Brand | HighPoint |
---|---|
Series | RS6661A |
Item model number | RocketStor 6661A |
Item Weight | 4.6 pounds |
Product Dimensions | 6.42 x 2.25 x 10.12 inches |
Item Dimensions LxWxH | 6.42 x 2.25 x 10.12 inches |
Manufacturer | HighPoint Technologies Inc. |
ASIN | B07CTL7XWJ |
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
Date First Available | April 30, 2018 |
Other Sellers on Amazon
67% positive over lifetime
69% positive over last 12 months
73% positive over last 12 months
- VIDEO
Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
Highpoint RocketStor 6661A Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe 3.0 Expansion Chassis
Return this item for free
Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges
Learn more about free returns.- Go to your orders and start the return
- Select the return method
- Ship it!
Return this item for free
Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges
Learn more about free returns.- Go to your orders and start the return
- Select the return method
- Ship it!
Purchase options and add-ons
Brand | HighPoint |
Hardware Interface | SAS, USB, eSATA, Ethernet, Thunderbolt |
Style | Thunderbolt 3 PCIe 3.0x16 Expansion Chassis |
Item Weight | 4.6 Pounds |
About this item
- Thunderbolt 3 40GB/s Ports/daisy chain support for up to 6 devices; all PCIe cards must be Thunderbolt compliant
- Dual ultra-quiet, High-efficiency cooling fans
- Easily install nearly any Full-height/full-length PCIe 3.0 card (storage I/O, networking, video, sound)
- Versatile storage & connectivity expansion; NVMe RAID drives, USB/eSATA/Mini-SAS connectivity
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may ship from close to you
- StarTech.com Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Expansion Chassis, External Enclosure With One PCI Express Slot, PCIe Box for Laptops / Desktops / All-In-Ones, 5K/4K Output Via TB3/DP, TAA Compliant (TB31PCIEX16)FREE Shipping by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Mar 25Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
- BulletProof Mining Graphics Card PCIe Riser VER 009S 16x to 1x Powered Riser Adapter Card w/ USB 3.0 Extension Cable & 6-Pin PCI-E to SATA Power Cable | Bitcoin | Ethereum MiningAmazon's Choicein USB-to-VGA AdaptersFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Mar 25
- ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, Tool Free Installation, TBU 401 for M1 M2 Pro/Max, Compatible with USB4/3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0, Support SSD Size 2280 B+M M-Key (TBU401)Amazon's Choicein EnclosuresFREE Shipping by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Mar 25
- NewQ Maintenance-Free 40Gbps USB4 M.2 SSD Enclosure: Type C USB 4.0 NVMe PCIe SSD Adapter Reader Compatible to MacBook Thunderbolt 4 | 3 | USB 3.2 Gen 2 x 2 | 3.0FREE Shipping by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Mar 25
Product information
Technical Details
Additional Information
Customer Reviews |
3.3 out of 5 stars |
---|---|
Best Sellers Rank | #128 in RAID Controllers |
Warranty & Support
Feedback
What's in the box
Product Description
Ultra-compact & portable Thunderbolt 3 PCIe expansion chassis - transform your notebook into a compact media workstation! the RocketStor 6661A allows you to quickly add any PCIe X4, X8 or X16 card to your Thunderbolt 3 capable computing platform; such as media capture, Ethernet, fiber channel, or external storage/RAID controller cards. Like it's processor, the lightweight, small-footprint design is ideal for compact workstations and mobile computing platforms such as iMacs, MacBook's pros and Razor notebooks. At just 7 inches tall, and less than 3 inches wide, the RocketStor 6661A is small enough to pack into a laptop bag, yet is capable of supporting full-sized PCIe 3.0 add-in cards. Efficient chassis design keeps temperatures in CHECK during heavy workloads: PCIe devices, such as networking, video and hardware RAID cards can generate a great deal of waste heat during heavy I/O; an efficient, reliable, cooling system is an essential component of any PCIe expansion solution. The RocketStor 6661A was designed to accommodate performance intensive applications. The ventilated, all-aluminum chassis and dual cooling fans keep temperatures in CHECK during high-stress workloads. Simple plug and play installation: the RocketStor 6661A can be easily added to any Thunderbolt 3 capable Mac & PC platform via a single cable connection. Quick release thumbscrews and a Slidable chassis Cover make adding or removing PCIe cards a snap!.
