Pros: I remember getting WD Raptor 10kRPM drives attached to this bad boy and letting them rip...
Good old days.

Cons: No longer available (probably a pro now )

Other Thoughts: Everything is SSD now...
Maybe next time I'll write reviews sooner... LOL

Pros: My replacement works

Cons: nothing

Other Thoughts: To make 2 work in a single computer takes some effort otherwise it hangs.

Download a BIOS.

Run the flash program and configure the BIOS.

Disable: Reallocate EBDA
Disable: INT 13 support

Pros: It works fine. Running Win 2008 with RAID 5 for over 3 years with this card. It works with 2TBx4, 3TBx4, and 4TBx4 drives.

I am buying another one and will be putting 6TBx4 drives on that one. If it doesn't work out I will let you know.

Cons: None.

Pros: works just fine no problems

Cons: nothing negative to say today

Other Thoughts: I would buy this again.

Pros: - have used these for a few years for inexpensive, basic file servers and not lost any data
- PCIe x1 means that you can utilize the x8/x16 slots on motherboard which, if you are using it for a storage server or even HTPC, You should have a few of
- Software level RAID but it's a basic HBA, not a real RAID card, so I don't have a problem with that. If you want hardware RAID, either spend 3x as much or more per card or get some old PERC5/i or PERC6/i cards but remember that the latter support only 2TB and have board incompatibility issues
- Despite the fact that x1 bandwidth is limited to far less than the sum of the 4 SATA2 ports, I have not had any issues with throughput using mechanical drives
- You can run this with a Pentium D, Athlon64 X2, or anything like that and it will be more than powerful enough, although if the intended use is an HTPC I would recommend having a dedicated GPU for video playback (you will almost certainly not be able to play 1080p video with the processor acting as the RAID controller combined with the old pathetic integrated graphics of the older processors); pretty much any card from 2009-10 or newer will give you the ability to stream multiple 1080p videos.

It does its purpose without any real problems, certainly nothing like what others have been having, and currently I have 5 of these and have used at least 25.

Cons: - Configuration, should difficulties arise, is not straightforward or what I would consider logical
- This is NOT A HARDWARE RAID CARD, IT CANNOT COMPARE TO LSI/ADAPTEC/ARECA/3WARE/ATTO/INTEL!
- I guess an extension of the above, but as it is a simple HBA, it relies on the CPU and system memory for XOR/Striping calculations, which is perfect for remote file servers or HTPC use, but it is noticeable in terms of performance and resources used, even when I have one hooked up to my 3930K @ 5Ghz with 16GB DDR3-2400 9-10-10, or (slightly less so) my dual-processor board with 2 8-core/16-thread Xeons @ 3.8Ghz w 96GB DDR3-1800 6-7-6 (this is the machine that I have most of my "real" arrays and cards running off of, including a 9286-16i, an Areca with 24-ports and 4GB cache, an Adaptec 20-port w 4GB, and an 1882ix-24i 4GB all w BBU's, SSD caching where possible same with flash based backup)
- Have not tried anything larger than 2TB drives
- RAID0 with 4x WD10EZEX is slower than what any of my other setups w the same exact drives will do, even my Rampage 4 Extreme native 3Gbps Intel ports are quitea bbit faster (this card maxes out with 3 drives in RAID0 basically)

Other Thoughts: I am big on recycling old components into new uses, and as such I have most of my storage, file, FTP, and so forth servers running on Core2Duo/Quad (an E8600, Q6600, Q6800, Q9850), Athlon64 X2's (4400+, 5600+, 6800+), Pentium D (960/920), and even a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.6Ghz my old A64 FX-51 + X2 FX-66 chips. Boards are almost all the best of what was available at the time the chips were new, including the Rampage Extreme, Asus Commando, P5D Premium/Deluxe, A8N32-SLI and two $500 boards for my FX chips, etc. All, except for the FX51 (DDR-400 Registered memory is hard to find, especially a matching set to my old Corsair XMS3500RE DDR-450 2.5-3-2 2GB kit), are running either 4GB DDR-400/450 or 8GB DDR2-800/1066/1100, or 8-16GB DDR3-1333 6-6-6 to ensure that the HBA's have plenty of memory access.

Most, tho, are only plugged in every month or so to update files, then unplugged (I cycle them), to keep power issues from killing my data. 28TB alone is simply redundant backups with another 14TB as most recent backups.

Then I have two I set up for my mother at her house, one as an HTPC (i7-2600K + 8GB DDR3-2000 7-8-7 + Nvidia 550Ti 2GB + Asus Z68 board + TV Tuner Card + LSI 9261-8i + RocketRAID 2300 + Intel Quad GbEth card + Intel X25E SLC NAND 80GB SSD for array caching + Samsung 830 128GB OS drive + Intel 330 180GB program drive + 8x WD RED 3TB in RAID5+HS for videos + 4x WD RE 2TB RAID10 for pictures and documents + LG BD-Burner and LG BD Player + HT Omega Claro Halo with Daughter board because it is much better than HDMI audio although both are connected to the SC-1522K receiver and while the HT is better for music the HDMI is the only way to fully utilize the 11.2 system I built for her or use DTS Master or the not quite as good TrueHD) and the other is a file server designed for redundancy (C2Q QX6800 + 8GB DDR2-800 4-4-4 + Asus 775 Workstation Board + Intel Quad GbEth NIC + AMD HD6790 + 2x LSI 16-port 2GB cards + 1x RR 2300 + 3 4-drive RAID10 arrays w WD RE 3TB + 8x WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB in RAID6 + 4x Seagate ES.2 2TB in RAID10 on the RR card + Intel 330 90GB SSD system drive + 3x Asus/LG Blu-ray Burners + eSATA External 5-bay enclosure w 5 WD RED 3TB RAID6 for critical files, which is kept in a fireproof safe).

