HighPoint RocketRAID 133

Size doesn't matter
As integrated IDE RAID has become more popular, we've seen HighPoint's chips on more and more high-performance motherboards. HighPoint uses those same chips in a number of discrete IDE RAID products, one of which is the RocketRAID 133. The RocketRAID 133 is this comparison's nod to the little guy, not because HighPoint is a small player in the IDE RAID game, but because the RocketRAID 133 itself is such a diminutive card. After seeing Adaptec's full-length 2400A, the RocketRAID 133 looks especially tiny. Check it out:

The RocketRAID 133's specs lends itself to a small PCB, especially since the chip being used is HighPoint's 372A. The 372A comes from an integrated RAID lineage where motherboard manufacturers no doubt demand as little PCB real estate as possible be dedicated to integrated peripherals like IDE RAID. The 372A was probably designed with motherboards in mind, so there's not a lot of action on RocketRAID 133's PCB at all.

RAID 5 isn't supported on the RocketRAID 133, but that's no surprise. The market hasn't been crying out for integrated IDE RAID 5 on motherboards, yet. RAID 5 is also quite a bit more complex than RAID 0, 1, or 0+1. So it lacks RAID 5, but the RocketRAID 133 is also a full $100 cheaper than the next-cheapest entry in this comparison.

HighPoint was one of the first to bring ATA/133 to motherboards via integrated IDE RAID, and the RocketRAID 133 will run your ATA/133 drives at full speed. However, the RocketRAID 133 gets only two channels of IDE love as opposed to the four channels you'll find on the other cards we're testing. You can still run four drives, but those drives will be forced to share the two available IDE channels as master/slave pairs, which could significantly curtail four-drive array performance. That's something to keep in mind as we prepare to digest a whole lot of benchmark results.

Just like the others, HighPoint bundles array management software with the RocketRAID 133. The management package doesn't have the same polished feel of Adaptec, 3ware, or Promise's software, but it does include a number of important basic monitoring features, and it will even email you if your array fails. Considering the RocketRAID 133's price tag, I didn't expect the software to have much extra functionality at all. I guess you can say I was pleasantly surprised.