Final Thoughts & Conclusion

After seeing the performance increases that the RocketRAID 3510 offers over the RocketRAID 3120, I feel that that HighPoint once again has a terrific product on their hands. The biggest selling point that the RocketRAID 3510 offers over the RocketRAID 3120 is the support for four drives, while the RR3120 only supports two. While this may be the main draw many buyers will see, it's also important to note the faster, Intel-branded RAID I/O processor. Clocked at 800MHz, the Intel IOP341 blows the competition away.

While I displayed a slight increase in performance with two drives in RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations over those of the RR3120, the real value comes from the support for RAID 5. With RAID 5, parity bits can be found on each of the drives. In this way, if a single drive is lost, the array can be rebuilt by replacing the damaged drive with a new one. The advantage of RAID5 is that it offers the best of both worlds in terms of speed and data integrity. The speed of a RAID 5 array is similar to that of a RAID 0 array, but a RAID 5 array has the protection of a RAID 1 array in that it can lose up to one drive and still be rebuilt.

While not benchmarked, the RR3510 also supports RAID 6, which is similar to RAID5 in that it uses parity bits. However, RAID 6 also has special additional parity drive, allowing a RAID 6 array to lose up to two hard drives and still be repairable.

The RocketRAID 3510 is aimed for Linux-based workstations and servers, as HighPoint's GPL-Licensed driver was recently embedded within Linux Kernel 2.6.25. Using CentOS-5.2, installation in Linux is simple. Unlike in Gentoo where building a kernel module was required, the RocketRAID 3510 is supported out of the box.

Installing the WebGUI management software was simple since CentOS is an RPM-based distribution. Additionally, the WebGUI daemon is automatically set up to start at boot. The only configuration that was required was editing the configuration file. Before that starts to sound like a difficult task, the only piece of text in the configuration file is the name of the HighPoint kernel module.

With a price of $310 at many online retailers, the RocketRAID 3510's price point is hard to beat. With that price point, the card offers enterprise-class performance and protection to all users. My benchmarks have shown the performance of the card, and the support of various RAID levels by the RR3510 display the varying levels of protection the card offers. HighPoint has a fully Linux-compatible product on their hands with the RocketRAID 3510, and I hope they continue this trend with future products. Installation was simple with both the hardware and management software, making the RocketRAID 3510 a very Linux-friendly card.

HighPoint has extended a special rebate to BIOSLEVEL.com readers who purchase the RocketRAID 3510 from NewEgg.com, using the rebate code: 16-115-048

Pros

• Hardware RAID — low CPU utilization
• Driver built into Linux kernel
• WebGUI provided by HighPoint for easy configuration
• Fantastic performance in Linux
• 256MB of onboard DDR2 memory
• LED outputs for failure and usage
• Supports 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, and JBOD
• Support for Battery Backup Unit
• Use up to four cards in the same system to support arrays consisting of up to 16 drives.

Cons

• No external ports

Rating

10/10