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

Your Name / Email Address
Security Check. Please enter this code Listen to code