The Package

First off we start with the package and contents that the controller comes with. HighPoint has gone with its simple white box with blue and red writing. On the front there is a colour photo of the controller itself along with the company logo, some marketing material and a brief run down on the features.

On the back of the package we have a full run down on the features and specs of the controller card. In fact, it's the exact same list that HighPoint has on its website, so you won't get any extra information from the site over what's on the back of the box; very helpful in making your choice at the store.

Inside the box HighPoint supply you with two Serial ATA data cables, each measuring one meter in length. These cables do not have any locking mechanisms on them to prevent them from coming out of the drive or board data ports. The low profile bracket is used for cases like 1U style which don't support full height controllers.

The Controller

Now we get onto the controller. The PCB in an uneventful green colour; the physical design uses a PCI Express x1 connection for its interface with the PC. On the front of the card the RAID chip, memory and BIOS chip are positioned. On the back of the card we have a simple HighPoint 601 hot swap chip that HighPoint uses for the GUI to communicate with.

The RocketRAID 3120 uses a Marvell 88F5182 controller chip. This chip supports two SATA-II ports which have hardware IOP to better handle the data throughput rather than putting any extra stress on the CPU. The cache memory for the chipset comprises 128MB of DDR2-533 ECC memory chips.