HighPoint RocketRAID 2310 4-Channel PCI-Express x4 SATA 3Gb/s RAID Controller

The card failed to recognize the RAID array. I spent 10-12 hours scouring the internet
for answers. I found a lot of other issue people were having. At the time this card
was ordered it was shown a Mac supported card for a PCIe slot Mac tower.
Then in just a couple of weeks the card disappeared from HighPoint's Mac website.
Also the downloads for newer drivers also were gone. After another 3 weeks of
a futile attempt at calling and emailing HighPoint support with no response
Amazon stepped up to the plate and let me return it.

I would tell anybody buying a HighPoint product to be very careful as the support
from the maker is apparently non-existent.

The required rr2310_00 module is not included in the default Debian/etch kernel so I skipped the packages and compiled my own module from the download location on Highpoint's website. It was uneventful and seems to work great:

(4x1T drives connected in a RAID5 array managed by the Highpoint)

[ 2.492019] rr2310_00:[0 0] Start channel soft reset.
[ 2.492066] rr2310_00:[0 1] Start channel soft reset.
[ 2.492105] rr2310_00:[0 2] Start channel soft reset.
[ 2.492144] rr2310_00:[0 3] Start channel soft reset.
[ 2.804001] rr2310_00:channel [0,0] started successfully
[ 2.804001] rr2310_00:channel [0,1] started successfully
[ 2.804001] rr2310_00:channel [0,2] started successfully
[ 2.804001] rr2310_00:channel [0,3] started successfully
[ 3.220138] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16).
[ 3.222419] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 5860098048 512-byte hardware sectors...Read more

Before you buy this, know what you're getting into. This is not a "hardware" raid card - there is no built in CPU like other high end (and much more expensive) RAID cards, so you're not going to set any performance records.

That said, my only goal was to build a RAID 5 array for fault tolerance of a single drive failure. I built 4 drive arrays in Windows Vista x64, SuSE, CentOS, and Ubuntu without issues - though in each case I had to install or compile the driver. (Honestly, if you're looking into a RAID array, you should know how to do this). All the documents and files are on High-Point's website, though that's a little lacking.

This model also uses a PCI-Express slot, make sure you have one free and that it's not blocked by an oversized video card before purchasing!

So why only 4 stars? Just because it's still pricey for the features (built in motherboards can almost do the same thing now), but at least you can take it with you when you...Read more