

The rear of the tray shows the 40 mm cooling fan – it pulls cooling air through the carrier’s front and over the drive:

Looking at the back inside

shows the connector to the hard drive. This side shot

shows the lock assembly – the drive will not run until it’s locked into place; there are two keys shipped with the drive. The carrier is simplicity personified:

No back – basically a three sided box. There are rubber strips so that the bottom for “shock mounting”. Mounting is a snap – slip the drive in the carrier (a snug fit), screw it in place

and insert the carrier into the tray:

The back of the SATA drive mounts with the tray. Power the tray with a standard hard drive plug, attach the SATA cable and you’re set to go.

I tested the KF-91 to see how well the fan cooled the drive. I placed a thermocouple on top of the drive’s spindle to measure its temp, and measured ambient temps as well. The results:

The fan does a nice job, dropping drive temps by 4ºC. Cool air is drawn from the front of the drive and exhausted through the back, into the case.

Kingwin’s Serial Mobile Rack KF-91 is a handy unit for those looking for SATA drive mobility. I also can see using a product such as this as a security device – lock the drive up when not needed – or a handy way to isolate the internet from a critical work drive (two carriers and one sleeve – total physical separation).

Thanks again to Kingwin for sending this our way.

Email Joe