HighPoint RocketStor 6618 Thunderbolt 3 DAS: 8-Bays, Up to 96 TB, 2.7 GB/s, $999
by Anton Shilov on April 11, 2017 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- SSDs
- HDDs
- HighPoint
- Thunderbolt 3
- RocketStor
- 6618A
- 6618T
HighPoint has started to ship its RocketStor 6600-series Thunderbolt 3 RAID enclosures that can accommodate up to eight storage devices. The enclosures support all popular RAID levels and can enable up to 1.6 GB/s throughput with HDDs or up to 2.7 GB/s throughput with SSDs, which is in line with other 8-bay TB3 storage boxes. Meanwhile, one of the key characteristics of the RocketStor 6618T enclosure is its $999 price point.
The HighPoint RocketStor 6600-series family consists of three models: the RocketStor 6618A tower enclosure with hardware RAID and 8 bays, the RocketStor 6618T tower enclosure with software RAID and 8 bays as well as the RocketStor 6674T rackmount enclosure with software RAID and 16 bays. The DAS boxes support hot swapping of 2.5”/3.5” storage devices, RAID in 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and 50 modes, intelligent fan control, audible alarms, and come with HighPoint’s storage management and monitoring software for Apple’s macOS and Microsoft Windows. The manufacturer ships its RocketStor 6600-series enclosures unpopulated and provides a list of compatible drives: the boxes support a wide range of enterprise and NAS-class devices, including 12 TB HDDs as well as up to 4 TB SSDs from various makers, including HGST, Seagate and Samsung.
As for performance, the HighPoint RocketStor 6600-series are designed for various professional applications and are aimed to support simultaneous streaming, editing, and backup of UHD video or other data. When an 8-bay RocketStor 6618A enclosure us populated with HDDs, its maximum sequential read performance is rated at up to 2000 MB/s, with SSDs, its performance as listed increases to 2700 MB/s. The RocketStor 6618T (with software RAID) is a bit slower, offering up to 1800 MB/s throughput with HDDs and up to 2400 MB/s with SSDs. At present, HighPoint does not reveal performance numbers for the rackmount 16-bay RocketStor 6674T.
| The HighPoint RocketStor 6600-Series DAS with Thunderbolt 3 | ||||||
| RocketStor 6618A | RocketStor 6618T | RocketStor 6674T | ||||
| Number of Bays | 8 hot-swappable bays for 2.5" or 3.5" HDDs or SSDs | 16 hot-swappable bays | ||||
| HDD/SSD Interface | SAS/SATA | SATA | SAS/SATA | |||
| List of Compatible HDDs/SSDs | Link (PDF) | |||||
| Capacity | HDD | RAID 0: 96 TB (8 × 12 TB) RAID 5: 84 TB (8 × 12 TB) |
RAID 0: 192 TB (16 × 12 TB) (?) |
|||
| SSD | RAID 0: 32 TB (8 × 4 TB) RAID 5: 28 TB (8 × 4 TB) |
RAID 0: 64 TB (16 × 4 TB) (?) |
||||
| RAID | 0/1/5/6/10/50 | |||||
| RAID0 | HDD | 2000 MB/s | 1800 MB/s | unknown | ||
| SSD | 2700 MB/s | unknown | ||||
| RAID5 | HDD | 1700 MB/s | 1600 MB/s | unknown | ||
| SSD | 2700 MB/s | 2400 MB/s | unknown | |||
| RAID Block Size | Up to 1 MB | Up to 128 KB | unknown | |||
| RAID Controller | HighPoint RAID-on-Chip I/O controller and 512 MB cache memory with ECC | Software RAID that uses host system's CPU and RAM | ||||
| Ports | 2 × Thunderbolt 3 | |||||
| PSU | integrated | |||||
| Dimensions (W x H x L) | 144 × 330 × 257 mm 5.67 × 13 × 10.12 inch |
2U | ||||
| Cables Included | USB-C (Thunderbolt 40Gb/s or USB 3.1 10Gb/s) cable | |||||
| Software | HighPoint Storage Monitoring and Management Suite | |||||
| Price (MSRP) | $1299 (?) | $999 | unknown | |||
Just like competing DAS products from other manufacturers, the HighPoint RocketStor systems feature two Thunderbolt 3 ports, making it possible to daisy chain a display or another TB3 device to the storage arrays. The maker bundles one active Thunderbolt 3 cable certified for 40 Gb/s.