Looking for specific info?
From the manufacturer
RocketStor 6661A
Simple, Cost-Effective PCIe Expansion for ThunderbolTM 3 & 4 Platforms
As a certified Thunderbolt device, The RocketStor 6661A is natively supported by all modern operating systems – no driver required! This includes Windows 11/10, macOS Ventura, and Linux distributions running kernel v3.10 or later.
Driverless Plug and Play Setup and Installation
The RocketStor 6661A can be easily added to any Thunderbolt 3 capable Mac & PC platform via a single cable connection. Quick release thumbscrews and a slidable chassis cover make adding or removing PCIe cards a snap!
The RocketStor 6661A design is also fully compliant with ThunderbolTM power management, and does not require a built-in power switch. The unit is designed to automatically power on when connected to the host computer using a certified ThunderboltTM cable.
- Works with any ThunderboltM Aware x1/x4/x8 or x16 single-width PCIe device
- ThunderboltTM Certified for Mac & PC platforms
- Driverless Plug & Play Installation
- Rugged, Compact & Portable
- Ideal connectivity expansion for High-Performance Notebooks
- Expand your Horizons: Daisy-chain up to 5 additional Thunderbolt devices
- Compatible with ThunderboltTM 4 Mac Platforms
Daisy-chain up to 5 additional ThunderboltTM devices
Fast & Simple Connectivity Expansion for Notebooks
Rugged, Ultra-Compact & Portable ThunderboltTM 3 PCIe Expansion Chassis - transform your notebook into a compact media workstation!
The RocketStor 6661A allows you easily add PCIe devices to any PC or Mac laptop with a Thunderbolt 3 port. The ultra-compact, rugged expansion chassis is an ideal connectivity expansion solution for high-performance portables such as iMacs, MacBook's Pros and Razor notebooks. At just 7 inches tall, and less than 3 inches wide, the RocketStor 6661A is small enough to pack into a laptop bag, yet is capable of supporting full-sized PCIe add-in cards.
Works with any Thunderbolt compatible Single-Width PCIe Device
The RocketStor 6661A isn’t restricted to HighPoint PCIe AICs and HBAs – it is capable of supporting a wide range of ThunderboltTM 3 Aware single-width PCIe devices. The chassis’ universal PCIe slot will accept add-in-cards with x1, x4, x8 or x16 mechanical lanes; this includes network adapters, storage controllers, M.2 NVMe drives, media capture cards and even compact GPUs!
Powerful, Low-Decibel Cooling System
PCIe device can generate a great deal of waste heat during heavy I/O. A such, an efficient, reliable, cooling system is an essential component of any PCIe expansion solution. The RocketStor 6661A was designed to accommodate performance intensive applications. The ventilated, all-aluminum chassis and low-decibel cooling fans keep temperatures in check during high-stress workloads without disturbing your work environment.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers like the construction of the case, mentioning it's solid extruded Aluminum with perfect heat dissipation. They also appreciate the small form factor, saying it fits in a narrow area. Customers also find the case easy to use, saying the fans are easy to swap. However, some customers have reported issues with the noise and performance of the product. They mention that the fans can be a bit noisy and that the unit no longer functions.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers are satisfied with the construction of the card. They mention that the build quality seems good, the case is solid extruded aluminum, clear-coated to a finish similar to the 2010-era, and the chassis is well surface-processed aluminum with perfect heat dissipation.
