*Official* Norco data storage products thread

Is the power issue present on all backplanes/models? I don't want my RPC-2208 to lose disks when swapping one.

Small other question now for people running 2U Norco's. Since the 80mm fans are loud as hell, what replacements would you recommend, keeping airflow in mind. I would like to find a nice balance between cool drives and less loud fans.
 
Any quiet fan should work, as long as it moves enough air. Yate Loon low or medium speed would be a good place to start, or you could try a fan controller with the current fans. A Zalman fan mate 2 or similar with a 3pin to 4pin adapter should work.
 
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Thanks, I narrowed down my search to either the Coolermaster Blade Master 80 (3k RPM, 69,3 m3/h, 28dBA) or PAPST 8412/N2GH (3600 RPM, 79 m3/h, 37dBA).

Still a big difference from the original Delta 116 m3/h 48,5 dBA fans though.
 
I have not received my Norco case yet, but I was considering replacing the stock fans with Scythe SP0825FDB12M 80 mm fans (30.7 cfm, 25.9 dBA). I was debating between the Scythe fan and the Enermax UC-8EB (24 cfm, 14 dBA), which would be on the very quiet end of the spectrum. I think I will try the Scythes, they should push enough air for me and my case wont be in a living area. You also cant go wrong with a Noctua fan.
 
I've got a 4224. I ordered the 120mm bracket and put these on it. Then I replaced the 80mm fans with these.

It's virtually silent and stays very cool. I haven't had any issues with the case. Loving it.
 
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I have the 4020 and I'm run two Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000rpm, definitely not quiet, but I have replacement Scythe Gentle Typhoon (1800rpm) that should do nicely.

I think it really depends what kind of drives you'll be running, if they're all 7200rpm then you'll need a lot more air. If they're 5400rpm "green" drives then a much slower ran will be required.
 
The manufacturer provided dB ratings on fans are about as useful as the manufacturer provided contrast ratings on LCD monitors. Which is to say, they aren't useful at all. If you want to compare fans, they need to be tested in the same test rig, with very careful control of outside noise, vibration, and placement.

The FDB Scythe fans are decent, but a little overpriced. At $8-$9 or so each, they're somewhat time/cost effective at qty 4. At qty. 10 or above if you're paying more than $5 per fan, you're probably throwing money away.

The vast majority of quiet fans are just loud fans with a resistor added. A fan controller is a variable resistor, and a single fan controller is perfectly capable of controlling the speed of 4-10 fans, if not more. Going with a fan controller lets you start with a fast fan, and dial it down to the point where it's still cooling well, but quieter. Though you need to watch out for fans that are known to click when slowed down.

These days I mostly use Yate Loon fans, which I purchase for around $3 each, usually from Jab-Tech, sometimes elsewhere if they're out of stock. I have also used many Panaflo, Nexus and Scythe fans.

Panaflos were the previous price price performance leaders, and have been mostly eclipsed by the Yate Loons. They usually lasted for 3-7 years of continuous use with decent noise levels.

Nexus fans are nice, but they're usually just rebadged Yate Loons with fancier packaging, and a larger resistor value, which makes them tend to be overpriced for what you're getting.

Scythe sleeve bearing fans are very unreliable, most of mine died within months of being placed into service. Scythe FDB fans, are, as I mentioned above, pretty decent. In theory, FDB bearings can give a longer service life, while still remaining quiet.
 
Can anyone recommend some quality rails for the 4224? All the most recent reviews on newegg say the Norco RL-26 suck now, they greased up metal-on-metal instead of ball bearings.
 
A good (but expensive) 120mm fan for the Norco 4224 is the Noctua NF-F12.

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=42&lng=en&set=1

The nice thing about the F12 is that it has the best static pressure of any low RPM fan I have seen. I think static pressure is important in a case like the Norco 4224, since the HDDs are packed together so closely and there is a lot of air resistance to sucking the air past the HDDs. A fan with decent static pressure is important.
 
zeroARMY said:
Can anyone recommend some quality rails for the 4224? All the most recent reviews on newegg say the Norco RL-26 suck now, they greased up metal-on-metal instead of ball bearings.
Click to expand...

Assuming it hasn't also been "updated", then these are probably decent:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816321004

The pictures look pretty much exactly like the Norco RL-26 of 2 revisions back.

You could also try contacting Norco directly, they may still be able to sell you the ball bearing RL-26s.
 
Franko said:
I just purchased a Norco 4220 and ordered the heavy duty ball bearing rails from Norco's storefront along with the 120mm fanwall. The rails worked fine and fit right into my Dell 2410 rack. Here is the link:

http://www.ipcdirect.net/servlet/Detail?no=314
Click to expand...

How do you like that rack? Thinking of getting a rack. I'd like to put my gaming rig in this and then put both into a rack of some sort. I've been looking at this rack, but the reviews scare me. Looks like what I want though.
 