Overall of the literally over 150TB of data storage (I'm in the field of Psychopharmacology and have three self-built 4P/4GPGPU systems at home for modeling and crunching, and each project can take 10TB over the months it takes even 12x 10c/20t Xeons + 8x Nvidia Tesla K20C 12GB GK110 compute cards + 4x Quaddro 12GB compute cards + 192GB DDR3-1600RE PER BOARD + 3x IODrive 2.4TB PCIe SSD across the three + 3x PCIe 3.0 x16 24-port RAID cards w 4GB DDR3-1600RE cache and NAND Cache and BBU one per system again + total of 19TB SATA3 SSD space + 60TB HDD space). Oh, and yes when I don't need them for work, I use them for Folding @ Home, and I reached 1mil points in a couple days I believe! So, I am trying to cure diseases twofol

Pros: Actually seems to support port multiplier on at least one port on the card, which seems to work decently in linux so far. Lots of configuration options with the bios utility - note that some of them can only be done with the bios flashing program. With proper configuration you can add more than one of these to a system. About as fast as onboard SATA controller, no complaints about its speed.

Of all the cards I've had to deal with in linux, these have been some of the least troublesome ones.

Cons: If you're using these in linux, you may need to add a script to your initramfs-tools local-premount that simply calls udevadm settle. I've found that Ubuntu at least doesn't like to wait for the card when using port multipliers, multiple 2300s or other controllers, and can cause hangs and other undesirable behaviour on boot. iirc, calling udevadm settle used to be the default when initializing software raid setups, but the knobs seem to have taken it out in newer versions because it makes the system boot slower. I'll take a slower boot over a software raid not assembling properly at boot.

If you add more than one of these to a system you need to flash the bios on the card or you will get an "out of memory" error. Highpoint has an FAQ about this issue. it's an easy fix and for the most part involves changing the maximum supported number of arrays to a smaller number like 2-4. If you're simply using this to add drives it's not an issue at all.

Also as far as I've figured, the activity LED connectors on this are pretty much useless on a regular desktop.

Other Thoughts: I can't say how well these perform in Windows, as I've only used them in Linux. Aside from needing to flash them when adding multiple cards they've performed flawlessly.

Also, these supposedly have a connector for drive activity, but the way it's setup is pretty much useless imho.

Pros: Works well once you get past the driver issues.

Cons: No clear instructions on how to locate the correct driver on the CD...I let windows search for it and it installed the wrong one, corrupted my SSD boot drive and I had to reinstall windows and programs to get back my system. Then I went to the website and downloaded the specific driver for Windows 7 64bit and it installed with no problem. They aren't the only company with this lazy policy of shipping all their product line's drivers on 1 CD but they could have at least named the directories on the CD in such a way to make it easy to identify the correct one. Only taking 1 egg off because I should have known better and used my technical knowledge to do it right.

Other Thoughts: Back up your data!!!

Pros: Boot screen in 10 seconds fully populated
Hot swappable
Installs on x64 bit systems
Mounting bracket fits tightly
Good customer support
Small & functions in any PCIe slot
Easy firmware flashing
Runs cool
Just won't die!

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Writing this in response to those that stated this card could not do any of the things I've listed in Pros. Bit of a RR2300 fan boy here as I've had the RR2300 for approximately 5 years on multiple systems. It's the oldest piece of hardware I own by far. I was pleased to see it's still on the market and recently purchased another for a second machine. The only change I can see is they moved two SATA ports to the side of the Card whereas originally it had all 4 on the end.

I currently have the RR2300 populated by WD 2TB Blacks. The drives have sustained read/write speeds identical to those on the mother board's controller. The card also works with 3TB drives as I found recently.

For some of you struggling, one of the most important steps in the installation of any controller card is to load drivers during a fresh Windows install. This process allows for maximum stability and fewer headaches down the road.

I contacted Highpoint support about the original RR2300 card 3 years or so out of warranty and they answered my questions quickly. In summary I would argue that when installed properly this card is durable and gives good value for the price.

Pros: computer sees the drive attach without any special software

Cons: In unraid which I brought this for it made the flashdrive keep accessing even without any load

Pros: Works. Easy Setup.

Cons: Not hardware RAID. Not Bootable. Adds a delay to computer start time.

Other Thoughts: I really wish that it had stated somewhere that this card could not be used for a boot drive connection. I would not have bought it had I known that. It also has a setup screen that must be viewed at every startup, adding time to the boot. No option to disable.