HighPoint RocketStor 5322 Hard Drive Dock Review

External hard drive adapters are essential disaster recovery or troubleshooting devices for do-it-yourself and professional repairs alike. However, there are many folks out there using these temporary solutions as “more than temporary.” Luckily, hard drive docks like the HighPoint RocketStor 5322 are durable enough to be utilized in many different capacities while still giving you easy access to your data. Let’s take a closer look.

Features and Specifications

The main thing that sets the RocketStor 5322 away from the majority of external hard drive docks is the dual 6 Gbps eSATA connections. This is a great feature for performance, but chances are you currently only have one eSATA port on your computer. If this is the case, you will need to buy a secondary adapter or controller card to fully use the dock. The downside to this is there aren’t any other connectors; so no USB.

Features

(Courtesy HighPoint – click on the image to expand)

Specifications

(Courtesy HighPoint)

Photo Op

Usage

The RocketStor 5322 is just as easy to use as you’d want an external hard drive dock to be. When sliding drives into the slots, they go in smooth and fit snug.  The base itself is very solid too, so you can feel pretty confident that the drives aren’t going anywhere (baring anything unusual). I did give the dock a slightly unscientific test by nudging it a few times with the drives installed and the power off just to see, and I couldn’t detect any movement with my eyes. The construction of the unit itself feels very solid too. The eject buttons and the flaps that adjust for 2.5″ or 3.5″ drives don’t seem like they’d break easily and I had no issues with either during my testing.

Benchmarks

As for performance, the RocketStor 5322 performs as you’d expect. There’s no secret here; you get the same performance that you’d get if you attached your drives inside your computer case.

Test System

• Processor: Intel Core i7 2600
• Motherboard: Dell 06D7TR Q67
• Memory: 4x4GB Micron PC3-10700 DDR3 (667 MHz) 9-9-9-24-2T
• Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6450
• RAID Controller: HighPoint RocketRAID 642L
• HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 3TB 7200RPM
• SDD: Crucial M4 128GB

HighPoint was nice enough to send along one of their internal RAID Controller cards with the dock. I’m glad they did because all of the test systems I have sitting around only had one eSATA port, which would not have done the RocketStor 5322 justice. The RocketRAID 642L only needs an empty PCIe x4 slot and it gives you four additional SATA ports (two external and two internal). It uses a Marvell 88SE9235 controller chip which offers you RAID 0/1/5/10 and JBOD. It also has a simple web GUI for configuration.

Results

Conclusion

The HighPoint RocketStor 5322 is an excellent external hard drive dock solution. It offers top performance and quality construction. However, it caries a hefty price tag ($119.99 at Newegg), not to mention the possible added cost of a secondary controller card (the 642L I tested with is $109), so this would not be my first recommendation for the normal home user. For an IT or help-desk professional, this is definitely worth it, though. The ability to image drives or recover data for your clients with ease will definitely pay for itself in time. So if the price doesn’t bother you, and you want a high performance, easy to use external hard drive dock, the RocketStor 5322 has been Overclockers Approved for you.

– splat