HighPoint’s new RocketRAID 2522 is a Serial ATA (SATA) controller card for PCI Express (PCIe)-equipped Mac Pros and Power Mac G5s (as well as Windows PCs). The device costs $260.
The card features dual external mini-SAS connectors, enabling it to support up to eight hard disks externally. It’s designed to support RAID Levels 0, 1, 5 and 10, and drives connected to it can also be used as JBODs (Just a Bunch of Disks).
Other features include port multiplier support — you can connect up to 40 drives, total. The controller supports online capacity expansion and online RAID level migration, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring hard drive status, SMTP for e-mail notification and more.
HighPoint’s performance specs on the card reveal that it can sustain data transfers at 1.2 gigabits per second (GB/s).