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• Even if more and more motherboards now offer integrated Serial ATA controllers with two or four ports, plug-in cards for upgrading are still important, whether merely for operating a brand-new hard drive on an old computer or for expanding the latest computer with additional ports. Most models available can now not only run individual hard drives but also generate RAID arrays according to RAID 0 (striping), RAID 1 (mirroring) or RAID 0+1. RAID 5 is also sometimes offered, but because of the resulting high processor load this should only be considered in rare cases. HighPoint Rocket 1540, RocketRAID 1540 HighPoint is among the early starters in Serial ATA. Technologically speaking, the Rocket 1520 and 1540 models are the simplest ones: 32 bit PCI with 33 MHz. The photo shows the RocketRAID 1540, which supports PCI 2.2 with 66 MHz. The adapter can handle the simple RAID modes of 0, 1 and 0+1 as well as JBOD. RocketRAID 1640 and 1820 are variants that also support RAID 5 in software - the 1820 offers eight ports for it and a PCI-X interface with 64 bits and 133 MHz maximum.

• The Highpoint Rocket Raid 404 was judged to be the fastest IDE RAID controller in the group test by a very close margin. The performance in striping mode is a particular strong point for this controller. A total of eight drives can be connected to the four channels in RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, and as a JBOD. The lack of buffer memory and external interface is disappointing. A warranty period of only two years does not gain this card many points; neither does the non-existent exchange service and the exclusively English-speaking telephone hotline and website. The Ultra-DMA/ 133 controller is suitable for applications such as audio and video processing, which require a high level of performance and a lot of disk space. With a good overall performance, the Rocket Raid 404 takes third place. RAID management software from Highpoint.

• The product name says it all: the Rocket Raid 133 from Highpoint is fitted with a fast Ultra-DMA/ 133 chip. The controller has two channels for connecting up to four hard disks. The card was one of the fastest RAID-0 and RAID-1 controllers in the test. There were no weaknesses in any of the benchmark disciplines. Features and service were judged to be only adequate. The controller has a flash-bios, but no external interface. If a user should experience problems with the Highpoint Rocket Raid 133, he or she can turn either to the English language website, or to an American telephone hotline. The two-year warranty is the shortest of any of the products in the group.