HighPoint Launches Cost-Effective, Dual-Port USB 3.0 5Gb/s HBA

btarunr · Sep 5, 2011

HighPoint Technologies, Inc., an industry leading HBA and storage solutions manufacturer, launches the first of its Dual-Port 5Gb/s USB 3.0 HBA's, the RocketU 1022A. These low-cost, PCI-E 2.0 x1 USB 3.0 SuperSpeed HBA's are ideal upgrades for any desktop PC, and are well-suited for a variety of external storage configurations.

The Introduction of the low-cost Dual Port RocketU USB 3.0 HBA's is in keeping with Highpoint's long standing reputation as the manufacturer of choice for cost-effective, cutting-edge storage HBA's. The RocketU 1022A is a PCI-E 2.0 x1 USB 3.0 SuperSpeed HBA and delivers 5Gb/s of transfer bandwidth. The two type-A ports have been designed to deliver optimal performance for USB 3.0 hard drives and SSD's, and are suited for a wide-range of applications including portable/removable storage, storage expansion, personal media libraries, and backup solutions.

Upgrade any PC with USB 3.0 External Storage
The RocketU 1022A an ideal, low-cost upgrade for any Windows or Linux PC, and has been optimized for external SSD and hard drive configurations.

The RocketU 1022A is fully backwards compatible with every generation of external USB drives and enclosures, and can be easily installed into any free PCI-Express Gen 2.0/Gen 1.0 x1, x4, x8 or x16 slot. Driver support is readily available for all major Microsoft operating systems including 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, 2008 and Vista. The RocketU 1022A is xHCI compliant, and is natively supported by current Linux distributions.

Availability
HighPoint RocketU HBA's are available immediately, from a world-wide network of Distribution and Resellers.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

Mussels · Sep 5, 2011

what does HBA stand for?

iLLz · Sep 5, 2011

HBA stands for Host Bus Adapter.

t_ski · Sep 5, 2011

Sounds like this could definitely be a more affordable option that the four-port version they have already. That one is selling for about $90 here in the US.

Athlonite · Sep 5, 2011

and the difference between this

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Star-USB3.html#?div=Overview

and something the same with Highpoints name on it probably around $50's

AndreiD · Sep 5, 2011

Athlonite said:
and the difference between this

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Star-USB3.html#?div=Overview

and something the same with Highpoints name on it probably around $50's

Funny thing is that the MSI one seems to be a lot better built.

kajson · Sep 5, 2011

It's so cost effective we won't mention the price in our press announcement!.

I got my MSI star 3.0 PCI card last spring for about 20 euro, together with a Samsung S2 640 GB (supposedly 7200rpm) and have been loving the combination. The external drive doesnt work noticably slower then my internal harddrive, at least not writing and reading speeds.

But who knows maybe they'll sell it for under 20$.

Athlonite · Sep 5, 2011

kajson said:
But who knows maybe they'll sell it for under 20$.

Doubtful Highpoint aren't known for selling their name cheap

and you paid more than me for the MSI jobbie your 20 euro's works out to be NZD $31.67

I got mine for only $29.95

[H]@RD5TUFF · Sep 7, 2011

As long as it's sub $40 they have a winner.

newtekie1 · Sep 7, 2011

t_ski said:
Sounds like this could definitely be a more affordable option that the four-port version they have already. That one is selling for about $90 here in the US.

Yes, but there is a reason their 4-Port one is so expensive. Unlike normal 2 and 4-Port USB 3.0 cards, each port has its own USB controller. So each port has a dedicated 5.0GB/s, with the other cards the 5.0GB/s is shared between the ports, which is fine if you only ever use one device, but not so nice if you have more than one device in use at a time.

This 2-Port card isn't anything special though, just a standard 2-Port card with a single controller. So I can't see this being priced more than $30.

As for them pricing their products high just because of the name, I have to disagree. Their budget RAID cards are quit nicely price, and extremely good too.

Athlonite · Sep 7, 2011

Their budget RAID cards don't you mean their Budget Software Raid cards ie: the ones with Marvel or Silicon Image chips on em all of their SoftRaid cards are over $100NZD here I don't call that a nice price (highpoint Rocket raid 620 $107.95 vs ST-Lab A341 $44.44 )

newtekie1 · Sep 7, 2011

Athlonite said:
Their budget RAID cards don't you mean their Budget Software Raid cards ie: the ones with Marvel or Silicon Image chips on em all of their SoftRaid cards are over $100NZD here I don't call that a nice price (highpoint Rocket raid 620 $107.95 vs ST-Lab A341 $44.44 )

If you look at 4-Port RAID cards, Highpoint pretty much offers the cheapest full feature solution. There are cheaper options, but they aren't full featured or even ideal.