I currently have an AM3/1090T system with crossfired 5870s in a Rosewill RSV-L4000, which is pretty similar to the RPC-470. It has been on sale quite a few times in the $60-$80 range, shipped. One advantage it has over the RPC-470, is that it uses 120mm fans, instead of 80mm fans.

The biggest issue with using 4u cases for desktop/gaming machines is that they're a bit cramped, even the really deep ones, especially when it comes to large/tall air coolers. The AM3 system I mentioned, is cooled by a corsair H50, with the radiator mounted on the center 120mm fan slot, with air intake coming from the relatively cool HDD air, from the front. I have also mounted a Norco SS-500 hot swap bay in my Rosewill case, it's a lot nicer than the cheap plastic HDD trays that the Rosewill comes with.

Since a picture is worth 1000 words, here it is:



A less cost effective, but arguably nicer 4u case, that is worth considering for desktop type builds, is the Chenbro RM41300-FS81. There's a great thread about it here.

As for racks, I'd look on Craig's list, depending on where you live, there's usually a few listed by motivated sellers that just want to get rid of the thing. A 25" deep case, like an RPC-470, or the RSV-L4000, is pretty deep. So you'll need to make sure any rack you buy is deep enough. The rack in the picture is 30" deep, and would be about 32" deep if it had it's front and rear doors on. I'd have to remove the handles from the cases, to be able to close the front door, and doors in general make it a bit of a pain to get at the systems, so I've left them all off for now.
 
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stewartjm said:
I currently have an AM3/1090T system with crossfired 5870s in a Rosewill RSV-L4000, which is pretty similar to the RPC-470. It has been on sale quite a few times in the $60-$80 range, shipped. One advantage it has over the RPC-470, is that it uses 120mm fans, instead of 80mm fans.
Click to expand...

What rail kit are you using?
 
zeroARMY said:
What rail kit are you using?
Click to expand...

I'm using ball bearing Norco RL-26 rails, most of which came from Newegg a year or 2 ago. I'm pretty sure the one Franko linked is the same revision that I'm using. They're a tight fit on the screw holes of the Rosewill case, and a perfect fit on my Norco cases.

My only complaint is that I wish they extended a little further before hitting the stop point. If I want to get inside a case, which has a case immediately above it, I have to release the latches and pull the case out another 2-3 inches, before I can get the lid off.
 
officer921 said:
How do you like that rack? Thinking of getting a rack. I'd like to put my gaming rig in this and then put both into a rack of some sort. I've been looking at this rack, but the reviews scare me. Looks like what I want though.
Click to expand...
I like the Dell. Its well designed and solidly built. I prefer it over an open rack as it keeps people and pets away from the important parts. Its also somewhat anti-theft in that with it chained down in my garage it will take a thief longer to disassemble it and steal my parts. The only drawback is that the rack is deep so its hard to find a good spot for it.

I bought it because the price was right. I watch Craigslist locally and it was on sale for $250. I suggest you do the same as some screaming deals on really nice gear can be had if you can wait for them to show up. The norco reviews scare me as well; that is why I just waited for a "brand name" unit to show up used and at the right price.

I suggest the following case for your gaming machine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811123153

I have one and its great. Its really well designed, and a pleasure to work on.
 
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I moved my NAS to my Norco 2208 and I'm pretty happy with it. Swapping fans was rather easy (got myself some "cheapass" sharkoon fans as they were the only ones on stock) and even with the less powerful fans the disks are running 23 to 24 degrees C. In my Fractal they ran around 30 deg C.

Installation of the board was pretty easy overall. Just had some issues with the limited space between the backplane and fan bracket. I don't have angled SAS cables so it bends pretty hefty on both backplane and M1015 card. So far no cabling errors in SMART.

Bottomline:
- NorcoTek is great value for money. If you want a rack case without getting murdered by your wife/girlfriend, Norco is the one to go.
- The lower price does show itself in finish though. The fan bracket is pretty sharp and the ears on the side of the case that hold the rails were totally misplaced. (had to saw them off to get the rails to fit).
 
Can anyone help me out with an LGA771 Heatsink mounting backplate for a 4224? I just got a new one and it does not have a backplate with it and I cant use the one from my old case because the 4224 has taller than normal standoffs. I read from earlier in the thread that older 4224s came with the needed backplate.
 
Franko said:
I just purchased a Norco 4220 and ordered the heavy duty ball bearing rails from Norco's storefront along with the 120mm fanwall. The rails worked fine and fit right into my Dell 2410 rack. Here is the link:

http://www.ipcdirect.net/servlet/Detail?no=314
Click to expand...

