Over the years the good people over at Kingwin have produced some of the market's top cases, power supplies, cooling devices and many other useful items for the computer enthusiast. This spring they have been hard at work coming up with exciting new products to make our lives as PC users easier. One of their coolest new product lines is the 3.5" Internal Hot Swap Racks that allow the user to eject a hard drive on the fly through the front of the PC. With these new hot swap racks, you don't need any tools, you don't have to tear apart your case, in fact you don't even need to shut down the PC if you're running an OS that supports hot swappable hard drives. I've seen some high end computer cases with this feature, but I've been wishing for such a product to install in my Antec P180 based test machines and server. Kingwin just answered my prayers and sent over a test sample of their new KF-3000. Is this the device I've been waiting for? 

Features

• 3.5" Internal hot swap rack raid-3 bay.

• Space for 3 H.D.D. w/ 2 bay slots.

• Easy transport and secure valuable data.

• Easy open latch door.

• For standard 1" height, 3.5" SATA H.D.D.

• Safety metal key lock.

• 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.

• Key lock:
  Yes.

• 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 3 5/16"(84 mm)H.

• Weight:
  3.0 lbs (1361 g) / unit.

Packaging

     I always say the fancy picture or pretty graphics on the outside of the box is nothing more than eye candy to catch your attention at your local computer store, but how the product is packed is extremely important. Over the years I've seen delicate computer equipment pack carelessly and packages with broken or missing parts. Kingwin has taken special care to pack their KF-3000. They have sealed the product in plastic and encased it in egg carton style packing. The product arrived by UPS in flawless condition despite signs of wear on the outside of the box. 

     Above is a photo of the screws, directions and special cables. Each cable is specially designed for the KF-3000 and included a 2-pin wire for the hard drive LED feature.