"...Some Pros: Quiet or the fans don't work. Solid build. Easy to get into the device. Discreet. No crazy vibrations...." Read more
"...have your pcie card enclosed in a thick, heavy, and well surface-processed aluminum chassis with perfect heat dissipation...." Read more
"1-Size is compact , quality built is very good..." Read more
"...Sadly I will be returning this. The price was right, the build quality seemed good and the small form factor would have worked extremely well for my..." Read more
Customers are satisfied with the width of the case. They mention that it is well-made, fits in a narrow area, and is compact.
"1-Size is compact , quality built is very good..." Read more
"...The price was right, the build quality seemed good and the small form factor would have worked extremely well for my needs, but the lack of full..." Read more
"...Compared to competing products, this case is longer, narrower, and less expensive.EDIT on Nov. 9, 2018:Too bad...." Read more
"Well made unit fits in a narrower area. Wasn't able to use it but it looks like it would have great possibilities." Read more
Customers find the construction of the card uncomplicated, making it easy to get into the device. They also appreciate the fans on the inside, making the swap easy.
"...Some Pros: Quiet or the fans don't work. Solid build. Easy to get into the device. Discreet. No crazy vibrations...." Read more
"...Solid construction and uncomplicated...." Read more
"...are standard pin headers for the the fans on the inside, so the swap is easy...." Read more
Customers are not happy with the noise produced by the two 40mm fans in the case. They mention that the fans can be a bit noisy.
"...The noise then gets amplified to be like a powerful CPU fan running at full speed, with even higher pitch...." Read more
"...Runs quiet, but not silent as it has two 40mm fans. Solid construction and uncomplicated...." Read more
"...I can think of is that the tiny little fans they use in the case can be a bit noisy, but with all my other fan sounds going on, I can barely here it..." Read more
Customers are dissatisfied with the performance of the card. They mention that it no longer functions, does not recognize, or power up.
"...When I first turned it on, it did not recognize or power up. I was starting to get nervous. For some reason it did not like the Apple TB2 cable...." Read more
"Purchased and initially worked, but when using again later it no longer powers up...." Read more
"...EDIT on Nov. 9, 2018:Too bad. As of today, the unit is no longer functioning...." Read more
Reviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
* 27" iMac 5k with TB2 ports.
* HighPoint RocketStor 6661A
* Third party PCIe to NVME adapter
* Generic 1TB NVME & SSD in a USB 3.0 case (for APFS Fusion)
Some Pros: Quiet or the fans don't work. Solid build. Easy to get into the device. Discreet. No crazy vibrations. (I don't like fan or drive vibrations)
Cons: No On/Off switch. These devices (external chassis) still have a low adoption and the information out there only focuses on graphics. The one that did focus on NVME did not cover this information.
Now for the TL;DR user experience:
I wanted to future proof myself with a Thunderbolt 3 expansion to use with my 27" iMac 5k (late 2015). I was very nervous at first since the device had poor reviews. I've had it for 2 weeks now and it's had there has been a fair share of issues but I wouldn't say all of them are Highpoint's fault.
I used the Apple TB3 (USB-C) to TB2 adapter to get this to work on my iMac with TB2. I placed a Vantec PCIe card in the enclosure and used a generic 256GB Inland Professional NVME I took out of my Windows box. At this point, I had a secondary SSD in a TB2 dock form a different Vendor. My first step was to even see if macOS saw the device. When I first turned it on, it did not recognize or power up. I was starting to get nervous. For some reason it did not like the Apple TB2 cable. I swapped it out with a 3rd party TB2 cable that I previously purchased. Voila. There's the device.
I reformatted macOS and set it up to use the combined 480GB OCZ SSD w/ 256Gb Inland NVME. This setup worked like a charm but it had issues returning from sleep. This is apparently a known issue on a lot of devices. It's not just Highpoint. I got around this by turning off certain power settings such as auto shutoff, standby, and hibernation modes using pmset. Now It was working brilliantly. However, the NVME was only 256GB and I wanted more...
