HighPoint adds RAID to 6Gbps SATA 3 controller cards

Back in November, HighPoint released the first SATA 3 6Gbps controller cards that add SATA 3 capability to existing computers. The company turned this up a notch Sunday by announcing the first SATA 3 6Gbps controller cards with built-in support for RAID configurations.

Apart from using the faster SATA 3 hard drive as a single drive, this means you now can now configure the device to offer still speedier performance or better data protection.

The RocketRAID 620 controller card.

(Credit: HightPoint)

HighPoint's two new cards are the RocketRAID 620 for internal hard drives and the RocketRAID 622 for external hard drives. They're based on the second generation of PCI-Express interfaces and support a variety of RAID setups including 0, 1, 5, and 10. The cards also support JBOD, a non-RAID method for linking multiple hard drives.

HighPoint says the new cards have features such as hot-swappability and OCE/ORLM, which allows for migrating from one RAID level to another.

Performance-wise, HighPoint says its new controller cards provide dedicated bandwidth for point-to-point connectivity and are ideal for solid-state drives as well as SATA 6Gbps-based storage devices. The new cards are also backward-compatible with SATA 3Gbps and 1.5Gbps interfaces

With more SATA 3 hard drives coming out this year, these new controller cards are an economical way to up your computing performance without having to change the computer's motherboard--or get a new computer altogether.

The RocketRAID 620 and RocketRAID 622 controller cards will be available in a few days and will cost $80 and $90, respectively.