Hrmm I keep hearing that ball bearing RL-26 and most Norcos won't fit in a EIA standard case.

ex:
http://forums.servethehome.com/showthread.php?276-Racking-a-Norco-4220
http://forums.servethehome.com/showthread.php?441-Questions-re-Norco-RPC-2212
 
Well, on my latest Norco-4224 case, 2 of the 6 backplanes are currently not working. This is my 3rd case and this is the first time I have had any issues with my case. Since I've had only good experience with my previous Norco purchases, I'm hoping this is just an isolated incident.

I rather not have to return an entire case (given the weight) to newegg for what I'm hoping should be easier to RMA. There's been alot of good customer service and people mentioning to contact Mike@Norco here. Would he (if he's on here) or someone provide me with a contact if he doesn't mind. I rather try to get this resolved before going through a full rma either with newegg or norco. Please PM me if he rather not have a public list.

On a side note, if anyone has any suggestions on things I can try (to rule out user error) to solve these issues, I'll give anything a try.

The drives are working fine. I can plug them in any of the other bays on another 'row' and they get recongized immedietly. I plug currently working drives into either of these 2 backplanes and nothing. Currently, on one backplane the rightmost bay does not get detected all the time. When it drops, the adjacent one will drop as well. Neither of the lights work as well. On the other one, it's kinda of strange. 3 of the 4 bays does not work but not at the same time. Plugging in the first drive in whatever bay will come up with a failure on my areca bios and nothing gets detected afterwards on the 3 remaining. This is the same if I hotswap in a different order. The first drive becomes 'failure' and the remaining 3 are completely undetected/invisible to my areca bios.

Thanks.
 
Try taking the mini-SAS cable from one of the working backplanes and plug it into one of the suspect backplanes, thus simultaneously ruling out bad cable and bad RAID card port.

Similarly, try swapping around the power connections to the backplanes to rule out bad power cable (or loose connection) or bad rail from the PSU.
 
Will a SATA card like the areca-1280ml work with the Norco 4224? Of course I would only use SATA drives.
 
JoeComp said:
Try taking the mini-SAS cable from one of the working backplanes and plug it into one of the suspect backplanes, thus simultaneously ruling out bad cable and bad RAID card port.

Similarly, try swapping around the power connections to the backplanes to rule out bad power cable (or loose connection) or bad rail from the PSU.
Click to expand...

I just tried again. I actually swapped out my entire expander and the same issue. I even swapped out my raid card. Just for completion, I skipped my SAS Expander completely and plugged the troublesome planes directly to my areca card.

When it's directly plugged into the card, none of the drives from those backplanes would show up. It's alittle different, since going thru the sas card and the 1st detected drive would show up as a failure and the following 3 drives wouldn't show up.

I didn't swap power supplies. All the power is being pulled from the same rail. The 6 norco backplanes are actually connected via a single 1 to 7 norco power splitter. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133040

The power supply should be plenty. I own three 4224s and they all contain the same power supply, a Corsair's 1000w IIRC.

I'm still tring to get a contact from Norco to help with this issue. Would someone please PM me Mike's contact. Or contact him and ask if he's willing to contact me?
 
Anyone ever had experience with the Norco R4-15U 4 post rack? I've been wanting one of them and the RPC-470 case. Newegg has both for 15% off right now, so close to biting. The reviews for the rack aren't great, but I've read a couple other articles where people didn't have any problems. Like here.

I've already got a 4224 that my server is in. Planning on putting the gaming rig in the RPC-470 and then putting both cases in the rack. Thanks for any info.
 
War9200 sent me some plates and after some filing and drilling LGA771 xeon HSFs actually fit properly.
 
Baby Norco w/ 8 x 3.5" bays & mini-ITX may just be coming soon to a home theater near you.....You heard it here first ;)

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Holy sh££££££££t :D. That looks nice. If I ever need to get rid of my rackmountables *cough girlfriend patience cough* I might grab that one.
 
Has anyone managed to mount a 2.5" drive inside a Norco RPC-4224 or 4220? As in not inside one of the hot-swap bays, but inside the chassis. I'm looking for some ideas.

Thanks!
 
I got a CTM-1042SAS (4x 2.5" in a 5.25" slot) and stuck it to the left side and bottom of the case (inside) next to my mobo, with doublesided tape. Its not going anywhere.

Mounted it 2cm from the rear end of the case so I can still plug in the SATA cables and I can access the hotswap trays just barely without running into the forward fan wall or cable mess.
 
tycoonbob said:
Has anyone managed to mount a 2.5" drive inside a Norco RPC-4224 or 4220? As in not inside one of the hot-swap bays, but inside the chassis. I'm looking for some ideas.
Click to expand...

Most people just drill a few holes and mount a commercial 2.5" bracket of some sort. There are many ways to do it.

If you are not looking to drill any holes, and have an open slot or two, here is another way to do it:

http://atechfabrication.com/products/drive_mounting_kits.htm
 
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