I decided to take the TB2 dock back and buy a 1TB NVME instead. The original OCZ 470GB SSD was using USB 3.0 and I wanted to try the TB2 dock. I couldn't afford both the dock and the enclosure though. Now to get macOS on a new APFS Fusion drive using the 1TB NVME plus the OCZ SSD (now in a USB 3.0 enclosure). That's when all the troubles started.
The fusion was created automatically and set the 1TB to the "main" device and the 480GB to the "Secondary (Aux" device. (Personally I wish APFS could span drives or use JBOD similar to Windows Storage Spaces. Right now it defaults to Fusion.) Over the next few days, I would have to unplug the Highpoint, cross my fingers, and hope I could option boot and see the drive during selection. Otherwise I'd get the folder with the blinking question mark or have to reset PRAM.
Being an old timer Mac guy, I remembered that Macs would scan ports in a specific order during boot time. This apparently never changed from the old SCSI days. I started wondering if the Thunderbolt is last on the chain. I checked disk utility and found the synthesized APFS fusion drive was showing up as USB. Below that was the container and volume. Each were showing up as PCIe. I knew that had to be an issue. Apparently, it was scanning the USB device first before getting to the TB3 device and that in turn led to the question mark. It couldn't find the system on the USB device because the system resided on the NVME. I reformatted and reinstalled but it always showed up the same.
You are probably wondering why even set it up that way. Well even with TB2, NVME, and a USB SSD, I was getting ~1200MB/s write and ~1400MB/s read. Together they made up 1.5TB of solid state love. That's a lot of space. What can I say? I am a glutton for space (punishment).
Unfortunately, I had to redo the whole installation and manually create the APFS fusion drive so that the slower 480GB SSD was the "main" device and the 1TB NVME was the secondary (Aux) device. Voila! Now it boots up fine. It still doesn't respond to sleep well. That's a known issue though. It's not just Highpoint and I *did* use a generic NVME. (Inland Premium without firmware patches)
Is it fast? Not as fast as the original setup but that's only when benchmarking. It's fast when booting up. When starting apps, I get about one bounce. Sometimes no bounce. So yeah. That's fast. Plus maybe it's better to have the secondary drive this way to prevent overall wear on that drive.
I will report back in about a month. Fingers crossed.
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2019
* 27" iMac 5k with TB2 ports.
* HighPoint RocketStor 6661A
* Third party PCIe to NVME adapter
* Generic 1TB NVME & SSD in a USB 3.0 case (for APFS Fusion)
Some Pros: Quiet or the fans don't work. Solid build. Easy to get into the device. Discreet. No crazy vibrations. (I don't like fan or drive vibrations)
Cons: No On/Off switch. These devices (external chassis) still have a low adoption and the information out there only focuses on graphics. The one that did focus on NVME did not cover this information.
Now for the TL;DR user experience:
I wanted to future proof myself with a Thunderbolt 3 expansion to use with my 27" iMac 5k (late 2015). I was very nervous at first since the device had poor reviews. I've had it for 2 weeks now and it's had there has been a fair share of issues but I wouldn't say all of them are Highpoint's fault.
I used the Apple TB3 (USB-C) to TB2 adapter to get this to work on my iMac with TB2. I placed a Vantec PCIe card in the enclosure and used a generic 256GB Inland Professional NVME I took out of my Windows box. At this point, I had a secondary SSD in a TB2 dock form a different Vendor. My first step was to even see if macOS saw the device. When I first turned it on, it did not recognize or power up. I was starting to get nervous. For some reason it did not like the Apple TB2 cable. I swapped it out with a 3rd party TB2 cable that I previously purchased. Voila. There's the device.
