HighPoint RocketRAID 640 Review

Conclusion

While the Rocket 620 is a great option for those who don’t have a SATA 6Gbps port, or who want to maximise their SATA 6Gbps performance, it does have limitations that are solved by the RocketRAID 640. Adding a second drive when using the 620 resulted in heavy bottlenecking when both drives were used simultaneously, whereas we saw great two-disk JBOD performance when using the 640.

However, the RocketRAID 640 brings its own problems, and while a two-disk JBOD setup works great thanks to the dual Marvell 9128 controllers, adding a third or fourth drive in JBOD configuration will result in very poor performance.


While the RAID setup was easy and our arrays remained stable through-out testing, we’ll once again advise users to avoid using RAID with SSDs, especially the C300 family. Not only do you lose TRIM support, gradually degrading your SSD’s performance, but you’ll have, as in this case, the added headache of a 40-second extension to your boot times.

Finally, there’s the issue of price. At over £100, the RocketRAID 640 is a seriously pricey bit of kit, especially when you can buy the Rocket 620 for as little as £29 now. As we’ve rejected RAID as a viable consumer SSD option for now, we'd instead advise you (if you have the room) to simply add another Rocket 620 to accommodate any extra SATA 6Gbps SSDs, keeping performance high and costs low.

With this in mind, we really can’t recommend the HighPoint RocketRAID 640. Its price is very high, and while it features four SATA 6Gbps ports, you’ll only be able to use two of them at full-speed simultaneously Add in the 40-second extension to boot times, regardless of whether you use the RAID function or not, and it can only really be seen as a niche product in the consumer market.

• Features
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• 6/10

• Performance
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• 8/10

• Value
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• 5/10

• Overall
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• 6/10

Score Guide