[Originally published on Aug. 23, 2015 by Larry Jordan.]
(Ready Larry’s product review disclosure statement.)
[ Updated Aug. 26, 2015, with a response from HighPoint.]
The folks at HighPoint Technologies asked me to review their RocketStor 6314A Thunderbolt 2 RAID system. So, they loaned me a unit for a couple of weeks to examine.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The RocketStor 3614A RAID is an attractive unit marred by impossible-to-use installation software, inaccessible support, and inaccurate and incomplete user manuals. This seems to be a classic example of a company that has been successful selling into the enterprise market not doing its homework before selling to creative professional users. Since this unit is sold only through dealers, it is expecting its dealers to make up for bad decisions made in the home office.
Product: RocketStor 6314A
Manufacturer: HighPoint Technology
MSRP: $699 without drive – sold only through dealers
Website: http://www.highpoint-tech.com
UPDATE 8/26/15): I received an email today from the RAID product manager at HighPoint today stating: “After reviewing your suggestions “Things that need to be fixed”, we begin to get a better picture of what information is needed for professional creative users to use our products. We take criticism seriously. Our top management has committed to fixing the issues you detailed by October. We would like you to re-review the unit then.”
Larry replies: I am very impressed that management listened to my concerns and is taking action to fix them. I told HighPoint that I would be delighted to review the unit again in October when these problems are resolved.”
BACKGROUND
“HighPoint Technologies, Inc. has been a pioneering force in the storage industry for over two decades. We design, manufacture and deploy the industry’s most comprehensive range of quality, high-performance, and affordable storage solutions for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD platforms.
“The RocketStor 6314A is an affordable, professional grade hardware RAID solution with an “open-box” approach to storage applications. This allows customers to tailor storage for their specific platform and application on the fly, and use their choice of SAS or SATA RAID and NAS Class hard drive or SSD, from established brands such as HGST, Seagate, Toshiba and WDC; all for hundreds less than conventional storage solutions!
“The stylish, brushed aluminum chassis features dual 20Gbps Thunderbolt ™2 ports and four removable hot-swap bays , which support any 2.5″ or 3.5″ Enterprise /NAS class SATA / SAS Hard Drive or SSD, and up to 32TB of total Storage Capacity in Hardware RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD configurations!” (Descriptions provided by HighPoint Technologies.)
This four-drive system supports up to 32 TB of total storage, depending upon the drives selected and RAID configuration. Another cool feature is that this unit shuts down whenever the computer goes to sleep, you don’t need to turn it on or off.