$120 gets you the 4-Port RocketRAID 2300 w/ RAID 0/1/5/10 + JBOD.

You can get a SYBA 4-Port card, but the two cards they offer are shit. One is an old PCI chip with a PCI to PCI-E bridge chip. The other uses a 2-Port SATA II/2 Port IDE chip, with two ATA to SATA I ports to give the 4-Ports, oh and both of these cards are limitted to the RAID configurations the offer.

Adaptect offers a 4-Port card for $100, but it uses a weaker RAID controller that doesn't offer RAID 5 or JBOD.

So yes, I call $120 for a full feature 4-port card a nice price.

laszlo · Sep 7, 2011

anyone tried maybe one of this?:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-e-PCI-E...296?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cf80b43b8

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-e-PCI-E...047?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cf7c9481f

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-port-PCI-...432?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27bbdce0e8

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Port-USB-...149?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a0f241825

are they real at those prices?

Athlonite · Sep 7, 2011

newtekie1 said:
If you look at 4-Port RAID cards, Highpoint pretty much offers the cheapest full feature solution. There are cheaper options, but they aren't full featured or even ideal.

$120 gets you the 4-Port RocketRAID 2300 w/ RAID 0/1/5/10 + JBOD.

You can get a SYBA 4-Port card, but the two cards they offer are shit. One is an old PCI chip with a PCI to PCI-E bridge chip. The other uses a 2-Port SATA II/2 Port IDE chip, with two ATA to SATA I ports to give the 4-Ports, oh and both of these cards are limitted to the RAID configurations the offer.

Adaptect offers a 4-Port card for $100, but it uses a weaker RAID controller that doesn't offer RAID 5 or JBOD.

So yes, I call $120 for a full feature 4-port card a nice price.

the Highpoint Rocket raid 2300 = $277.72 here so no I don't call that reasonable

newtekie1 · Sep 7, 2011

What I just noticed, and found rather surprising, is that this card and the 1144A got news posts but the 1144AR didn't. IMO, the 1144AR is by far the coolest of the recently released Highpoint products. Why? Because it not only offers the 4 dedicated USB 3.0 ports like the 1144A, but it also offers RAID for drives connected to those USB ports. That's right USB RAID!

Athlonite said:
the Highpoint Rocket raid 2300 = $277.72 here so no I don't call that reasonable

That's nice, and what does a comparible full features RAID card cost? To validate the reasonable claim it has to be put into context with local prices, as I have done. Simply saying it costs X amount without comparing it to the rest of the market is useless.

Even your original comparison was utter crap. You compared the Highpoint 620, which is a SATA III card w/ full RAID 0/1/5/10 + JBOD support, to a generic off brand SATA II card with only RAID 0/1... Plus everywhere that lists the ST-Lab A341 for sale only lists support for XP/2003, with no mention of Vista/7. Does it even work with modern operating systems? I tried to find out. So I went over to ST-Lab's site and started looking for the manual. After searching for the model number on their site, I got nothing. Finally I got lucky and found it in their horrible product list under "PCIe SATA II 300 2CHANNEL (2P+2P) CARD". Awesome, that makes it easy to find. :rolleyes:

The manaual does mention Vista support(no mention of 64-bit support at all though). I tried to get to the driver download page, but that section of their site seems to be down, so I don't know what drivers are avaialble. So, yeah, it might be cheaper. But not only is it a lower end product, but the support for it is utter shit as well. No wonder it is cheaper. :ohwell:

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

System Name	iLLz-CreaTionZ
Processor	Intel Core i5 6600K @ 4.5 Ghz
Motherboard	Asus Z170-A
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Memory	16GB G.SKILL TridentX DDR4 @ 3000 Mhz
Video Card(s)	eVGA GTX 960 SSC 4GB @ 1287 MHz Core (1400 MHz Boost)
Storage	Corsair Force SSD 240GB; 2 x Seagate 7200.10 320GB RAID 0; 1 x WD 1TB; External Seagate Pro 500GB
Display(s)	Samsung SyncMaster 226BW
Case	DeepCool Tesseract
Power Supply	PCP&C SilentCool 750 Quad Black
Mouse	Logitech G500
Keyboard	Razer DeathStalker
Software	Windows 10 x64 Pro

