*Official* Norco data storage products thread

eg1l said:
Do you guys know if newegg sells the new type 4020? They still lists the old specs and old pics.
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I got the 4220 case about 3 weeks ago from Newegg and it is the new model/version. I'm sure it'll be newer version of the 4020 as well. The case was shipped directly from City of Industry... where Norco is based. :)
 
Ah, ok. So this also means new type drive caddys?
Is the old type 4020 still around? I see a few 4020's on ebay, but they all seem to have old specs.
 
What's your question about the old 4020? I really wouldn't recommend it. The main problem was the drive sleds were so difficult to get in and out of the slots - tolerances were crap.
 
odditory said:
What's your question about the old 4020? I really wouldn't recommend it. The main problem was the drive sleds were so difficult to get in and out of the slots - tolerances were crap.
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I got my 4020 at the beginning of Sept. and it had a newer design for the caddies than the post you made about the closeable cooling vents. They all work just fine for me. The bottom row ones need to be slid in with a slight upward cant, but that's it.
 
I have the original 4020 and while there is not a lot of tolerances on the drive caddies, it was by no means a big problem. I dont know about the rest of you guys but i dont change my drives all this often, so while if i was purchasing today i might do a 4220 or 4224 but those issues are by far not nearly big enough to cause me to consider upgrading.
 
odditory said:
What's your question about the old 4020? I really wouldn't recommend it. The main problem was the drive sleds were so difficult to get in and out of the slots - tolerances were crap.
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No, actually I'm trying to avoid the old one ;)
 
RPC-4216 (RPC-4116 but with SFF-8087 backplane) is expected in early 2011...
RPC-4116 with SFF-8087 backplane can be ordered with a $40 extra charge for the backplane swap.
I have no idea about the price-range for the RPC-4216...
 
Sorry to jump topics here, but I just received a Norco RL-26 rail kit today for my RPC-470. (One of the rails was damaged in shipping but it looks fixable.)

Unfortunately, the cage nuts that came with my cabinet have the wrong gauge screw hole. I can't mount the RL-26. Any idea where I can buy some cage nuts that are compatible with the RL-26?

This is my first foray into racks so sorry if this is a super dumb question.
 
nowwhatnapster said:
Unfortunately, the cage nuts that came with my cabinet have the wrong gauge screw hole.
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Didn't your rack / cabinet come with a bag of hardware? Usually they come with the snap-on captive nuts (if required) AND bolts. The rails should just have holes or slots that any reasonable sized bolt should fit through.
 
john4200 said:
Didn't your rack / cabinet come with a bag of hardware? Usually they come with the snap-on captive nuts (if required) AND bolts. The rails should just have holes or slots that any reasonable sized bolt should fit through.
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Sorry, please disregard my first post. I figured out how to use the mounting hardware that came with the Norco rails. :) No cage nuts were needed.
 
Would you recommend noctua fans in a 4020?
I'm thinking 3x 120mm and 2x 80.
 
eg1l said:
Would you recommend noctua fans in a 4020?
I'm thinking 3x 120mm and 2x 80.
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I'm running that exact setup in my 4220, and it's all running smoothly.

Drive temps seem to hover around the 30 C [~86 F] mark which I'm perfectly happy with.
 
Just a heads up for those looking for a cheap Norco case...NewEgg is selling the Norco 4220 with a sliding rail kit for $279.99 w/free shipping. Best price I have seen it in a while, and it just went on sale this morning.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219033

Get it while it's available! It's sure not to last...

Oh and it requires a minimum of 50 posts to post in the hot deals part of this forum (meh), so if someone could spread the word there too, that would be great. Thanks!

