The TowerRAID TR8X BP is an 8-bay RAID 5 tower with mini-SAS connection for high transfer rates of up to 650MB/s. The TR8X-BP is bundled with a high-performance RAID controller card (RR2722, PCIe 2.0 x8 6G RAID controller) that offloads complicated RAID calculations from the computer to lower CPU utilization. High performance could be achieved with a lower cost of ownership compared to RAID embedded subsystems. RAID setup and maintenance could be controlled via built-in web browser interfaces, and the unit is supportive of e-mail notification and real-time event log. Utilizing high bandwidth mini-SAS (SFF-8088) cabling, the TR8X-BP supports 6Gb/s SAS or SATA hard drives to deliver superior read/write speeds that are crucial in performance-driven environments such as video editing industry and high performance computer. The mini-SAS connection connects eight hard drives connections into two ports, reducing possible points of failures, while preserving uninterrupted data transfer. The TR8X-BP also supports SATA drives, allowing users the option to choose between high performance and high capacity storage solutions. Windows, MAC, Linux and VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 are supported.