*Official* Norco data storage products thread

odditory said:
my impression is its back burner for now because Norco hasn't been able to find a hardware partner to produce an expander PCB for them. they seemed to prefer the idea of a PCIe card approach - like the HP SAS Expander - so they could sell it standalone. I suggested they consider designing a backplane with an integrated expander chip since they could set their cases apart from the competition rather than trying to sell low-margin standalone expanders. i'd definitely pay a premium for a case with integrated expander over the sum cost of both parts standalone. and less cable clutter.
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Thanks Odditory. Excuse the laziness (The HP exapnder thread is huge) but was a neat little pcb to do power control and secure the HP expander in the Norco cases ever found. I think I'm at least a year off needing more bays but putting together my rack over the weekend just made me think about the future.
 
Just got a tracking number for my 120mm fan bracket, delivery scheduled for Friday the 29th.
 
Pictures of the two fanboards:
Thanks to jhunt31 @ OCAU.

Yes we have these here in Australia now! Shipment came on Monday and cases and boards were distributed today and collected.! Woooooo

norco-fan-1-smaller.jpg


norco-fan-2-smaller.jpg
 
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Treyshadow said:
Do they make a 120mm fan bracket for the 4220?
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if you read through this thread you'll see there are two different models of RPC-4220. assuming you're talking about the old model (not many people have the new), no Norco doesn't make one. however cavediver on this forum used to sell a custom one, you can contact him to see if he has any left.
 
killagorilla187 said:
Here is the link http://www.ipcdirect.net/servlet/Detail?no=258

And apparently they went up $10 bucks from the $1 + shipping i paid.
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I do not understand what Norco is doing. I saw a post here that Norco was going to give them away for anyone who bought a case, now they are selling for $11.

Does anyone know if Norco plans to ship the cases with the 120mm brackets in the future? Or are they sticking with the old brackets?
 
john4200 said:
I do not understand what Norco is doing. I saw a post here that Norco was going to give them away for anyone who bought a case, now they are selling for $11.

Does anyone know if Norco plans to ship the cases with the 120mm brackets in the future? Or are they sticking with the old brackets?
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People were probably complaining about $20 for shipping so they took $8 off the shipping and added $10 onto the price.
 
to me its still a no-brainer for $19.49 shipped, and not everyone is going to want the 120mm bracket anyway - for one you're losing the hot swap aspect of the fans, and you have to invest in three new 120mm fans.

i installed mine a few days ago - it did drop my drive temps a few degrees, and noise dropped off significantly, (once I swapped out the rear 80mm delta's) but it took some fiddling to mount the fan power board somewhere reasonable - going to have to write some instructions for it.
 
Currently have the Supermicro X8SIA-F and trying to figure out where I put the cables from the front of the Norco 4224 case;

VCC, Data -, Data +
GND

Power SW
H.D.D LED
Power LED +
Power LED -

I've found in the Supermicro manual that one would NORMALLY Power LED Header Indicator but its simple not enough heh.
 
VenomousDesigns said:
Currently have the Supermicro X8SIA-F and trying to figure out where I put the cables from the front of the Norco 4224 case;

VCC, Data -, Data +
GND

Power SW
H.D.D LED
Power LED +
Power LED -

I've found in the Supermicro manual that one would NORMALLY Power LED Header Indicator but its simple not enough heh.
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See page 2-23 of the manual for the power switch, power led, HDD led, and reset switch.

See page 2-19 of the manual for the header configuration.
 
Can reverse breakout cables be used from the backplane to SATA ports on a motherboard? I'm thinking that my motherboard has 8 SATA ports and 2 PCIE slots which I can populate with 2 X AOC-SASLP-MV8.
 
@picker: Nice, you used foam to block the unused space in the cable openings. I did the same in my case (Chenbro RM91250). Works like a charm, blocks the air and dampens any vibrations at the same time :)

@S-F: look at the pictures that picker posted right above your post... :)
 
I'm using the Norco RPC-4224 with a Supermicro MBD-X8SIL-F -O and an Areca 1880i. I have decided to use the top row of drive bays for OS drives attached directly to the Supermicro's SATA ports. I'm using one of the included reverse breakout cables from the Areca for those 4 bays but bios does not see any of the drives (IDE nor AHCI mode). I did also attach the SGPIO section of the cable to the Supermicro's SGPIO-0 header.

