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March 28, 2008
External 8-Port, RAID 6, PCIe Host Adapter
A Review of the HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 Direct Connect PCIe SATA II RAID Controller
By Arthur Whalem
HighPoint Technologies Inc. is shipping the RocketRAID 3522 SATA RAID controller ($560). The dual mini-SAS interface provided by the RocketRAID 3522 supports up to eight external direct connect SATA hard drives. Several new features are provided with this new controller including RocketRAID Intelli-VRM (Virtual RAID Management), selectable RAID block sizes, RAID 3 support, upgradable firmware support via the Web GUI, NTP Server (Network Time Protocol) support, NVRAM and 32-bit EFI boot capability with Mac Pro 2006, 2007 and 2008 models.
Apple Mac Pro users can utilize Disk Utility to create RAID sets or the HighPoint web based RAID management software can be used to create RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 50 and JBOD configurations with the RocketRAID 3522 controller. When configured with two external mini-SAS to eSATA data cables (model Ext-MS-1MES $54 each), the RocketRAID 3522 can be used with direct connect enclosures like the FirmTek SeriTek/2eEN4 ($499).
Another cable option would include purchasing two mini-SAS to Infiniband Multilane screw cables (model EXT-MS-1MSB $42 each) and use them with the RocketRAID 3522 and an eight bay external SATA enclosure. Possible enclosure options that will work with Infiniband cables include the EnhanceBox E8-ML SATA Multilane 8-bay enclosure ($595) and the RAIDAGE iAge820ML2-5 eight bay SAS/SATA 3Gbps enclosure ($600) 
The purpose of this review is to determine how the HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 will perform with the Apple Mac Pro.
System Requirements
Requires an empty PCI-Express slot.
Supports Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD.
Supports up to 8 external direct connect SATA hard drives.
PCI-Express x8, compatible with x16 Interface.
SMTP support for email notification.
Dedicated ethernet connection for RocketRAID Intelli-VRM.
What's Included?
The HighPoint Technologies RocketRAID 3522 dual external mini-SAS to PCIe RAID controller includes a PCI-Express host adapter, a printed manual and a CD with software drivers. Data cables are NOT included.
InstallPCI-Express bandwidth is determined by the number of data lanes that can be supported. One lane, four lanes, eight lanes, or 16 lanes are some of the typical PCIe options available. The RocketRAID 3522 is an eight lane (8x) PCIe SATA host adapter that also functions well in a sixteen lane slot.
During this review the HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 was mounted in slot 2 of the Apple Mac Pro 2.8 GHz 2008 model. Slot 2 is a 16x PCI-Express slot designed to meet PCIe 2.0 specifications. If the RocketRAID 3522 will be installed in a Mac Pro 2006-2007 model the 8x PCI-Express slot 4 would be my choice. Users can check the speed of the PCIe bus in these older Mac Pro models by launching "Expansion Slot Utility" which can be found at Macintosh HD: System: Library: CoreServices: Expansion Slot Utility. The 2008 Mac Pro models no longer utilize this utility as the PCI-Express bandwidth of each slot is fixed.
If you install the RocketRAID 3522 in slot 4 of a Mac Pro 2006 model and launch Expansion Slot Utility you will notice that the HighPoint card is identified as "pci1103,3522".
After the RocketRAID 3522 is installed, Macintosh users will want to download the latest driver available at the HighPoint web site. Mac OS X drivers are also included on HighPoint CD. However, the latest driver will usually be found on the HighPoint web site. The RocketRAID 3522 Mac OS X driver is installed by launching the hptiop_ibm application. This process will provide the proper drivers for the Mac Pro to communicate with the RocketRAID 3522. Version 1.2.1 dated February 19, 2008 of the HighPoint Mac OS X driver was used during this AMUG review.
Once the RocketRAID 3522 driver is installed and the computer has been restarted, users can examine the Mac OS X system profiler data for the PCIe card details. As shown below, the RocketRAID 3522 shows up as "pci1103,3522" in slot 2 of a Mac Pro 2.8 GHz 2008 model.
Web Interface
To access the HighPoint web based RAID management software the user will need to navigate to http://localhost:7402/ using a web browser. The user name is RAID and the default password is hpt. Once the user is logged in, the appropriate host adapter can be selected from the HighPoint menu.
Macintosh users will want to reset the password, disable the alarm, check "Enable auto rebuild" and setup the RocketRAID 3522 network configuration. The "Enable auto rebuild" option allows Macintosh users to hot swap hard drives. The "Setting:Email" menu can be configured to send email reports to the user concerning the status of the RAID volume(s).
