HighPoint Rocket 1604L Review: Four Gen5 M.2 SSDs, One Slot, 55.6GB/s
StorageReview, Friday, June 19th, 2026
The HighPoint Rocket 1604L fits four Gen5 M.2 SSDs in one PCIe slot with near-native performance via retimer technology.
The HighPoint Rocket 1604L is a $399 PCIe Gen5 x16 adapter card accommodating four M.2 NVMe SSDs, each on a dedicated Gen5 x4 connection.
Using an Astera Labs PT5161LRS retimer for signal regeneration, the card achieved 55.6GB/s of 128K sequential read bandwidth and 10.1 million 4K random write IOPS with Samsung 9100 PRO drives.
The retimer architecture addresses Gen5 signal integrity challenges without the overhead of a full PCIe switch. However, the card requires x4/x4/x4/x4 bifurcation support, making it best suited to high-end workstation and server platforms rather than mainstream consumer systems.