It happens to everyone. You go out and buy yourself a brand new computer, or build it from scratch, then the next big thing is launched,  which of course your new hardware doesn’t support. Highpoint looks to solve this age old problem with their new Rocket 600, which brings SATA 6Gb/s to a computer near you.

The next big craze to hit motherboard manufacturers is the SATA 6Gb/s interface. Originally due out in the early summer,  there have been numerous delays due to issues with the controllers used. Naturally, it wasn’t until Marvell ironed out these problems that we would see its acceptance into new products, and thus the highly anticipated wave of SATA 6Gb/s supporting motherboards was delayed.

However that leaves those of us who have already  upgraded asking what we can do.  Highpoint recognized this problem and is tackling it with their new PCI-e expansion cards. Using a single PCI-e 2.0 1x slot, the Rocket 600 allows anyone with a free slot access to these new SATA speeds. Priced around $79.99 USD , it will offer a much cheaper route to obtaining the latest in SATA technology.

The major caveat of this technology is the fact that it only utilizes a PCI-e 2.0 1x slot, meaning a maximum transfer rate of 500MB/s or 4Gb/s+-  (the slots bandwidth limitation) split between two ports. Given that consumer level SSD’s are closing in on completely saturating existing SATA2 ports at 3Gb/s, the actual benefit of this card for future storage applications is definitely questionable.

Two varieties will be offered; one type will add two internal 6Gb/s ports , while the other will provide dual third-generation e-SATA external ports instead.

Availability has not yet been announced at the time of this posting.