System Name	My i7 Beast
Processor	Intel Core i7 6800K
Motherboard	Asus X99-A II
Cooling	Nickel-plated EK Supremacy EVO, D5 with XSPC Bayres & BIX Quad Radiator
Memory	4 x 8GB EVGA SuperSC DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	EVGA 1080 SuperClocked
Storage	Samsung 950 Pro 256GB m.2 SSD + 480GB Sandisk storage SSD
Display(s)	Three Asus 24" VW246H LCD's
Case	Silverstone TJ07
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair AX1200
Keyboard	Corsair K95
Software	Windows 10 x64 Pro

System Name	Cumquat 2021
Processor	AMD RyZen R7 7800X3D
Motherboard	Asus Strix X670E - E Gaming WIFI
Cooling	Deep Cool LT720 + CM MasterGel Pro TP + Lian Li Uni Fan V2
Memory	32GB GSkill Trident Z5 Neo 6000
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Nitro+ OC RX6800 16GB DDR6 2270Cclk / 2010Mclk
Storage	1x Adata SX8200PRO NVMe 1TB gen3 x4 1X Samsung 980 Pro NVMe Gen 4 x4 1TB, 12TB of HDD Storage
Display(s)	AOC 24G2 IPS 144Hz FreeSync Premium 1920x1080p
Case	Lian Li O11D XL ROG edition
Audio Device(s)	RX6800 via HDMI + Pioneer VSX-531 amp Technics 100W 5.1 Speaker set
Power Supply	EVGA 1000W G5 Gold
Mouse	Logitech G502 Proteus Core Wired
Keyboard	Logitech G915 Wireless
Software	Windows 11 X64 PRO (build 23H2)
Benchmark Scores	it sucks even more less now ;)

HighPoint Launches Cost-Effective, Dual-Port USB 3.0 5Gb/s HBA

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

iLLz

t_ski

Former Staff

Athlonite

AndreiD

kajson

Athlonite

[H]@RD5TUFF

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

Athlonite

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

laszlo

Athlonite

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

Processor	AMD R5 3600
Motherboard	ASUS X370 Prime Pro
Memory	32GB (4x8GB) Crucial Ballistix DDR4 3000Mhz C15 @ 3600Mhz C16
Video Card(s)	Nvidia RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 FE
Storage	4x 1TB SSD
Display(s)	Benq XL2411Z 144Hz + Asus VS24H
Case	Corsair 270R
Audio Device(s)	Yamaha AG03 + Rode Procaster
Power Supply	Corsair AX 650W 90+ Gold
Mouse	Logitech G Pro Superlight
Keyboard	KBD67 Lite R3 (Gazzew Boba U4 + AKKO Midnight)
VR HMD	Valve Index
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64bit

System Name	"the strong silent type"
Processor	i5 3570k
Motherboard	Asus Maximus V Gene
Cooling	Thermalright Archon
Memory	G.Skill RipjawsX D3 8GB 1866-899 RipjawsX K2 GSK
Video Card(s)	XFX 6950 1GB dualfan
Storage	Crucial M4 128GB / Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1TB
Display(s)	LG W2253V
Case	CM 690 II Advanced
Power Supply	Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 600w
Software	Win 7 Ultimate 64bit

System Name	White Boy
Processor	Core i7 3770k @4.6 Ghz
Motherboard	ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe
Cooling	CORSAIR H100
Memory	CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB @ 2177
Video Card(s)	EVGA GTX 680 CLASSIEFIED @ 1250 Core
Storage	2 Samsung 830 256 GB (Raid 0) 1 Hitachi 4 TB
Display(s)	1 Dell 30U11 30"
Case	BIT FENIX Prodigy
Audio Device(s)	none
Power Supply	SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W Modular
Software	Windows Pro 7 64 bit \|\| Ubuntu 64 Bit
Benchmark Scores	2017 Unigine Heaven :: P37239 3D Mark Vantage

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	2nd AMD puppy
Processor	FX-8350 vishera
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper TX2
Memory	16 Gb DDR3:8GB Kingston HyperX Beast + 8Gb G.Skill Sniper(by courtesy of tabascosauz &TPU)
Video Card(s)	Sapphire RX 580 Nitro+;1450/2000 Mhz
Storage	SSD :840 pro 128 Gb;Iridium pro 240Gb ; HDD 2xWD-1Tb
Display(s)	Benq XL2730Z 144 Hz freesync
Case	NZXT 820 PHANTOM
Audio Device(s)	Audigy SE with Logitech Z-5500
Power Supply	Riotoro Enigma G2 850W
Mouse	Razer copperhead / Gamdias zeus (by courtesy of sneekypeet & TPU)
Keyboard	MS Sidewinder x4
Software	win10 64bit ltsc
Benchmark Scores	irrelevant for me