RocketRAID 3522 users will also appreciate the HighPoint Storage Health Inspector (SHI) window. This feature displays all hard drive temperatures, serial numbers, health, status and SMART data access in a single window. This is a very nice feature for monitoring large disk arrays.
FeaturesThe HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 utilizes a Marvell 88SX6081 eight channel Serial ATA controller in conjunction with the Intel IOP341 800MHz RAID processor with multiple ADMA engines. The Intel IOP341 processor utilizes 256MB of dedicated 533MHz DDR-II memory with ECC to provide high performance RAID 5 and RAID 6 parity calculations using advanced hardware embedded acceleration. By off loading RAID calculations from the host CPU, overall system performance can be improved. The RocketRAID 3522 high performance RAID 6 engine can concurrently compute two parity blocks with performance that is very similar to RAID 5.
The HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 supports RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 50 and JBOD configurations. The RocketRAID 3522 also supports deep sleep, bad sector repair, automatic rebuilding of a degraded RAID set, online capacity expansion, RAID level migration, variable RAID block sizes, hard disk health monitoring, supports NTP, SMTP, SNMP, staggered drive spin up, email notification of errors, displays SMART data through the HighPoint Storage Health Inspector (SHI), supports firmware upgrades via the web manager and provides in band and RocketRAID Intelli-VRM (Virtual RAID Management). In addition, hard drives connected to the 3522 are bootable with Apple Mac Pro 2006, 2007 and 2008 models. HighPoint has upgraded the EFI firmware to provide boot support for 64-bit Mac Pro 2008 models using the :new RR3522-EFI and the RR3xxx_4xxx-mac-v122-080421 driver.The HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 RAID 6 controller supports eSATA or multilane enclosures. The use of Mini-SAS connectors allows the RocketRAID 3522 to be compatible with many existing enclosure types. Having the ability to add RAID 6 capabilities without being required to purchase a new enclosure provides a cost effective upgrade path for existing direct connect RAID users. RAID 6 provides high reliability. It is similar to RAID 5, but performs two different parity computations. RAID 6 offers fault tolerance greater than RAID 1 or RAID 5 while utilizing the capacity of two disk drives for distributed parity data. Data is first striped on a block level across a set of disk drives. Next, a second parity set is calculated and written across all of the hard drives. This process allows RAID 6 to provide a high level of redundancy.
RocketRAID Intelli-VRM Solution
RocketRAID Intelli-VRM (Virtual RAID Management) adds remote capabilities to RAID maintenance and provides additional methods for storage recovery. An early warning RAID monitoring system is included with automatic rebuild capabilities, event logging and abnormal out of range conditions (defined in the system notifications function). The early warning system is linked to the (SHI) Storage Health Inspector which includes SMART status information. The types of reports sent to the user can be customized. They include configuration changes, warnings and status reports which are delivered via email and/or SNMP traps to the admin and/or other designated users. RocketRAID Intelli-VRM allows IT personnel to access, control, and manage storage even when the entire system is down. Having the ability to troubleshoot storage issues remotely, across multiple networks, reduces travel time and can dramatically shorten the service response time.
Energy Usage
According to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor, the HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 requires approximately 10 watts to operate while idle when installed in the Mac Pro 2.8 GHz model. This was determined by measuring the energy usage with and without the card installed while the computer was idle for at least 10 minutes. The difference between the two readings is 10 watts.
PerformanceThe HighPoint Technologies RocketRAID 3522 was tested in slot 2 of an Apple Mac Pro 2.8 GHz running Mac OS X 10.5.2. The HighPoint driver version 1.2.1 dated February 19, 2008 was installed. Eight Samsung 1TB model HE103UJ SATA hard drives were attached to the RocketRAID 3522 during these tests to create various RAID configurations. DiskTester 2.0 10GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test so that this article could display how the RAID performed. DiskTester is a Terminal application that measures the combined performance of a volume and the Mac OS X operating system. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 10G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, puts DiskTester to work testing how the RAID will perform when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on. The table below displays the performance provided with this eight drive direct connect configuration.