Should the Areca cable work or must I use Norco branded discrete SATA to SFF-8087 Mini SAS Reverse breakout cable?

The power LEDs are lit to those four drives. Am I missing something else?
 
@ecleese: AFAIK, the Norco backplanes do NOT support any SGPIO options. The backplanes do have footprints for chips to communicate via SGPIO but Norco does not seem to populate them! As to the cable, I am not 100% sure, but it is entirely possible that you will need a different cable. The cable you used is intended to connect a controller (1 x SFF-8087) to SATA drives or a backplane with individual SATA connectors (4 x SATA) aka a forward breakout cable. You will need a reverse breakout cable to connect the backplane in your Norco 4224 (1 x SFF-8087) to the SATA ports on the motherboard (4 x SATA)!
 
I thought so too. I have a feeling that those Areca cables can only be used the opposite way, breaking out from the Areca card to 4 sata drives.

I've confirmed the Areca card can see the 4 drives using a traditional SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable so I know the backplane is operating correctly.

Thanks for the heads up, guess I'm off to Newegg.
 
Misread unfortunately. Reverse and forward cables aren't the same, but brand doesn't matter.
 
A 4224 just arrived at my door today. What are all of these bits in the accessory box? Random plates of steel and the like. I heard a rumor that some of them are for mounting a second PSU. ??
What's the rest of this stuff?
 
Blue Fox said:
Misread unfortunately. Reverse and forward cables aren't the same, but brand doesn't matter.
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In fact, it seems like no matter what vendor I order SFF cables from lately, I always get exactly the same Molex-branded, mesh-sleeved cables.
 
I didn't know that is what those are for. But if they are for CPU mounting, they must be for dual LGA771 motherboards, which have through holes for the CPU heatsink screws, in a rectangular pattern. I would think you attach the brackets to the chassis in the correct position, then mount the motherboard and CPUs, then screw the heatsinks into the brackets.

The dual 1366 motherboards have built-in brackets with threaded holes, so no need to use anything special with a dual 1366 motherboard.

And if you have a single-CPU motherboard, then you obviously do not need them.
 
^ you're right about the LGA771 john. that's what they're for - I have two Supermicro X7DWE motherboards that require those rectangular brackets. Newer mobo's like LGA1366 sure enough don't need it. Intel finally did something right and improved the design after LGA771.
 
A bit of news: Norco is prepping an expander chassis, first a 2U 12-slot case, then a few months later a 4U 24-slot. I should know more + pics in a few weeks.
 
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Asked a while back, does anyone know if 3126 backplanes work in the 3116?
 
odditory said:
A bit of news: Norco is prepping an expander chassis, first a 2U 12-slot case, then 4U 24-slot. I should know more + pics in a few weeks.
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That is good news, Just got my 4224 up and running and was hopping to get the 4U 24-Slot around the first of the year.

Thanks odditory, Please do keep us informed

Richard
 
Wowowow the 4U 24Slot expander chassis. Sounds good.

Make sure it's 120mm fanboards! and enough room to fit PSU and maybe a expander card.
 
So has anyone else tried to buy the 120mm plate from norco to find that they want more to ship it then it cost to buy it? Is there another place that sells them for cheaper? I was wanting to order a few more things from them but it seems like they just charge you what the part cost twice or something..
 
Jerky_san said:
So has anyone else tried to buy the 120mm plate from norco to find that they want more to ship it then it cost to buy it? Is there another place that sells them for cheaper? I was wanting to order a few more things from them but it seems like they just charge you what the part cost twice or something..
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I could only find it for 1$ + 15 shipping
 
Considering that it costs more than $1 to fabricate this bracket (not to mention the transportation, administration, warehousing, distribution cost, etc.), I think this is an absolute bargain even if it would cost $10 + $15 for shipping it would still be a bargain!
 
treadstone said:
Considering that it costs more than $1 to fabricate this bracket (not to mention the transportation, administration, warehousing, distribution cost, etc.), I think this is an absolute bargain even if it would cost $10 + $15 for shipping it would still be a bargain!
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Seeing as cavediver's fan board costed me $65 including shipping, I'd say it's a bargain even at twice the price! :)
 
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