The HighPoint RocketU 1144E USB & eSATA PCIe Controller Cardfrom HighPoint RocketU 1144E USB & eSATA PCIe Controller Cardmaximizes the performance potential of USB 3.0 and 6 Gb/s SATA storage devices on a single host bus adapter (HBA). The dedicated dual 5 Gb/s USB 3.0 ports support industry standard USB 3.0 devices while the dedicated dual 6 Gb/s eSATA ports are optimized for fast SATA solid state drives and high-capacity hard drives. This controller card is well suited for a wide range of applications, including storage expansion, personal media libraries, and backup solutions.

The dedicated per port architecture allows each storage device to take full advantage of the PCIe 2.0 x4 host interface. In addition, UAS (USB Attached SCSI) maximizes the performance capabilities of USB 3.0 devices. It is dependent on the USB protocol and offers maximized bandwidth utilization while handling multiple data transfer requests simultaneously. This controller card is a Thunderbolt Aware HBA and is designed for use with Thunderbolt PCIe expansion devices and storage enclosures. The card is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 as well as eSATA 3 Gb/s. Furthermore, it is compliant with xHCI (Extensible Host Controller Interface) Specification v1.00.

PCIe 2.0 x4 Interface    2 x USB 3.0 Type-A Ports    2 x 6 Gb/s eSATA Ports    20 Gb/s Total Bandwidth    Full Height Form Factor    Supports up to 4 Devices    Hot-Plug & Hot-Swap Support    Supports UAS Performance Over USB 3.0    Thunderbolt Aware    Windows and Mac Compatible

The controller card benefits from HighPoint's innovative per-port performance architecture. Each port is fully independent and powered by a dedicated 5 Gb/s USB 3.0 or 6 Gb/s SATA controller. This revolutionary design ensures maximum performance for all USB 3.0 and 6 Gb/s SATA storage devices, allowing them to take full advantage of the host bus adapter's PCIe 2.0 host interface.

The card is capable of supporting all industry standard USB and SATA storage devices. The uncompromised performance and dedicated dual USB 3.0/eSATA port configuration is ideal for HighPoint's RocketStor storage docks, such as the dedicated dual 6 Gb/s eSATA RocketStor 5322 and dual 5 Gb/s USB 3.0 RocketStor 5422. This card can be easily installed into any PCIe 2.0 x4, x8, or x16 slot and is fully compatible with PC and Mac computing platforms.

UAS (USB Attached SCSI) is a computer protocol that is used to transfer data to and from USB storage devices. UAS is dependent on the USB protocol and utilizes the standard SCSI command set. It offers maximized bandwidth utilization and can handle multiple data transfer requests simultaneously, unlike the slower queue system of BOT (Bulk Only Transport), which only provides single-task commands; each task must complete before the next begins. USB 3.0 connections working in UASP mode result in higher transfer speeds and lower CPU utilization. UAS clears data queues faster, which results in smoother-operating PC's. In addition, UAS capabilities allow this card to fully utilize the PCIe 2.0 x4 host bus interface and deliver uncompromised transfer bandwidth for UAS capable devices such as USB 3.0 solid state drives, hard drives, enclosures, and storage docks such as HighPoint's RocketStor 5422.

The controller card is Thunderbolt Aware and is designed for use with Thunderbolt PCIe expansion devices and storage enclosures. So any Mac Pro, Mac Book, or Mac Mini can extend additional eSATA/USB through a Thunderbolt chassis.

Related Questions and Answers

Q: 1. Do the Esata ports support port multiplier? if so, how many drives (eg, can you attach an 8-drive esata encolosure to it)

A: That information is not provided/published by the manufacturer.

Q: 2. Does this support win-10 Out of the Box?

A: Windows 10 would see the HighPoint RocketRAID 3740C PCIe Host Bus Adapter as a generic adapter. It's strongly recommended that you download the latest drivers for this to function properly.

Q: 3. Can this run in a 4.0 16 slot in an 8x configuration? Meaning only 8 lanes.

A: That may not be recommended as the card is engineered to run in a system with a free PCIe 4.0 x16 or PCIe3.0 x16 slot.

Q: 4. Which ASMedia chip does this card use?

A: The manufacturer has not specified in the documentation, however the chip is similar, if not newer than the ASMedia ASM2142.

Q: 5. Could you run 8x drives in JBOD and still obtain read/write speeds usable for 4k editing?

A: For the fastest configuration on the HighPoint SSD7540 PCIe 4.0 x16 8-Channel M.2 NVMe RAID Controller, RAID0 will be the best way to go to utilize the speed of all drives together.

Q: 6. Does it support any form of RAID ?

A: Yes, the HighPoint Rocket R1204 PCIe 3.0 x8 4-Channel M.2 NVMe Host Controller has support for OS-based RAID configurations.

Q: 7. It will work on mac pro 5.1 pcie16x(2.0)? I believe individual drives (nvme 4.0) will work full, but raid will be negligible because of pcie 2.0. Am i right?

A: Nvme drives will typically be bottlenecked by PCIe 2.0 with or without RAID, and as such only SATA M.2 drives (via a PCIe card similar to this one) would be recommended for use with PCIe 2.0.

Q: 8. Is this device compatible with PCIE 2.0 slots?

A: The performance should be the same if you are not sending data to all four ports simultaneously. PCIe 2.0x4 = 2000 MB/s should allow near full performance from two ports simultaneously. If the card uses the ASM2142 (PCIe 3.0x2), then a single USB port can be 20% faster than a card that uses the ASM1142 (PCIe 2.0x2). The PCIe switch can convert the two PCIe 3.0x2 USB controllers to PCIe 2.0x4.

Q: 9. Is this compatible with MACOS using M1 or M2 CPU?

A: Yes, the HighPoint RocketRAID 2722A External 8-Channel SAS-2 / SATA III PCIe 2.0 RAID Controller is compatible with MacOS being run on M1 and M2 chip computers.

Q: 10. Using PCIe 3.0 on a PCIe 2.0 slot (bottle neck): Would there be any performance advantage over the PCIe 2.0 card?

A: PCIe 3.0 is double the speed of PCIe 2.0