Introduction

While motherboards are coming out with built in RAID functions these days, either by additional PCIe based RAID controllers or via the Southbridge chip, RAID has become a common function. HighPoint has been the biggest player when it comes to onboard RAID on motherboards; in fact, HighPoints HPT360 chipset was the first IDE controller chipset to be hacked with RAID functions. Today HighPoint has some of the most impressive RAID controllers aimed at end users right through to enterprise server requirements.

With the introduction of PCI Express, mass storage controllers on the desktop PC have hit new heights; the PCI bus was simply too limiting to handle RAID arrays with more than two drives, but PCI Express allows for increased bandwidth as it scales upwards, giving the controller as much bandwidth as it can handle, providing it's built for the task.

Today we have HighPoints RocketRAID 3120 Hardware IOP 2-port RAID controller card for testing.