RocketRAID 3522 Direct Connect 8 Drive RAID 0, 3 & 5 Comparison
 Mac Pro 2.8 (January 2008) |
||||
| Enclosure Type | ||||
| Drives Used |
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
725 - 775
|
297 - 773
|
670 - 674
|
657 - 671
|
| 10% |
737 - 772
|
424 - 768
|
637 - 665
|
639 - 670
|
| 20% |
731 - 805
|
426 - 768
|
606 - 689
|
609 - 687
|
| 30% |
787 - 775
|
433 - 770
|
672 - 686
|
666 - 688
|
| 40% |
759 - 755
|
435 - 766
|
643 - 658
|
646 - 663
|
| 50% |
700 - 722
|
434 - 709
|
577 - 596
|
585 - 637
|
| 60% |
672 - 685
|
425 - 687
|
602 - 600
|
595 - 598
|
| 70% |
630 - 633
|
421 - 641
|
532 - 560
|
542 - 552
|
| 80% |
552 - 553
|
419 - 566
|
483 - 484
|
479 - 484
|
| 90% |
493 - 491
|
416 - 495
|
432 - 421
|
430 - 423
|
| 100% |
429 - 410
|
407 - 418
|
373 - 359
|
372 - 357
|
| Average |
656 - 671
|
412 - 669
|
566 - 581
|
565 - 584
|
| MSRP |
$560
|
$560
|
$560
|
$560
|
| Configuration |
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 3
|
RAID 5
|
| Volume Size |
7.27TB
|
7.28TB
|
6.37TB
|
6.37TB
|
The table above demonstrates that the HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 controller performs very well with an eight drive, direct connect, RAID 3 or RAID 5 configuration. When creating a striped RAID set (RAID 0) write performance was significantly higher when Disk Utility and legacy formatting was utilized. Once the HighPoint web manager is used to initialize legacy formatted hard drives, Disk Utility no longer recognizes the individual hard drive. To correct this, the hard drive(s) have to be re-initialized by a non-HighPoint controller.
RAID 6,10 & 50The next table displays the performance of the RocketRAID 3522 controller utilizing eight hard drives with RAID 6, 10 and RAID 50 configurations. The same Samsung 1TB model HE103UJ hard drives were reformatted to create RAID 6, 10 and RAID 50 configurations using the HighPoint web manager and the RocketRAID 3522 controller.
RocketRAID 3522 Direct Connect 8 Drive RAID 6, 10 & 50 Comparison
|
Mac Pro 2.8 (January 2008) |
||||
| Enclosure Type | ||||
| Drives Used |
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
576 - 577
|
519 - 573
|
320 - 417
|
496 - 537
|
| 10% |
546 - 572
|
492 - 563
|
351 - 384
|
498 - 531
|
| 20% |
519 - 595
|
517 - 605
|
286 - 426
|
497 - 568
|
| 30% |
576 - 585
|
561 - 591
|
289 - 411
|
498 - 574
|
| 40% |
560 - 564
|
567 - 569
|
291 - 410
|
499 - 573
|
| 50% |
492 - 539
|
493 - 545
|
292 - 380
|
501 - 551
|
| 60% |
498 - 513
|
507 - 517
|
294 - 367
|
498 - 524
|
| 70% |
461 - 473
|
458 - 479
|
291 - 329
|
461 - 478
|
| 80% |
418 - 416
|
418 - 419
|
278 - 308
|
416 - 420
|
| 90% |
372 - 364
|
367 - 367
|
247 - 271
|
371 - 365
|
| 100% |
318 - 308
|
319 - 310
|
213 - 219
|
318 - 310
|
| Average |
485 - 501
|
474 - 503
|
287 - 357
|
459 - 494
|
| MSRP |
$560
|
$560
|
$560
|
$560
|
| Configuration |
RAID 6
|
RAID 5 + Spare
|
RAID 10
|
RAID 50
|
| Volume Size |
5.46TB
|
5.46TB
|
3.64TB
|
5.46TB
|
The results above demonstrate that the RocketRAID 3522 provides RAID 6 performance that is very close to a RAID 5 + spare configuration. When you consider the additional redundancy provided by RAID 6, you start to realize why RAID 6 is so popular.
The HighPoint web manager allows the user to enable or disable NCQ. During these RAID 10 and 50 performance tests, it was discovered that enabling NCQ provided a slight write performance gain. This may or may not be the case with your particular RAID setup. However, it may be worth testing both methods when configuring a disk array.
The HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 ($560) PCI-Express controller includes the Intel IOP341 processor for advanced hardware embedded RAID support. It provides RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 50 and JBOD capabilities when installed in an Apple Mac Pro. The dual mini-SAS connectors can be used with external mini-SAS to eSATA data cables (model Ext-MS-1MES $54) or mini-SAS to Infiniband data cables (model EXT-MS-1MSB $42). The use of mini-SAS controller connectors provides expanded compatibility options with several types of external SATA direct connect enclosures.The RocketRAID 3522 eight channel controller supports up to eight direct connect hard drives. Users that purchase the RocketRAID 3522 will do so typically for the embedded hardware RAID 6 feature provided by the on-board Intel IOP341 800MHz processor. RAID 6 controllers are not inexpensive. However, the HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 RAID 6 controller is an amazing bargain in comparison to the competition.
The RocketRAID 3522 does have some limitations. Port multiplier enclosures are not supported. Once the HighPoint web manager initializes hard drives they cannot be returned to legacy format until a non-HighPoint controller is used to re-initialize the hard drives. This is a non-issue, except when the user wants to create a fast RAID 0 configuration using legacy hard drives and Disk Utility.
With that said, the HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 provides a new high performance, Intel IOP341 processor based RAID 6 controller option for Macintosh users at a great price. HighPoint is working on a single EFI firmware image that will provide boot support for all Mac Pro models including the 64-bit 2008 Mac Pro. RAID 6 controllers provide amazing redundancy and the RocketRAID 3522, Samsung 1TB combination provides awesome RAID performance.
Pros
Works with Mac Pro PCIe slots.
Supports up to 8 direct connect hard drives.
PCIe 8x compatible. Also works in 16x slots.
Provides boot capability with Mac Pro 2006-2007 models.
New EFI Firmware and driver v122 dated April 21, 2008 boots Mac Pro 2008.
Online Capacity Expansion and Online RAID Level Migration.
Dual mini-SAS connector provides expanded connection options.
Web manager supports RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 50 and JBOD configurations.
RAID 5 XOR and 6 (P+Q) with NVRAM for advance data protection.
Disk Utility can be used to create RAID 0, 1 and JBOD.
RocketRAID Intelli-VRM and in band management options.
RAID rebuilding capability and drive failure alarm.
Provides excellent RAID 5/6 performance.
Bad sector reallocation and remapping.
New Storage Health Inspector (SHI).
SMTP support for email notification
Selectable RAID block sizes.
User-upgradeable firmware.
Provides hot spare support.
Supports Sleep and hot swap.
Cons
Web manager RAID 0 write performance slower than legacy/Disk Utility.
HighPoint web manager cannot convert disks back to legacy format.
Port multiplier enclosures are not supported.
No data cables included.
RocketRAID 3522 gets 4.5 AMUGs out of 5!
The HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 is $469.99 at newegg.com. This is the first Macintosh compatible RAID 6 controller with an Intel IOP341 processor for under $500. RAID 6 controllers have been restricted to the $700 to $1000 price range prior to the introduction of the RocketRAID 3522. As all RAID 6 controllers use similar Intel IOP341 compatible hardware designs, performance is very similar. Once you compare the RocketRAID 3522 against the RAID 6 competition, it is hard to see the need to pay $200-500 more for a RAID 6 Macintosh compatible controller. The HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 is easy to install, provides excellent RAID 6 performance and is a wonderful value for Macintosh users wanting to upgrade to the awesome redundancy of RAID 6.
If RAID 6 redundancy is not required or you are looking for a port multiplier compatible controller, you may be interested in learning more about some of the other HighPoint PCI-Express controllers that AMUG has reviewed. More information on these products can be found in the additional resource links at the end of this article.
Special thanks to Samsung for providing the 1TB hard drives used in this review. The new Samsung 1TB SATA hard drives provide ultra-high performance, low energy usage and are amazingly quiet. AMUG will provide a separate detailed review of these 1TB hard drives in a future review.
Contact Information:
HighPoint Technologies Inc.1161 Cadillac Court
Milpitas, CA 95035
Phone: (408) 942-5800
Fax: (408) 942-5801
http://www.highpoint-tech.com
Copyright 2008
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG). Visit AMUG at www.amug.org for news, discounts and friends. JOIN AMUG!
Additional Resources
Barefeats HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 Preview
AMUG Areca ARC-1221x 8-Port, RAID 6, PCIe Controller Review
AMUG EnhanceBox E8-ML 8-Bay Enclosure Review
AMUG FirmTek SeriTek/2eEN4 Review
AMUG HighPoint RocketRAID 2522 Controller Review
AMUG HighPoint RocketRAID 2314MS Review
AMUG HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 Review
AMUG HighPoint RocketRAID 2322 Review