HighPoint 4-Port M.2 SSD7105 PCIe Gen3 Bootable NVMe RAID Controller for Windows & Linux Systems.

The physical installation of the card and drives was straightforward. However, setting up the RAID configuration requires booting from a UEFI drive with Highpoint's software installed, which is less user-friendly compared to other RAID controllers that allow direct access during boot. This process demands some technical knowledge, making it less suitable for beginners.Once installed, the drive performed well, and I successfully loaded my Server 2022 installation after installing the necessary drivers. The performance met my expectations, and the monitoring software was adequate. I recommend this product if you're looking for an affordable NVMe RAID PCIe card.

There are two units from Highpoint. This one (the 7202) requires you to go through a few rather non-intuitive steps to get Windows to install on it if you are going to use this as a boot device. Once you follow their instructions (kudos to Highpoint for providing clear instructions) this unit works very well!There is a different unit from Highpoint - the SDD6202a that works a little easier if you want a RAID boot array. It is driverless and once the device is set via the dip-switches, behaves like a simple single drive (but is RAID 1 or 0 under the covers). I REALLY like the 6202a. It (the 6202a) has the added bonus of having LEDs that clearly indicate the status of the drives in the array. You can also set the software to monitor the array and email you if there is a failure. Both the 7202 and the 6202 will do the email thing. I did return the 7202 and bought a 5-pack of the 6202a units. These are wonderful, solid and so far appear to be stupid simple and reliable! Highpoint is also a really decent company and even reached out to me for a discussion when I sent them a few questions. A+ Highpoint!

This controller worked great for the first few months, and then it stopped working to the point where the computer would no longer turn on anymore while the card was insert. Tech support offered no real assistance to trying to get the card fixed/replaced.

UPDATE: Had to remove it from the machine it was in because every morning when we booted it would not show the files on it without 3-4 reboots. Once it booted with the files it seemed OK. But having ~2tb of files floating around in there made us nervous. We had 4-500 gig drives in RAID "0" for the speed but switched it for a single NVMe @ 2tb which is working great now. To spend ~$700 extra for that little boost in speed seems foolish in hindsight - but as they say live and learn.Got it installed with 4-500gig WD Black SSD NVMe's into array "0" to make one 2tb disk.One caveat though. . . If you are not an experienced computer geek you may want to have one help with the install. I have a RTX 3090 in that machine, it is a beast of a board and it had a plastic support bridge between two metal walls in the computer. This board is full height and almost as long as the graphics board so I had to use a Dremel to grind another notch so the support would go over it and still secure the graphics board. I guess I could have also sawed it. Again this may/may not be an issue for you depending upon your specific computer layout.Also download the instructions, don't use the insert that comes with the board. The link on the enclosed leaflet is dead because the is now a "-1" version so that is the drivers & software you need. We'll see how it goes from here on. After all this setup cost ~$900 and we used small size drives.

It does work, but not for the faint of heart to setup. For the boot to work it requires a fresh install of windows, I tried creating the array and cloning to it, did not work. Mobo Asus H97M-plus, had to turn off CSM for it to accept it. Do as the instructions say to do, have only this adapter, the windows install disc, and flash drive with uefi from highpoint powered up, check the settings in your mobo bios and compare with the instructions. My asus mobo wouldn't see it until I turned off CSM support, perhaps newer ones adhere to the instructions better. No other discs should be active.The fan is quite a bit noisy, a lot louder than the stock cpu fan, take that into consideration, I may wind up modifying the cooling with a quieter setup.What used to take 5 minutes to boot with a raid1 spinning drive setup windows 10, is now 30 seconds to a useable pc.I am pleased, this card isn't for everyone. Novices beware.

In my opinion, the SSD7101A-1 is the best M.2 RAID card on the market. Primarily, I use this as workspace for rendering projects. It has proven to be a great investment and has seriously cut down production time.While performing multiple tests with Samsung 970 EVO’s I was able to repeatedly document numbers in the range of 13,000 MB/s. Real world use is unbelievable – it’s amazing how fast this card is for the price.I should add, the card also works with Kingston drives and likely any other NVMe drive currently available - it is not limited to Samsung. Some may be confused by some of the ads/marketing released for this controller (it does not include SSD’s like the rSSD versions).Also, the card is not bootable. It is designed for high performance apps, rather than to support a system’s boot drive. Honestly, this kind of speed would be wasted on something so basic. A single onboard NVMe drive or even SATA SSD would be a better option for booting the OS.One thing you will have to look out for is the need to have 16 lanes available for the maximum performance. You will need a system/motherboard capable of reserving 16x lanes just for this card, otherwise you will seriously handicap the speed. No worries if you aren’t a major DIYer - the included RAID software has an easy method of checking if you are connected to a x16 slot, or not.