Have a spare 2.5” hard drive floating
around? I’ve got a few of them and I’ve found they make nice, large
capacity portable storage devices, but you’ll need some sort of
enclosure to make it usable really for portable storage. There are
many on the market, I’ve reviewed several of them, but the one I’ve
got today is one that I find I like quite a bit, it’s from a new
company called HornetTek, and it’s called the Travel Plus. The Travel
Plus is a nicely made enclosure, mostly metal to protect and keep
your hard drive cool, but what I like most is the built in USB cable
so I no longer have to carry a USB cable around with me to use with
the drive.
Product
Name: HornetTek Travel Plus 2.5″ SATA to USB External Enclosure
Author: Kristofer
Brozio
Sponsor: HornetTek
Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
HornetTek
Travel Plus 2.5″ SATA to USB External Enclosure
2.5” SATA to USB External
Enclosure
The Travel Plus
The Travel Plus is designed to
meet the popular 2.5” SATA HDD in today’s market. Enclosed in a
hanger retail-box, the Travel Plus is set to attract the eyes of user
at first glance. The Travel Plus incorporates top quality design in a
rigid aluminum enclosure. Slim trimming, hairline finishing makes the
Travel Plus a compact storage device that is perfect for any user.
If you are a business traveler
or a professional user on the go, you need an external storage system
that can work as hard as you do. The Travel Plus features an easy to
use, built-in USB 2.0 cable design. Integrated USB cable brings
convenience to travel without AC adapters or messy USB cables.
The Travel Plus is equipped
with USB 2.0 and supports up to 480 Mb/sec transfer speed. As with
all USB 2.0 systems the Traveler Plus is also backward compatible to
USB 1.1 speed. Hot swappable, plug and play is the key convenience
feature that sets the Traveler Plus apart from other storage device.
Features:
* Universal fitting for 2.5”
SATA HDD device
* LED indicator
* SATA I / II specification
* Complies with the USB-IF
specifications for USB 2.0, the USB Mass Storage Class, and the USB
Mass Storage Class Bulk-Only Transport.
* Operates at High (480Mbps) or
Full (12Mbps) speed.
* SATA to USB2.0, Backward
compatible to USB v1.1
* System Works with PC and MAC.
* OS Supports Win
2000/XP/Vista, and Mac OS 9.x/10.x and above.
* Power: 5V /0.5A USB to DC
cable
* FCC/CE Compliant
* RoHS certified
* Material: ABS 94V0 front and
back panel and Aluminum housing; Internal metal shielding.
Specifications:
Model: Travel-Plus
Interface/Ports: USB 2.0
(USB1.1)
Data Transfer: USB 2.0 up to
480Mbps (60MB/s) USB 1.1 up to 12Mbps (1.5MB/s)
Plug and Play: Yes
Material: Aluminum with front
and back ABS cap
HDD Support: 2.5″ SATA HDD
System Support: Supports
Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000 /XP/Vista, Linux 2.4.1.0 or above and
Macintosh OS 8.6 or higher
Size (LxWxH): 173 x 73 x 16mm
CE/FCC: CE/FCC Approved
RoHS compliancy: RoHS Approved
A
Better Look at Things:
The box for the Travel Plus is
nicely designed, it’s got pictures of the product along with specs
and features listed in several languages.
Inside we find the enclosure
packed well with sponge packing in a separate compartment wrapped in
plastic.
Included with the enclosure is a
carrying case, screws for installation (they do include 6 screws, but
only four are needed, two are spares), dual connection USB cable for
additional power if needed and a user guide.
The HornetTek Travel Plus is
nicely made, the majority of it is metal with the front and back end
caps made of plastic. We see the Hornettek logo on the top with the
identification markings on the bottom.
The front cap features a long LED
light bar to indicate power ad activity, it lights up blue.
The back end cap is where you’ll
find the USB cable, it’s a short cable that clips into the enclosure
for storage, behind it is an additional power connection as well for
an optional power adapter.
Installation,
Testing and Comparison:
To install your hard drive you
just pop off the back section with the USB cable to reveal a small
circuit board with the SATA connection on it.
The enclosure is a bi larger than
a 2.5” hard drive, but this is normal for most every other
enclosure I’ve seen, it’s pretty much the same size as the others
I’ve got on hand. I’m using one of my Seagate 160GB 2.5” SATA hard
drive with the Travel Plus.
For installation you just slide
you hard drive into the connection on the board, and secure it from
the bottom with two of the included screws.
Here is the Travel Plus inside of
the carrying case, though personally I wouldn’t use the drive for
long periods while inside of the case, it will act as insulation and
keep the heat in, but for carrying it around to keep it protected
from scratched etc it’s a nice idea.
Here it is working, you can see
the blue LED, it’s fairly bright, and I like the light bar as opposed
to a single LED, looks cool.
I’ve got several enclosures on
hand and the Travel Plus performs just like all the others, I’ve
never really ran into any performance issues with these types of
enclosures.
The only complaint I could have
about this product is that there are no tools included to help with
installation, other enclosures will include a small screwdriver to
make life a bit easier.
Summary
and Comments:
The HornetTek Travel Plus 2.5”
hard drive enclosure is an excellent product really, it’s very well
made, it includes a built in USB cable so you don’t have to worry
about carrying one, and it even includes a carrying case. The all
metal design is not only durable to help protect the drive inside,
but the metal casing also helps keep the drive cool.
The missing screwdriver might be a
problem for some as the screws are small, and not many people have
that size of screwdriver handy, but it’s not that big of a deal.
I’ll be keeping my drive in this
enclosure as I like it very much, I really like the fact that it’s
got the built in USB cable, now I don’t have to worry about carrying
one with me.
DragonSteelMods gives the
Hornettek Travel Plus a 4.5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award
as well.
Pros:
-Well made, metal enclosure
-Metal helps keep drive cool
-Offers good protection for drive
-Built in USB cable
-Easy to use
-Easy installation
-Includes case
Cons:
-No tools included
I
would like to thank HornetTek for the chance to review the Travel
Plus Enclosure and
for their support of DSM.
Available at www.goharddrive.com
review# 564