Question 1

I saw in the reviews that a couple of people had sat up RAID 5 with 3TB drives successfully.

I would like to replace the 4 x 1TB drives I have had for several years in RAID 5 on a HighPoint RocketRAID 620 by putting 4 x 4TB drives on the HighPoint RocketRAID 640L also in RAID 5.

I was wondering if anyone had accomplished that on this card? If so what your setups were?

Or if it would be believed better to invest in NAS enclosures at this storage point?

Thank you.

Accepted Answer

I have the same card but utilize it differently, 2x500gb raptors, and 2x250gb sdds both in RAID 0 arrays. Raptors to scratch and SSDs to boot, both hooked in through the 640L Controller. The RocketRAID 640L card's specifications mention that it suites 3 and 4 tb drives so you should be good to go. I haven't used the card for the same 4x4tb array, but am very sure that it will work. HighPoint's and Newegg's spec pages for this card say it supports 2tb+ hd's

If your setting up a proper render farm, or something that requires that type of speed invest in NAS. If your just trying to update what you have now go for this card.

The 640L I have in my setup has been running almost round the clock for the better part of a year and a half and it was rendering at least 2/3 to 3/4 of that time. The card seems to be built for longevity and it works out of box in OSX which is why I grabbed it. For what I needed it was $100 vs $400 so I went for HighPoint.

I hope that helped.

Question 2

Is this a software or hardware RAID? I've read reviews that have stated both.

Accepted Answer

I am not sure who is leaving a review that this is a true hardware raid.  If you go to HighPoint's website, they tell you clear cut what this is.

The RocketRaid 600 series are Hardware "assisted".  You have to dig a little deeper into what that means.  You have to pony up the cash for their 3800 series controllers if you want true Hardware raid.

Let me tell you though, if you are running an in house server or in house power desktop, RocketRaid 600 series will give you more than enough performance and save you a ton of cash vs a true hardware raid.    I dont know of a true hardware raid card that is in this price range.

Hope this helps,
Dave

PS - because newegg has a ridiculous rule for not including hyper links.  Go to W W W. highpoint-techDOTCOM/USA_new/cs-product_SATA6.htm
(hopefully you can figure out how to use the link)

Question 3

Pardon my ignorance and please go easy on me - I'm confused as to "PCI-E 2.0 x4" - does this mean it plugs into the longer PCI-E slots, IE same type I'd put my PCI-E 16x video card into, but it only uses some of the pins?  Or is there such a thing as a specific x4 slot?

More specifically my ASUS ROG STRIX B350-F GAMING has some of the tiny PCI-E 1x slots which I clearly know this is NOT, and also 2 extra (after my  NVIDIA 970GTX card's taking one) PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots.  Will this work in one?

Accepted Answer

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us in regards to your question.

The card will fit in a longer PCI-E "x16" slot, only utilizing the pins that it makes contact with.  While some niche boards do include a dedicated x4 slot, general consumer boards tend to use only the x1 and x16 length slots.

Thank you, 
Newegg Support

Brand	HighPoint
Model	RocketRAID 640L
Form Factor	Low Profile

Type	SATA
Internal Connectors	4 x SATA 6.0Gb/s
Interface	PCI-Express 2.0 x4
Transfer Rate	Up to 6Gb/s
RAID	RAID 0/1/5/10 JBOD
Operating Systems Supported	Driver support for Microsoft Windows 7, 2008, Vista, and Linux distributions
Dimensions	3.12"(L) x 2.56"(W) x 0.06"(H)

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