Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : HighPoint RocketRAID 3120 | Cheapest true H/W RAID | Any experiences?

[agnivo007]

Hi all,

It seems the HighPoint-RocketRAID 3120 is the cheapest 2 port hardware SATA2 RAID out there with advertised windows, linux, freebsd and mac support based on Marvell IOP and 128MB RAM. They say the drivers have been backported to centos redhat/kernels already.

Does anyone have any experiences with this card?

References :
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr3120.htm
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816115047

[(Stephen)]

if it says highpoint avoid it

[scooby2]

I would concur. It is not worth skimping. If you are trying to go cheap just get a good sata2 controller (assuming your onboard are not good enough) and use software raid. Linux software raid is quite robust and fast if you have any modern cpu.

[agnivo007]

Hmm...but the specs look quite OK for not so intensive RAID1 use? What's wrong with the name highpoint? Can't get it. Also, the IOP used is from Marvell; isn't it supported well by the OSs? I find it's quite common brand.

[(Stephen)]

Originally Posted by agnivo007

Hmm...but the specs look quite OK for not so intensive RAID1 use? What's wrong with the name highpoint? Can't get it. Also, the IOP used is from Marvell; isn't it supported well by the OSs? I find it's quite common brand.

get it and you will know within 4-5 hours how bad it is

Spend a bit more and get a 3ware 9650SE you wont be disappointed

[agnivo007]

Well, if you explain a bit more instead of keeping things to yourself, it'd be nice! I wanted to know about detailed experiences, not just the conclusions.

You mean this 3ware card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816116041

[(Stephen)]

Originally Posted by agnivo007

Well, if you explain a bit more instead of keeping things to yourself, it'd be nice! I wanted to know about detailed experiences, not just the conclusions.

You mean this 3ware card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816116041

well I've never had a working rocketraid card, ok? I have tried two such 'hardware raid' one for a backup server and one for personal use, both are utter garbage, do not work as advertised in any form.

[agnivo007]

Ah, thanks for the inputs.

Anyone else please?

[Spudstr]

piece of crap, avoid at all costs. Its not a true HW raid card, its a software raid card.

[peruviantalk]

Since we are here anyone want to comment on PCI-X RAID Host Card - 4 eSATA ports for RAID5 8TB storage?

[agnivo007]

Wow, I'm seeing some ridiculous stuff. Someone claiming it's not a h/w raid card inspite of having a dedicated IO processor, bios and buffer ram on card!

So it seems one should never look for other than the monopolistic adaptec, 3ware etc.

Admins, please close thread, I've learnt enough off this!

[Coolraul]

Well I will close the thread if you like but my advice is to listen to some of the posters. What they are saying is that this card is cheap for a reason. They are claiming (and having tried it I support it) that the quality of these cards is low and prone to dead on arrival, failure rate or just out and out doesn't work as advertised.

While the other cards are more expensive, they do have better quality and therefore better results overall.

Take their advice or not, your call really but you have been warned. None of us have stock in 3ware or Adaptec (at least I don't) so we are only trying to help.

The comment about it being software is that the claim (I have yet to see one work so I don't know personally) is that there is higher cpu usage with this card which suggests that they offload a lot of the processing not to the card processor but to the cpu.

The other commment about software raid in linux being as good, I personally don't agree with but many swear by it.

[appliedops]

3ware or Areca, I don't do HPT due to reliability issues.

[Spudstr]

Originally Posted by agnivo007

Wow, I'm seeing some ridiculous stuff. Someone claiming it's not a h/w raid card inspite of having a dedicated IO processor, bios and buffer ram on card!

So it seems one should never look for other than the monopolistic adaptec, 3ware etc.

Admins, please close thread, I've learnt enough off this!

The card is the equivalent of a host raid system. Not very well supported in the linux community. If you want to run windows great it works fine. But its not very good in linux. Sure it has its own onboard stuff thats great. But its no better then a host raid system that comes with a motherboard.

Adaptec makes highpoint raid cards its their dirty/lower brand card.

3ware, areca and LSI are the only dependable raid cards we would trust. You pay more for them but like all things.. you get what you pay for.

[(Stephen)]

Originally Posted by Spudstr

The card is the equivalent of a host raid system. Not very well supported in the linux community. If you want to run windows great it works fine. But its not very good in linux. Sure it has its own onboard stuff thats great. But its no better then a host raid system that comes with a motherboard.

Adaptec makes highpoint raid cards its their dirty/lower brand card.

3ware, areca and LSI are the only dependable raid cards we would trust. You pay more for them but like all things.. you get what you pay for.

I don't know about adaptec making highpoint cards, maybe they do, but I generally agree with all of this post.

You are free to think we are stupid, but when you have a dead slow, or dead raid array don't come whining here
you asked for advice and got it.

LSI cards are great, I have quite a few in production, 3ware cards are great I have a lot in production, Arcea is good as well but I don't have any in production, and I do have some supermicro made Adaptec ZCR cards that are alright but not great.