'A masterpiece of engineering': Highpoint storage AIC is expensive but at 60GBps sequential throughput, it will quench almost anyone's thirst for speed

• HighPoint Rocket 7604A RAID card is half the size of the previous iteration
• Delivers nearly 60GBps using four Gen5 SSDs with no power cable
• First review shows it offers strong performance across both Intel and AMD platforms

The HighPoint Rocket 7604A is a PCIe Gen5 RAID card which targets professionals needing extreme sequential throughput in compact workstations.

While it builds on the legacy of the larger Rocket 1608A model, it manages to shrink the form factor by nearly half while maintaining similar performance.

The 7604A fits into a single-slot, half-length configuration and is powered entirely by the PCIe bus, with no external power required.

Eclipses previous record-holding models

TweakTown recently reviewed the card, describing it as “a masterpiece of engineering” that delivers 59.8GB/s sequential throughput using just four M.2 Gen5 SSDs.

This performance eclipses even the company's own previous record-holding models. It achieves this with a Broadcom PEX89048A RAID controller and four Gen5 x4 M.2 slots.

Testing spanned both Intel and AMD platforms. Intel systems had the edge in benchmarks like Anvil and Blackmagic, while AMD took the lead in certain file transfer scenarios.

Paired with four Samsung 9100 Pro drives (TweakTown notes that the drives must be bare to fit the card), the Rocket 7604A achieved nearly 60GB/s sequential throughput in CrystalDiskMark. "Better than any AIC we’ve ever encountered,” the site’s Senior Hardware Editor, Jon Coulter, observed.

On ATTO, it delivered up to 54GB/s, more than twice the throughput achieved with the 1608A using eight Crucial T705 drives.

TweakTown also reported that the 7604A broke multiple lab records, scoring 93,000 points in Anvil’s benchmark, far surpassing any previous flash-based AICs.

Users can configure software RAID via Windows, which supports RAID 0 and RAID 1, or use HighPoint’s own configuration utility to unlock additional options like RAID 10. The card also supports PCIe Gen4 SSDs, though throughput is reduced when used in that mode.

At $999, down from its original asking price of $1999, the Rocket 7604A is less expensive than its predecessor and many competitive solutions. It clearly isn’t made for casual users, but for anyone needing peak throughput in a constrained space, this card definitely delivers.

TweakTown awarded it 98% (dropping a few points for performance and value, but scoring the maximum for quality and features) and and named it Editor’s Choice.

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