Re: Kingwin KF-83 or KF-91
- From: "Anna" <myname@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2006 09:42:02 -0500
<crazyjxx@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am planning on getting some carrages for my computer and am wondering
if anyone has used the Kingwin KF-83 and the Kingwin KF-91. I plan to
get one or the other and wonder if anone thinks that one is better than
the other, or anyone has any problems with either of them. Thanks
alot.
"Timothy Daniels" wrote:
And... Kingwin calls these "mobile racks", a.k.a. "drive caddies"
and "removeable drive trays":
http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_Cat.asp?CateID=47
It appears that these differ in the number of cooling fans and the
"anti-shock absorber" in the KF-83. I have a Kingwin mobile rack
for one of my parallel ATA hard drives, and it's well-made and works
as advertized. The single fan is built into the bottom of the tray,
and not at the front of the tray, but it works well to keep the hard
drive cool. I would say that the choice for you depends on how well
the case fan draws air into the tray since the tiny fans at the front of
the tray are really puny and just one would probably produce more
noise than cooling. As for the shock absorber, I'd say it's a gimmick
unless you're a klutz enough to toss hard drives onto the desk.
*TimDaniels*
"Anna" wrote:
crazyjxx:
As you know, those particular mobile racks are designed for SATA hard
drives. We've no experience with the KF-83 but have worked with the
KF-91. Over the past year or so as we've moved more & more to SATA
drives, we've been looking over a variety of these mobile racks. The
KF-91 is (virtually) an all-aluminum model and seems to be
well-constructed. The small fan is at the rear of the rack.
There's one major problem with the KF-91 (don't know if it applies to the
KF-83) and that is the rack's power connector is *only* the 4-pin Molex
connector. In our view it's important, even crucial, that a 15-pin SATA
power connector be available. In order for the SATA HD to be
"hot-pluggable", specifications call for it to be powered through the
15-pin connector. Now I have to say that we've experimented with
"hot-plugging" SATA HDs while powered through the Molex plug and we've
not experienced any problems either affecting the drive or involving loss
of data. But again, our understanding is that one of the requirements in
the SATA specification for the device to be hot-pluggable is that it be
powered via its 15-pin SATA power connector.
We've found another problem with this rack (at least it's a problem for
us) - it's a very tight fit to insert a HD in the removable tray (caddy).
You really have to force the drive into the tray. And, of course, once
you do, it's equally difficult to remove the drive from the tray. We had
four KF-91s and they all exhibited this tight fit. This may not be very
important to you but it is to us because in our work we're frequently
installing & removing drives in & out of their trays. For many users this
would not be terribly significant since they infrequently insert & remove
their drives in and from the removable tray.
And there's another negative for us which may not be important to you or
most other users. We want to get away from the ubiquitous keylock that's
found on virtually every mobile rack. Again, in our work, we're
frequently inserting (connecting) & removing (disconnecting) the
removable drive from the computer and we simply find it a pain to use the
keylock. So we've been looking for a model that doesn't need this feature
but has an easy, effective, and "tooless" feature to make these connects
& disconnects.
The one we've been working with is the Athena MR-125 (comes in beige & >>
black) - sells for $24.99 (incl. shipping) at Newegg - see
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817123301
It's an all-plastic model with an 80 mm (very large) fan at the bottom of
the rack. It has a simple ON-OFF button (we leave it always in the ON
position) and a lever that's simply released by a push button so that a
slight outward tug on the open lever causes the tray containing the HD to
be disconnected from the machine. A simple push of the lever inward and
the tray is reinserted and the connection made. Notice there's no keylock
mechanism and that's what we've been looking for. This mobile rack does
contain both the Molex power connector as well as the 15-pin SATA power
connector.
We've been working with a number of these racks for the past six months
or so and so far they've worked flawlessly. Their all-plastic
construction is not of particular concern for us. Over the years we've
worked with a variety of plastic mobile racks designed for PATA drives
and we've experienced few problems with them that could be traced to
their plastic construction. Heat-related problems have been virtually
non-existent in our experience whether one uses aluminum or plastic
racks.