I reformatted macOS and set it up to use the combined 480GB OCZ SSD w/ 256Gb Inland NVME. This setup worked like a charm but it had issues returning from sleep. This is apparently a known issue on a lot of devices. It's not just Highpoint. I got around this by turning off certain power settings such as auto shutoff, standby, and hibernation modes using pmset. Now It was working brilliantly. However, the NVME was only 256GB and I wanted more...
I decided to take the TB2 dock back and buy a 1TB NVME instead. The original OCZ 470GB SSD was using USB 3.0 and I wanted to try the TB2 dock. I couldn't afford both the dock and the enclosure though. Now to get macOS on a new APFS Fusion drive using the 1TB NVME plus the OCZ SSD (now in a USB 3.0 enclosure). That's when all the troubles started.
The fusion was created automatically and set the 1TB to the "main" device and the 480GB to the "Secondary (Aux" device. (Personally I wish APFS could span drives or use JBOD similar to Windows Storage Spaces. Right now it defaults to Fusion.) Over the next few days, I would have to unplug the Highpoint, cross my fingers, and hope I could option boot and see the drive during selection. Otherwise I'd get the folder with the blinking question mark or have to reset PRAM.
Being an old timer Mac guy, I remembered that Macs would scan ports in a specific order during boot time. This apparently never changed from the old SCSI days. I started wondering if the Thunderbolt is last on the chain. I checked disk utility and found the synthesized APFS fusion drive was showing up as USB. Below that was the container and volume. Each were showing up as PCIe. I knew that had to be an issue. Apparently, it was scanning the USB device first before getting to the TB3 device and that in turn led to the question mark. It couldn't find the system on the USB device because the system resided on the NVME. I reformatted and reinstalled but it always showed up the same.
You are probably wondering why even set it up that way. Well even with TB2, NVME, and a USB SSD, I was getting ~1200MB/s write and ~1400MB/s read. Together they made up 1.5TB of solid state love. That's a lot of space. What can I say? I am a glutton for space (punishment).
Unfortunately, I had to redo the whole installation and manually create the APFS fusion drive so that the slower 480GB SSD was the "main" device and the 1TB NVME was the secondary (Aux) device. Voila! Now it boots up fine. It still doesn't respond to sleep well. That's a known issue though. It's not just Highpoint and I *did* use a generic NVME. (Inland Premium without firmware patches)
Is it fast? Not as fast as the original setup but that's only when benchmarking. It's fast when booting up. When starting apps, I get about one bounce. Sometimes no bounce. So yeah. That's fast. Plus maybe it's better to have the secondary drive this way to prevent overall wear on that drive.
I will report back in about a month. Fingers crossed.
One of the things I can't buy in is the fan design. The two small fans are installed on the internal metal frame, not on the inside face of external chassis. It may make the installation less error prone, but the side effect is... it turns the enclosure to a resonance box ( think about the cellos). The noise then gets amplified to be like a powerful CPU fan running at full speed, with even higher pitch.
After some experiments, I found that the fans themselves are actually unnecessary in such design. The power supply shipped is rated 12V 5A, so the max heat capacity of the whole system is no more than 60w. The TB3 chip won't make much heat. Then we have several cases to discuss:
1. For those cards less than 5w: They even cannot heat up themselves. So no fan is needed.
2. For those cards in 5-15w. They are hot and will have a heat sink installed. My experiment with one of such card provides that, even without fan in enclosure, the card can still work normally with chip temp <180F. (Modern commercial semiconductor can run around 200F). In these cases I'd leave the fan unplugged.
3. For those card in 15-30W. They generally have fan installed. My experiment with a low-end video card fall in this range gives out 185F without enclosure fan. The fan on the pcie card is running at 70%, but given the better build (it's pulled from certified workstation), and a position which doesn't trigger resonate, they sound much acceptable.
4. For those card with more than 30w: If they still stick on single-slot design, they generally have meshed panel with turbo fan exporting heated air directly through it. So they will take care of their own air flow fine. The enclosure fans are not needed either.
