Customer Reviews

HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 4-Channel PCI-Express x4 SATA 3Gb/s RAID Controller

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I purchased two 4-port eSATA cards for my Mac Pro so that I could compare their performance and user interfaces. One is the RocketRAID 2314 and the other is the DAT Optic (http://www.datoptic.com/cgi-bin/web.cgi?product=eSATA_PCIe8&detail=yes). The appeal of the DAT Optic is the use of Silicon Image's SteelVine 3124 processor.

I tested each card with the Icy Dock 4-bay port-multiplication enclosure with four 1.5 TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives.

In RAID 0 and Pass Thru modes, both cards offer similar performance, but in RAID 5 the RocketRAID wins hands down. Using the AJA KONA System Test program ([...]), the DAT Optic card produced a despicable 6 MB/s write and 8.5 MB/s read. At first I thought the card was still building the RAID5 array, but that was not the case. The array was in Online (not Reduced) mode following a successful (and time-consuming) build process. The RocketRAID, on the other hand, produced 150+ MB/s write and 150+ MB/s read.

The RocketRAID web-based GUI is also more powerful and more user friendly than the DAT Optic's Java-based GUI provided by Silicon Image. For example, the Rocket RAID web GUI provides continuous progress indication for RAID5 builds, whereas the Silicon Image Java GUI only states that Build is in progress...and once again when Build is complete.

The RocketRAID GUI also provides S.M.A.R.T. monitoring and reports temperature and status information for each drive, but the Silicon Image GUI has no such feature.

The RocketRAID GUI also allows you to choose Automatic Rebuild or Manual Rebuild, sends email messages for alerts, spins down the disks after a specified period of inactivity, etc.

As for a previous poster's comments about forgotten passwords, that is really a non-issue. The instruction manual even provides a procedure for resetting the password. In the worst case, just uninstall the driver using the uninstall script provided on the CD, and reinstall.

My only gripe with this card is that, unlike the DAT Optic, it fails to mount a CD or DVD that I insert into my Buffalo Technology 8x External Blu-Ray burner (model 816SU2). I've contacted Highpoint Tech Support and may revise this review pending a successful resolution.

** Update 3/25/09 **

After a discussion with Highpoint Tech Support, my fear was confirmed: The RocketRAID works only with hard drives. It will not mount other types of eSATA peripherals such as an external Blu Ray burner.

I've been using this card for over a year now and it's been solid. I have the card paired with a EnhanceBox E8, which is an 8-bay esata port multiplier enclosure. Most of the video I do is in 1080p and I never experience any hic-ups. If your are looking for an alternative to some of the more costly HD editing setups, I highly recommend this system. I now have three of these setups.

This product was purchased to replace the very poor controller board that comes with the Sans Digital T8R external drive system. The original controller is junk. Even Sans Digital agreed with me on that. They reccommended the Highpoint 2314 as a replacement.

The 2314 performs very well controlling a Raid 10 Array with 8 1.5TB Seagate Drives. This gives me 6 TB of storage. It has enough e-sata ports to control another raid array which I am building.

The performance is extremely good over a gigbyte network. The array seems to be faster than a dedicated Raid 5 system that is on line.

The card has audible warning if a drive fails. Put in a good drive and will rebuild the drive.

The documentation is extremely poor. Unless you have Raid experience, the instruction book is useless.
I haven't seen such poor documentation in a long time. It was written by an amateur and never updated.

This board is not cheap but its cheaper than the LSI Logic Raid boards I have been using.

Overall, I'm pleased with the performance of the 2314.

Rocket Raid for a MacPro Tower. Downloaded latest raid software, driver, firmware could not be located for Mac. Loaded driver and raid software-crashed computer. Contacted support-no solution. Removed driver and raid software & cleaned up machine with TechTool. Reloaded latest software and driver--crashed machine on startup twice, then started ok. tried a restart, crashed machine on shutdown.

I returned the product--standing policy, if a new product can't provide up-to-date software for Mac OS it goes back.

Went in easily. Easy to install drivers though raid configuration can be a little confusing for novice.

DON'T BUY IT! My card never worked and getting customer service was a NIGHTMARE! When I called in March of 2010, the recording on the company answering machine says they won't be in the office from December XX, 2008 through January XX, 2009! That should give you some idea of how responsive they are...

I bought the card for my new Mac Pro and wanted to use it to manage four matched, external 1 TB drives on a RAID using the eSATA connection. Should have been a no brainer but no...

The card never worked. I spend hours and hours chasing down solutions, leaving messages for tech support, never getting a call back and when after MONTHS I finally got somebody on the phone who seemed to know what they were talking about they told me the card was defective and I needed an RMA to return it.

Back to ground zero with this company...

I've had to chase down every step to process an RMA and was told this is a process that can take weeks.

What BS! Save your money. Save your time. Stay away from this company!

I'll make it brief - I was looking for a replacement for my two Sonnet E2p cards since I upgraded to a 64-bit version of Snow Leopard and the Sonnet E2Ps are not supported in that configuration. A chat with my local MAC guru + a google search later I decided to try this card. It was priced lower than the Sonnet E4P and was in stock at my local FRYS. I got it home happily, plugged it into my MAC Pro and connected the external case I had where I had 8 drivers softraided via OSX 10.5.8 into 2 RAID0 disks.

The OS booted but No Drives Mounted.

I ran disk utility and saw that even though the card and the drives were recognized the RAIDs appeared to be bad.
I knew this to be false so I booted back into 10.5.8 (from 10.6.2) and copied all data to single drives, then rebooted in 10.6.2, deleted the old raids, created new ones.

Immediately after the raid was created the system went into kernel panic and not matter how many times I rebooted the system kept kernel panicking either immediately or a short time after the boot.

For a card that is "natively supported by OS 10.6.2" this really sucks.
I am returning it tonight and getting the E4P - it may cost more but I hear it actually works (what a concept.)

BTW the support was horrible as well - I tried contacting them and they kept telling me that the card works natively in OS X 10.6.2 because it shows up in the system profiler. Really? is that the only test these guys go through to make sure that their hardware works? Wow!

This company is unable to support their products.
If you need support forget it.

I've been dealing with them for over a year (if you can call a one way conversation "dealing with").

Web support is a laugh.
Phone support is non-existent.

Basically if you need help you will not get any.

The item was as specified and in perfect condition. I had to exchange it because I ordered the wrong size for my computer and the seller was MOST amenable to helping me get the right product, accepted the return and helped with determining what I really needed. Thanks to DatOptic for being so wonderful to work with. I will do business with you again and again.

I don't write reviews often, but this product and more importantly the company, Highpoint, needs to be written about. I had a number of issues with Rocketraid 2314 controller card to the point that I can't rebuild my RAID 5 system that carries a lot of my work. The documentation they provide is scant to say the least. I tried emailing their tech support and calling the company with no success of reaching anyone. I tried to signup for their online support and received an email to activate my sign in, but it didn't work. I tried this several times and finally gave up. I was able to backup most of my work (about 8 gbs) and will dump this product and buy another one.