Anna
"Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Y5KdnRnrz6dgmpXZRVn-uw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Your experiences with the Athena mobile rack are very interesting.
I can attest to the efficacy of a bottom-of-the-tray fan, and I was
disappointed to see that it isn't offered by Kingwin in their SATA models.
I called them to ask why, and I was told that it was purely a demand
issue - people don't believe a bottom-mounted fan does the job as well as
an in-line fan so they don't buy the botom fan model. Is the Athena fan
in a shell like the
Kingwin bottom fan?
Your positive experience with the plastic construction is also
interesting.
I heretofore favored all-aluminum construction, partially on the
preferences
expressed in several hardware review websites. It's good to know that
plastic can be used if done right. I suspect that "done right" implies a
design
that doesn't use a long lever to force the tray in and out of engagement
as
do most of the other designs (including Kingwin). If the plastic isn't
put
through repeated stress cycles, it probably will last as long as aluminum.
But I'd like to hear about your long-term experience with plastic, though,
as
some plastics can distort with age, especially if heat is involved.
Regarding extra trays, though, I see that Newegg also sells extra
trays -
but for $22.50 - more than the combo rack and tray! Hmmm....
Kingwin makes trays that sell for 1/2 to 2/3 the price of the combo. That
might be a factor for people who plan to use several trays with one rack.
*TimDaniels*
And Tim later adds...
Here's the Athena website: http://www.athenapower.com/
It seems they also make aluminum models and models that incorporate
LCD temperature displays. Their tray bottom-mounted "turbo fan" also
appears to be identical in design to that of Kingwin - a plus as far as I'm
concerned. The pricing, though, may be higher than that for Kingwin.
*TimDaniels*
Tim (& crazyjxx):
I've no experience (that I can recall) with the bottom-mounted fans in the
Kingwin racks so I'm unable to make any comparisons between mounting
differences between those models and the Athena MR-125. We were just struck
by the fact that the Athena's fan is huge (80 mm) for a mobile rack and I
can't recall ever working with a rack that had such a large-size fan.
Incidentally, it's relatively quiet, at least for us. Our surroundings
(unfortunately) are considerably noisy, so extraneous noise from a
computer's fan usually doesn't bother us.
With respect to the differences between plastic & aluminum mobile racks...
As I mentioned, we've been working with mobile racks (mainly for PATA
drives, of course) over the past five years or so and have used a wide
variety of these racks. In terms of performance & reliability, we've really
never found any significant difference between the two types. By & large,
the all-plastic models seem to hold up quite well as the aluminum models. As
a matter of fact, we (and many of our customers) have been using a "generic"
type of plastic rack from CompUSA that could be purchased when on sale for
$9. I think the "regular" price was somewhere around $12. And they do the
job just fine. As I mentioned, we rarely run into heat-related problems
involving plastic mobile racks in comparison with aluminum models.
Yes, your comment re the cost of additional removable trays for the mobile
rack is certainly true. Not only for Athena, but for most mobile racks in
our experience. When one needs additional removable trays, it frequently is
more economical in the long run to purchase the mobile rack including its
removable tray rather than purchase only the tray. It's a pity an industry
standard couldn't have been implemented from the start mandating that *all*
removable trays had to be designed for interchangeability between all makes
& models of mobile racks.
You mentioned the LCD temp display on one of the Athena models. That is, as
you know, a fairly common add-on with a number of mobile racks. Frankly, we
never look for models with those devices. The limited experience we had with
them was negative in the sense that they were prone to give false readings
and frequently failed. In general, we never found them particularly useful
and of course they added to the cost of the rack.
Anna
.
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- From: crazyjxx
- Re: Kingwin KF-83 or KF-91
- From: Timothy Daniels
- Re: Kingwin KF-83 or KF-91
- From: Anna
- Re: Kingwin KF-83 or KF-91
- From: Timothy Daniels
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