There are some exceptions. Some devices, even when run in low watts, may be hot due to the board design, and adjust their performance based on the temperature. The NVME drives are one of them. If you want no noise while require unthrottled performance, go grab some heat sink on it. You only need to cover the controller part. Even a tiny one with 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/4 will do the work very well. Remember not to fix them with the rubber band (most of the design sold here are with them), since they will eventually break in high temp, and eject the metal heat sink to some key naked circuits nearby.
2-Tested with Telephony cards like sangoma , synway , dialogic , voice modems (via PCIe-to PCI converter) and it works.
3-Tested with graphics GT 1030 it works very will .
4-I have used it as Express card to TB3 converter using startech PCIe to express card adaptor (PEX2ECDP) and it works very will .
Top reviews from other countries
Pros: cheaper that the rest and works.
Cons: the PCIe slot is smaller than most cards with an open end. At first it thought there was no chance this thing would take my card.
Fans are a little rattly and build quality is about 70% of what you’d like. I’d be happy to pay $50 more to get better quality (but all products on the market like this get the same critical reviews on quality).
But the biggest problem is if you’re unfamiliar with how Thunderbolt interacts with windows security.
When you plug the device in Windows pops up a message asking if you approve the device. But even when you say yes it doesn’t work.
I had already started an Amazon return when I decided to take another look. Device manager has a Cisco driver with an arrow icon on it. I opened the properties and saw that it was disabled.
After enabling the driver up popped my SCSI adapter and then my LTO tape drive.
$300 for this, $100 for a SCSI card and $500 for a Dell external LTO5 drive and for $30 a tape I can mount an LTFS drive and drag and drop files to tape at high speed.
Would buy again.
Thunderbolt3付のノートパソコンに買い替えた際に、Akitio Nodeを買ってGTX1660Superを取り付けて使ってみたら、予想以上に快適で驚きました。
性能面では満足していたこの組み合わせですが、人の欲は深いもので持ち運びが出来るeGPUが欲しくなり、本機を購入しました。
12V10Aの電源を付けて使ったところ、上記のベンチマーク結果が得られました。
取り付けの際にビデオカードのファンは取り外しましたが、本機内蔵のファンで100%の性能発揮時にも十分な冷却が出来ていました。
この運用では75W級のGTX1050TiやGTX1650補助電源無ししか使えそうにありませんが、リュックサックにノートパソコンと一緒に入るサイズでTiger Lakeを除く内蔵GPUを大幅に上回るグラフィック性能を得られるので重宝しそうです。
追記
Elsaの1スロット型GPUが手に入ったので其方で改めてテストしました。
1080p以下・標準品質でFF15を動作させる必要ラインはクリアしているようです。
Reviewed in Japan on March 9, 2021
Thunderbolt3付のノートパソコンに買い替えた際に、Akitio Nodeを買ってGTX1660Superを取り付けて使ってみたら、予想以上に快適で驚きました。
性能面では満足していたこの組み合わせですが、人の欲は深いもので持ち運びが出来るeGPUが欲しくなり、本機を購入しました。
12V10Aの電源を付けて使ったところ、上記のベンチマーク結果が得られました。
取り付けの際にビデオカードのファンは取り外しましたが、本機内蔵のファンで100%の性能発揮時にも十分な冷却が出来ていました。
この運用では75W級のGTX1050TiやGTX1650補助電源無ししか使えそうにありませんが、リュックサックにノートパソコンと一緒に入るサイズでTiger Lakeを除く内蔵GPUを大幅に上回るグラフィック性能を得られるので重宝しそうです。
追記
Elsaの1スロット型GPUが手に入ったので其方で改めてテストしました。
1080p以下・標準品質でFF15を動作させる必要ラインはクリアしているようです。
Slim size, (almost) silent operation are its good points.
動作しないようです。
本商品より専用ボードの価格が高いので割高感を感じます。