*Official* Norco data storage products thread

I'm just presenting the figures given to me by the shoppingsystem, and it was the cheapest way I presented, there were two more options that cost even more... All were UPS...
The reason I did that was because of the crazy cost.

If you are in Norway/Sweden/Denmark you can use www.jetcarrier.com to transport the Norco over the pond.

I used Jetcarrier.com and had my first 4020 shipped by air, for a total cost of about $200.
Had I chosen frieght by shippingcontainer, it would have cost aprox. $50, but the freighttime by ship is about 4 weeks and I didnt want to wait that long :)

My 2nd Norco 4020 I bought from Dustin Home (big swedish computer retailer), but they stopped selling products from Norco due to too many complaints from customers, unfortunally. People had too many complaints about the backplanes, even thought I've never had any problems with either of my 4020's. Guess it must have been a bad batch.
 
Has anybody purchased a 4224 yet in the USA? Curious about the fan bracket changes and heat management in general with the new model

Mine arrived this week, it's 4x Delta AFB0812H's in the middle, 2x Delta FFB0812VHE's on the back. Disappointing they went with the 80mm fans in the middle after all, but it's the VHEs I'm more keen to replace (57cf/m, 45db each).
 
They just updated the product page recently. WTF is so hard about 120mm fans?
 
You'd have thought they could get the same airflow with 2x 120mm, which would still allow for the cable routing through the center of the panel. I'm quite tempted to mod it that way.
 
Mine arrived this week, it's 4x Delta AFB0812H's in the middle, 2x Delta FFB0812VHE's on the back. Disappointing they went with the 80mm fans in the middle after all, but it's the VHEs I'm more keen to replace (57cf/m, 45db each).

That sucks. :(

Does it look like this>>

Click to view full size!


The 4x80mm board... If it is then it means they didnt change the design....
 
I am looking at the NORCO 4020 for a nice box to house my ESXi whitebox in. I plan to use a Dell Perc 5/6 raid controller and have read that it needs good air flow. Does the Norco 4020 push a good amount of air with those fans?
 
Mine arrived this week, it's 4x Delta AFB0812H's in the middle, 2x Delta FFB0812VHE's on the back. Disappointing they went with the 80mm fans in the middle after all, but it's the VHEs I'm more keen to replace (57cf/m, 45db each).

Thanks for the report - very disappointing though :(

I hadn't noticed the change, nor read anything about that on AVS or here... Now some smart alec points it out on AVS.... sigh.
 
Mine arrived this week, it's 4x Delta AFB0812H's in the middle, 2x Delta FFB0812VHE's on the back. Disappointing they went with the 80mm fans in the middle after all, but it's the VHEs I'm more keen to replace (57cf/m, 45db each).

Hey Litfod are the SAS connectors in the centre? Like so:


Click to view full size!
 
Ahhhhhh Coooool I see they made provisions for the centre SAS connectors but retained the 4x80mm. And also it has thumb screws now....

Interesting....
 
A couple of other observations from your pictures:

- Looks like they filled in all the extra space with metal. Should fix the leaky back flow design from the 4220 - at least this one will actually pull air over the drives instead of just making lots of noise. Of course, you'll need to foam-fill the cable cutouts to make it work really well. Even without the 120mm fans, this design is appears to be a HUGE improvement.

- It will be interesting to see if anyone has success with quiet 4x80mm's generating enough airflow to cool 24 drives...but at least with this mid-plane there might be hope. It would still make more noise than 3x120s, would never satisfy Mike C over at Silent PC, but it might not be too bad.

- The top of the case doesn't seem to have any cutouts to receive the the lid-locks from the 4020/4220. Not a big deal since the old lid-lock system was best known for jamming and having to be pried open. How do the secure the lid now? Screws only?
 
Got an RPC-4224 last Thurdsay. Been trying to finish up a full write-up w/ lots of pics, should be up tomorrow.

@FragMan: No, 2 x 140mm would not have been better - drop in static pressure is prob more than i'd like. Now, a few 120mm's OTOH... thats one compromise i'm willing to make. And will make at some point once I'm done testing w/ the stock stuff.
 
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Speaking of fan brackets - I just got a 4020. What's the current thinking on lowering the noise level? I've been reading about replacing some of the 80mm's with either 2 or 3 120mm fans. I also remember someone from another forum was selling replacement brackets for iirc three 120mm fans.

I figure I'll replace all the fans eventually, even though they aren't as loud as I thought they might be, since I'll sitting in the same room with the Norco when I'm working.
 
i have the custom 4220 bracket that was made by a fellow {H} member that is 3x120mm fans and it works great.... in my 4020

it only lines up with 1 screw hole but that with some engineering it works fine
 
[LYL]Homer;1036146623 said:
Speaking of fan brackets - I just got a 4020. What's the current thinking on lowering the noise level? I've been reading about replacing some of the 80mm's with either 2 or 3 120mm fans. I also remember someone from another forum was selling replacement brackets for iirc three 120mm fans.

I figure I'll replace all the fans eventually, even though they aren't as loud as I thought they might be, since I'll sitting in the same room with the Norco when I'm working.

