MSI MEGA 651
MSI FX5900-VTD
RocketRAID 1520
RocketRAID 404
FIC AU13 nF2
LanParty KT400A
AS Ceramiqué
TV Wonder VE
AR Wireless HP

Testing

Before I get straight into the Benchmarks I want to expand on a point I touched upon earlier. This card is a 32bit 33MHz PCI card, and therefore its performance is going to be limited by the PCI Bus and what ever else may be trying to use the Bus at the same time. What this means is you are not going to see performance figures anywhere near their theoretical limits; you probably won't see a double increase in performance when 2 drives are connected in a stripe set for example.

The Test system will be:-

AthlonXP 2500+ @ 2.26gig (11x205) (), MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR, WindowsXP (SP1 and all other updates), 1x 40gig IBM Deskstar 60GXP, 1x 60gig IBM Deskstar 60GXP

(NB; No other cards were used in the PCI slots, so as to allow the maximum amount of bandwidth available to the 404 card.)

Test software will be:-

File copy of a 724mb Disk Image
File copy of 26 mp3's, 120mb
Timed System Bootup

For the RAID 0 array a block size of 64k was used and in all tests, the same cables and drives were used. For the single disk tests the 60gig Deskstar was used. In the case of the File copy tests, the files were copied to the drive/array and from the array copied to another location on the same partition after clearing the cache. In the case of the Timed System Bootup test, the system was powered on and the timer started as the POST for the motherboard had finished, and was stopped when the Windows login screen was presented. For all of the Timed tests, bare in mind that this was done rather unscientifically with a stopwatch, so allow plus or minus .5 seconds for human error.

Synthetic Tests

HDTach

HDTach provides insight into the read capabilities of your drives presenting the information in a nice graphical format.

From left to right, Onboard, 404 1 disk, 404 RAID 0, 404 RAID 1

Comparing the single disks, the sequential speed graph shows a lot more dips for the 404 card than the onboard IDE, as well as a lower seek time. Moving on to the RAID 0 graph we can see a very haphazard graph as is to be expected since we are accessing two disks at the same time. Seek time drops but still doesn't match that of the onboard disk, bu the read speed practically doubles any of the other 3 set ups. The RAID 1 info is very similiar to that of the onboard 1 disk. Also for the 404 card we see a high CPU utilization, but with todays 2 gig plus CPU's driving our computers it's highly unlikely that you will miss those few extra cycles.

SiSoft Sandra File System Benchmark

Sandra's File System Benchmark provides a drive index score after testing the speed across the platters of your drive. Like HD Tach it is another synthetic benchmark but it does provide a nice way of performing easy comparisons between systems.

Higher is better

The Scores here speak for themselves. Whilst the comparisons of the single disk setups show that the 404 card has a slight edge, it isn't likely to be of notice in the real world. The 404 1 disk setup performs as expected giving a Drive Index of nearly 26k. This is a little lower than average but still as expected. Once again the RAID 0 Scores double those of the 1 disk and the RAID 1 scores, but by its very nature, this is what it is supposed to do. The RAID 1 scores perform slightly better than the 1 disk systems which is surprising as generally RAID 1 will perform slightly less than or the same as a 1 disk system, since for all intents and purposes that is what you have, 1 disk.

Real World Tests

File Copy 1 - 742MB Disk Image

I imaged the second disk of Soldier Of Fortune 2, copied the image to the drive/s attached to the controller and proceeded to time how long it would take to copy that image from one location to another.

In seconds, lower is better

This kind of test really does demonstrate the speed benefits inherent in RAID 0 for writing to disk. It also indicates the lower writing speed of RAID 1 although you have to remember that RAID 1's function is not speed but redundancy.

File Copy 2 - 120MB, 26 mp3's

Copying lots of smaller files can also give as an idea of the writing capabilities when smaller files are concerned.

Once again the test shows off the speed boost afforded by the RAID 0 setup, and once again the RAID 1 performance is slower than that of the single disk.

Timed System Bootup

With a clean copy of WindowsXP installed onto the drives, I proceded to time how long it would take from the end of POST to get to the Windows Login screen. This kind of test shows us a bit of the reading capabilities.