One of the key things about the HighPoint RocketStor 6618-series Thunderbolt enclosures are their recommended prices: the more advanced model 6618A is priced at around $1300, whereas the model 6618T (with software RAID and lower performance) is set to cost around $1000. With such price points, HighPoint aims to make Thunderbolt 3-based RAID storage solutions considerably more accessible compared to pre-configured off-the-shelf DAS systems.
HighPoint claims that its RocketStor 6618T is now available in North America at its MSRP of $999. While the enclosure is available, in some cases it comes populated with HDDs and comes at appropriate price points. Meanwhile, Amazon offers empty RocketStor 6618T for $1092.19 (so, not quite $999) as well as empty RocketStor 6618A for $1299.
Related Reading:
- QNAP at CES 2017 - Thunderbolt 3 and Xeon D NAS Units, Residential Gateways, and More
- LaCie Launches Rugged and d2 Thunderbolt 3 Storage Devices
- Promise Launches Pegasus3 External Storage via TB3: Up to 48 TB, 1.6 GBps
- LaCie Announces Bolt3: 2 TB External SSD at 2.8 GBps over Thunderbolt 3
- AKiTiO Thunder3 PCIe SSD Thunderbolt DAS Review
- Thunderbolt 3 in Action: Akitio Thunder3 Duo Pro DAS Review
Source: HighPoint
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Vidmo - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
Have you seen the prices of other TB3 8 bay solutions? This product is a bargain in comparison. The software raid version still has to have a SATA/SAS backplane, logic board, power supply, etc which still costs a fair amount. But yes, compared to the hardware raid version that is only ~$300 more it would make more sense to go that route more than the software raid.And as to the note to the above, I would like to see someone, anyone, create the same type of product of this TB3 DAS for less than this on their own.
freeNAS is not the same as a DAS. I already use a USB3 DAS that outperforms any GB based NAS. But even the 250MB/s I get with my USB3 DAS is no where near enough nowadays which is why its great that these products exist.
MrSpadge - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
> Have you seen the prices of other TB3 8 bay solutions?That's honestly something Anton should add to the article, to put it into perspective. Right now the article (and I think most of his others too) is mainly listing the specs of the device, which may also be already available on HighPoints homepage.
Chad - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
Yes. Dat Optic has 12 bay version for similar price.mjz_5 - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
really however? how would you make this custom made computer connect to another computer using a USB for access?sorten - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
No kidding. The box would cost 2x as much as the drives it contains. At this cost, if I were a small business I'd start asking myself how much storage and compute I could buy on Azure for the cost of my local setup.Vidmo - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
Really? Cause the box in my case would be 1/2 of the cost of the drives *I* would put in. 8TB NAS drives x8 = $2,320. Ya, that Azure setup will be as low latency and as fast as this TB3 box. *rolleyes*BenJeremy - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
Agreed... I just built out a Linux Mint media server with 8 2TB drives in RAID5 with an SSD as boot/system drive. I used a Fractal Design R4 case, which handled all the drives nicely. Probably around $350 into the hardware excluding the Hitachi 2TB refurbs ($40~50 each) and I run all sorts of stuff on it (SABNZBD, Sonarr, Headphones, WebMin, etc...). It works great as a NAS on my little LAN... and so much more.programcsharp - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
I want one of these with a LAN port as well. Directly attached TB for fast access via one machine, network access for slower access for the rest of my network.nils_ - Tuesday, April 18, 2017 - link
How would that work? That would require some sort of advanced filesystem / block storage.Lolimaster - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
Is is that hard to simply make a dummy enclosure for 4-8drives, connected by USB 3.1 gen1/gen2 with 1-2 fans for cooling and no software/raid shit?I just want to store my data and access it without having to mess with an extra OS.