I switched out the stock fans in my 4020 with Panaflo's and have been fairly happy. Cavediver is the forum member who makes the 3x120mm fan backplane for the 4220. I haven't purchased one for my 4020 as I don't really feel like modding to that extent to get it to fit. If I ever add a 4224 to my setup, I'll probably be talking to cavediver.
 
The airflow is fine, they come with Deltas installed that really move some air.
I bought a custom fan bracket and mounted 3x 120mm Scythe Slipstreams 1600RPM fans to lower the noise and replaced the exhaust fans with some panaflows.

Still keeping my rig nice and cool :)
 
got an email from xcase.co.uk saying that they will be putting the 4224 up on there website within 2 weeks with a price £349, which is very reasonable as they are selling the 4220 for that much.

cant wait to read your review odditory, looking forward to it very much.
 
My review of the Norco RPC-4224 ended up too big to post here so its on my blog:

http://www.mondostor.com/2010/09/norco-rpc-4224-4u-server-case-review.html

Some nice improvements including hot swappable midplane fans and easily removable backplane boards. Unfortunately Norco decided to go with 80mm fans at the midplane again instead of 3 x 120mm - something myself and others had been begging them for during the last 9 months - but they promise they're working on something for people that want 120mm.

1.JPG

2.JPG
 
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Sounds good. I see one of these in my future. Where do the two optional drives mount and are they 3.5"? My OS is currently running on a RAID 1 array of 2 3.5" drives.
 
good question, still trying to figure that out. waiting on an answer back from norco.

It looks to me like the area in front of the power supply has got some new features that weren't there in the 4020 (not sure about the 4220 though). Are those slots possibly the correct width for the threaded holes on the bottom of a 3.5" HDD?

The brackets shown in your review also look like they might be designed to mount on the inner sides of the case. Do any of the holes seem to align there?
 
Update, Norco tells me the brackets are for mounting a redundant power supply. Even more confused now. :) Will have to see how that works as well as see if they can be used for internal drive mounting.
 
My review of the Norco RPC-4224 ended up too big to post here so its on my blog

What sort of drive temps do you consider reasonable for a densely-packed case like this? I'm planning to switch out the fans because the case will end up by my desk, so I'll need to make sure they're still adequate for the job. In the stock configuration it's much too loud for me (which came as no surprise).
 
nice review
though one bad thing, with 4224 you need to change fans, else you lose hotswaping and add lose wires
with 4220 you coulda just add resistor to fans cable and call it a day
 
true, but replacement fans don't have to cost a lot - example I bought some 80mm evercool's a year ago for like $1.19 each that worked great in a 4020 case and very quiet. personally i'd rather spend a few dollars on fans than add wire clutter with resistor cables.

also, the RPC-4220 design has changed to match that of the RPC-4224, meaning new RPC-4220 units shipping to retailers share the same hot-swap fan midplane bracket as the RPC-4224, and for that matter also the RPC-4116. it seems they've modularized their components across all their products, so for example their SAS and SATA backplane boards are interchangeable as well now.

on the bright side that means if cavediver or Norco themselves come out with a 120mm midplane fan bracket, it'll fit in any of their newly redesigned 4U cases.
 
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Good news, 120mm bracket by Norco for all their *new* 4U cases including the RPC-4224 available next month "free upon request", since they had originally intended to ship 120mm brackets standard, but due to production delays switched to 80mm fans at last minute. I suggested that they to produce these with flexible rubber grommets in the cable passthroughs so people don't have to resort to covering them with tape and other assorted ugliness. At this point, whether to go with 120mm brackets or not isn't so cut and dry - there's something to be said for keeping the 80mm bracket and going with quieter fans for maintaining hot-swappability. However for lowest noise 120mm will be the way to go.

120mm.jpg
 
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Is there a cooling advantage to three 120mm fans versus five 80mm fans or is it just a matter of noise?
 
1$? You've gotta be kidding me. Do you need to buy their fans also? I saw that the 4224 has some kind of proprietary connectors on it's fans.
From a purely academic perspective, will using 120 mm fans do anything aside from reducing noise? Do 3 x 120 mm fans increase air flow over 4 x 80 mm fans? What have the results been for people who have swapped out the 4 x 80mm bracket on the 4220 for a 3 x 120mm setup?
Getting my ducks in a row and my pennies in rolls for this case as we speak.
 
Excellent news, thanks odditory! Ordered one.

btw, I got a 4020 about 2 weeks ago. Came with slim optical drive slot and 2 cages 'on top' for internal 3.5" drives.
 
The 120mm panels cost around 16$ after shipping added, which is going to add more than 50$ to my overall price.
50$ is not that much but I just hate stuff like this.
 
$16 shipped is not bad at all. I'll probably order a few, but I'm not sure if I'll put them in for a while.
 
How do you know if you have the new model of the 4220? I bought one about a month ago which has the optical drive and two mounting plates for internal 2.5" drives.
 
ok this maybe a silly question but where the heck do you mount internal hdds in the RPC-4224 ? Did anyone figure this out?
 
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