HighPoint has introduced its new SSD7749M2 RAID card, which can house up to 16 M.2 SSDs and install up to 128 TB of flash memory into a typical desktop workstation. The card offers sequential read/write performance of up to 28 GB/s over a PCIe Gen4 x16 interface. These are quite massive performance specifications that come at a rather whopping price point.
HighPoint's SSD7749M2 SSD RAID card relies on the company's PCIe 'x48 lane PCIe Switching Technology,' something that could be a very advanced PCIe switch (or several PCIe) that allocates x16 lanes of upstream bandwidth to connect to the host platform and provides each SSD with x2 lanes of dedicated downstream bandwidth. This configuration offers decent signal integrity, minimizes latency, and enables the SSD7749M2 to achieve impressive data throughput, reaching real-world transfer speeds of up to 28 GB/s, according to HighPoint.
A notable design feature of the SSD7749M2 is dual-sided, vertically aligned M.2 trays, which can hold up to 16 M.2-2280 form-factor drives on a single side of the PCB. This opens doors to installing an SSD7749M2-based storage subsystem into regular desktop PCs and simplifies servicing. The beauty of such alignment is that these SSDs can carry a heatspreader to ensure this consistent performance; the wrong side is that it limits compatibility to several drives. HighPoint recommends the usage of Samsung 990 Pro or Sabrent Rocket 4Plus drives.
Speaking of cooling in general, the SSD7749M2 SSD RAID card comes with an active cooling system for its PCIe switch (or switches?) and two high-pressure fans to cool down the drives. This, of course, means that the storage subsystem is probably loud, but then again, if you need 128 TB of NAND memory at 28 GB/s, then there are disadvantages, too.
The SSD7749M2 is not exactly aimed at gaming desktops but rather at workstations and servers. The device features an advanced NVMe storage management and monitoring suite that allows administrators to configure and maintain the platform's NVMe ecosystem. It treats RAID arrays as single physical disks for versatile use as application drives, scratch disks, data archiving, or hosting bootable OSs and virtualization platforms.
Additionally, the SSD7749M2 is secured by the Gen4 Data Security Suite, which offers SafeStorage encryption and a hardware-secure boot to prevent unauthorized access and protect against malicious code during system boot-up. This ensures security even if the physical disks are lost or stolen.
The SSD7749M2, HHighPoint's RAID add-in card(AIC), will start shipping in late August 2024 with a base model priced at $1999. Additional configurations, which include pre-installed SSDs like the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus and Samsung 990 PRO, will be available, although their specific pricing details have not yet been disclosed.