No surprises here really. One thing to remember here in this particular test is that 9 seconds are taken up and remain constant throughout each configuration, to allow 7 seconds for the Highpoint 404 card to scan for devices, and in my case, another 2 seconds for the onboard Fastrack SATA controller to scan. It's after this point that the speed is dependant heavily on the read capabilities of the controller and its drives. Once again we can see the benefit if RAID 0 shaving 10 seconds off the time it takes a single disk to boot. If you have a lot of software to load as part of your start up routine once logged into Windows, again the RAID 0 speed will save you a few seconds. RAID 1 by its nature of a single disk performs on par with an actual single disk, and since it's reading and now writing isn't hampered to below single disk performance. But what you also have to remember here is that when it comes to booting, 7 seconds are added whilst the controller scans for devices, so in actual fact, for bootup only 3 seconds were saved in RAID 0.

Drive Failure Testing

To test drive the drive failure features of the card, I rigged up a switch to allow me to cut power to one drive, and proceeded to do just that. Sure enough under RAID 1, when I cut power to the first drive, the second drive took over, whilst the software mailed me to let me know of the failure. I was then able to swap the drive out, all without powering down the system. Scary stuff but I can't deny that it works :) .

Personal thoughts

Comparing real world everyday performance is a subjective thing and is dependant on exactly what you do with your computer. In the case of the 404 card and a single disk, comparing it to the performance of a single disk attached to the motherboard there is no noticeable difference. CPU usage is on par, with the onboard solution gaining a slight lead, but for all intents and purposes this will be transparent to you, especially in this day and age of 2gig plus computers. RAID 1 for the Highpoint RocketRAID 404 is again not much different from the single disk of a main system, but it does however feel less responsive when writing. RAID 0 on the other hand is very noticeable; Windows boots faster, and applications and games load quicker giving you a responsive feeling system. I'd also like to point out here that it was my intention before recieving the card to pit the 404 against my Onboard Fastrack controller using PATA to SATA adaptors, however this couldn't be done since the Fastrack refused to create an array using the 2 disks. I guess you could say that is 1 up for Highpoint since it never once faltered or stopped me doing anything even though the disks were of different sizes.

Final Words

The is a very capable and easy card to use, providing you with a sense of trust in the safety and care of your disks. Whilst theoretically the performance of the card is restricted by the PCI Bus, in my test setup this wasn't noticeable in real world terms. With its support for features such as Hot Spare and Hot Swap this can provide consumers with less downtime, and coupled with something like removable racks can be a very useful addition indeed. 1 disk performance from the card didn't yield any surprises and I really wasn't expecting any.

Yes, CPU usage when compared with the mainboard IDE is higher on the 404, but again it won't be noticeable in day to day performance. RAID 1 offers peace of mind, but can be noticeable in its performance by a lack of speed when writing. RAID 0 excels in performance, almost doubling the speed of your drives, which can be very handy in disk intensive applications such as video editing, as well as providing a nice boost simply opening applications. With support for RAID 5, 3 drives will give you both a speed boost and peace of mind, providing a very cost effective solution.

So question is, in this day of SATA drives is it worth buying the card? Is it better than an onboard solution? Well SATA is still in its infancy for the market place, and most reviewers agree that whilst SATA is better, it isn't necessarily faster. Couple with the fact you would have to buy SATA drives, and if your motherboard doesn't support it, a SATA RAID card as well, it makes the Highpoint RocketRAID 404 more attractive, with you being able to use your current drives and gain either peace of mind or a nice speed boost. Users who simply want to add more storage space are catered for with its JBOD mode, allowing you to add another possible 8 drives to your existing setup. Coupled with its features, the 404 would make a decent addition to your system above that of onboard solutions.

I would have liked to have seen the possibility of disabling channels manually rather than it being an automatic function of the software when a drive fails, since this could be handy with Removable HD Racks. It is in my opinion a little expensive, with some motherboards cost about the same, but that is something that will be decided more by an individuals needs.

Bare in mind the cards usage and decide for yourself if this is something for you, but the card itself is very good, performing excellently and with a decent software suite to make disk management a breeze. Thanks go for supplying us with the RocketRAID 404 card for review.

Pros
Simple but effective execution
Fast performance, more so when given the full bandwidth of the PCI Bus
Nice software management suite
Event notification of errors/problems by email
Support for RAID 5, Hot Swap and Hot Spare
Can connect a total of 8 devices

Cons
Can make for messy cabling, time to take those origami classes
7 seconds added to bootup while it scans for devices.

Bottom Line
SATA maybe making headway in the marketplace, but the 404 card can provide you with a speed boost for your current drives, peace of mind or both. And with its ability to add a total of 8 devices, can be a great way to get some extra storage into your existing setup. Better than onboard solutions? For its features and versatility, yes.

You can purchase the card from our friends at .

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