While PCI Express is the future, it's still nice to see Highpoint adding entry level storage solutions on the PCI bus for those who have older systems without PCI Express slots, which there are quite a few servers and gamers out there, with such configuration.

RAID is now common place, and it takes a lot to stand out in the crowd. Highpoint's PCI controller does a good job and while it won't offer any performance records especially in a RAID array due to the limited bandwidth of PCI, it's the first PCI based solution we have seen to offer SATA 2.5 compliance, which gives you NCQ and 3Gbps transfer rates.

Overall if you are looking for a cheap and effective controller, this is definitely one for you.

- Pros
Supports older PCI based systems
SATA 2.5 specs support
Native Command Queuing (NCQ)
Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD
Affordable price
Allows for spanning across two cards
Drivers for a lot of operating systems (even Vista)

- Cons
SATA 1 cables rather than SATA-II