RocketRAID experiences

[AGTDenton]

My last experience of Highpoint was probably a decade ago with a simple SATA non raid card. It was terrible to say the least and since then have never considered them, the Marvel chipsets have also put me off.
I'm prepared to allow a decade of passing to consider them for a RocketRAID card.

The model that has caught my eye is the RR2720SGL which has very positive reviews especially on performance with SSD's, but I've bought items being convinced by technical reviews before to be utterly dissappointed.
All the decent reviews I've found so far do not statistically compare the RocketRAID with anything else, so wondered what experiences people have had either on this card or RocketRAID's in general.

I was originally going to get the same LSi which I have in my backup machine, but for some reason there is little stock around at the moment on the model I want. Also they are more expensive so I'd rather spend the money on better SSD's.

Cheers!

[Funkstar]

I can't give any direct experiences. However, Marvell controller chips are used in many NAS boxes and they perform well. The Thecus boxes I had used Marvell chips and those boxes were highly regarded at the time. It might be worth looking into the currect crop of top NAS boxes to see what they use.

[ehhhhhhh]

I'm using a Highpoint rocket raid 2720SGL. I haven't had any problems so far (around 2 years of 24/7 use as of now - torrentbox and file storage).

The only thing I did not like is that they do not include cables with the card and those can be very expensive. At the time I couldn't find a cable below £35. (the card takes 2 of these cables max)

hope it helps

edit: I'm using it with HDDs though, so I cannot comment on SSD compatibility.

[AGTDenton]

Marvell controller chips are used in many NAS boxes and they perform well. The Thecus boxes I had used Marvell chips and those boxes were highly regarded at the time. It might be worth looking into the currect crop of top NAS boxes to see what they use.

Thanks I'll check out a few chipset models, I've experienced regular array failures with Marvell & nVidia onboard motherboard controllers in the past when there are no issues with the disks, so I've refrained from using them and relied on Acronis to do the backup jobs instead. A disk failure of the OS guarentees downtime in that scenario which I want to avoid.
At work we've always had LSi's and they seem tough cookies, not had any array or card failures, they've required bugger all maintenance which is what we like. For this reason I chose LSi in my own backup machine.

I'm using a Highpoint rocket raid 2720SGL. I haven't had any problems so far (around 2 years of 24/7 use as of now - torrentbox and file storage).

The only thing I did not like is that they do not include cables with the card and those can be very expensive. At the time I couldn't find a cable below £35. (the card takes 2 of these cables max)

hope it helps

edit: I'm using it with HDDs though, so I cannot comment on SSD compatibility.

Thank you - yeah I think its going to cost £20ish for 2 cables. Oddly cant seem to get Highpoints own cables in the UK so I'll have to get LSi's.

This review seems to make them shine on SSD's but not enough RAID scenarios were tested.
http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/...ial-c400-ssds/
They also fail to mention firmware used. A review on Tomshardware 4 months earlier puts them slower than their rivals, but the review is likely to have older firmware and drivers.

I think I will give them a go. SATA 2.0 is feeling old now and I'd like to retire my SAS drive.

[AGTDenton]

The only thing I did not like is that they do not include cables with the card and those can be very expensive. At the time I couldn't find a cable below £35. (the card takes 2 of these cables max)

hope it helps

edit: I'm using it with HDDs though, so I cannot comment on SSD compatibility.

Just wondered what brand of cables you purchased. I had to go with 3Wire/LSI but I cannot get the controller to detect any disk either SSD or HDD. Have updated the controller's BIOS to 1.5, so I can communicate with the card no problem. I suspect the cables are incompatible for some reason, though they plug in fine - I'll do a bit more digging.

[AGTDenton]

Think I have sussed the problem.
It would appear I've got my reverse and forward the wrong way round so will need to get replacement cables.

[ehhhhhhh]

Just wondered what brand of cables you purchased.

I'm not sure of the brand unfortunately, I have bought it a long time ago. I'll take the pc apart in the coming days so will be able to check it then, it has quite a lot of dust built up inside :S

[AGTDenton]

Thanks, I must admit it is very confusing trying to get the correct cable in the UK, seems a lot easier buying the Mini-SAS 8087 cables in the States, far more choice and often clearly stated which one you need, but I'm not going to pay the £55 P&P fee. :S

EDIT: Think I have finally found what I need from Scan. I've also spotted my other mistake, the picture makes it look like 2 connectors instead of 4 so overlooked it originally.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3ware...breakout-cable
EDIT2: Just noticed that the above cable is not listed in the HDD Controller Accessories section which is probably another reason that I missed it

[AGTDenton]

All working now thanks ehhhhhhh - no problems so far

[AGTDenton]

sorry double post - please delete...