Edit: Also, slightly off-topic, but they also have the Samsung F4 drives back at the $79.99 price. Use promo code EMCZNNY88 for $20 off. Quantity limit of 5.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245
 
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Hmm, I initially though of buying a 4020, but the offer for a 4220 at newegg is tempting.
The difference between 4020 and 4220 is just the backplanes? And, can you use a sas -> sata the other way around? If I connect a sas -> sata cable to the backplane, I could use the sata connectors on my motherboard?
 
eg1l said:
The difference between 4020 and 4220 is just the backplanes? And, can you use a sas -> sata the other way around? If I connect a sas -> sata cable to the backplane, I could use the sata connectors on my motherboard?
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To go from 4x sata on your motherboard, to SFF-8087 on the backplane, you need a reverse breakout cable. A normal SFF-8087 to 4x sata breakout cable, which looks nearly identical, will not work, they are wired differently.
 
I just got my 4220 last week. Bought Norcos 120mm fan bracket and their SFF-8087 cables. Now I can't get the 120mm fan bracket and the cables to fit together. The holes in the 120mm fan bracket are not lining up with the SFF-8087 connectors on the back plane like they do with the standard 80mm fan bracket. So this means that I have to bend the cables A LOT but it is not enough room. If I try to force the 120mm fan bracket in place when I have the cables connected, it will surely break the connectors on the back plane.

How have you guys solved this issue?
 
hyperion007 said:
I just got my 4220 last week. Bought Norcos 120mm fan bracket and their SFF-8087 cables. Now I can't get the 120mm fan bracket and the cables to fit together. The holes in the 120mm fan bracket are not lining up with the SFF-8087 connectors on the back plane like they do with the standard 80mm fan bracket. So this means that I have to bend the cables A LOT but it is not enough room. If I try to force the 120mm fan bracket in place when I have the cables connected, it will surely break the connectors on the back plane.

How have you guys solved this issue?
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You can bend the cables as much as you need to make them fit. It won't hurt the cables.
 
The problem is that if I bend the cables THAT much, it will put a huge amount of strain on the connectors on the back planes and they will most likely snap. Surely someone else has experience using Norco's own 120mm fan bracket?
 
Are you sure you're not placing the 120mm bracket too close to the backplane? There are two sets of holes that you can use - one that puts the bracket closer to the backplane, and one that's about an inch or two further away. You want to use the set of holes that place the bracket further away, then the cables won't have to bend nearly as much. I guess its high time I posted pics of how I mounted this thing, and some tricks to re-using the fanboard from the old 80mm bracket.
 
You were right about the two different mounting locations. But it is still to tight in my opinion.

Or what do you guys think? Even at the rear most location, the cables are badly bent and touch the fan. I could maybe mount a fan grille but that would add to the thickness of the fans thus cause even tighter bends on the cables. Are there L-shaped cables out there somewhere?

Look here:

IMG_0014.JPG


IMG_0015.JPG


IMG_0016.JPG
 
I used the holes that put the mid plane closer to the front of the case, (one can see the rear mounting holes in this photo) but moved the fans to the back of the mid plane. With the fans on the back one can more easy plug them into the MB too.





 
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Thanks! That was of course the simple solution I should have figured out myself! Sometimes I'm amazed at how stupid I can be :)
 
Yes, and not only that. there is another header to the right of the white one. I took another photo:

I have been searching for hours trying to figure out what they are. I guess they could be for individual activity LED / faulty disc identifier (can't for the life of me remember what it's called) But I can't find any info about these.

Can someone tell me how to connect these back planes so that each HDD activity LED is connected separately so I can see if one disc is "working" and one isn't. It seems stupid to have all the LEDs connected to the same HDD activity header on the motherboard

IMG_0020.JPG
 
hyperion007 said:
Yes, and not only that. there is another header to the right of the white one. I took another photo:

I have been searching for hours trying to figure out what they are. I guess they could be for individual activity LED / faulty disc identifier (can't for the life of me remember what it's called) But I can't find any info about these.

Can someone tell me how to connect these back planes so that each HDD activity LED is connected separately so I can see if one disc is "working" and one isn't. It seems stupid to have all the LEDs connected to the same HDD activity header on the motherboard
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+1

I too would like to know what the story is with these things.
 
Nice PWM fans hyperion007. Pls give us a noise report when built. My Supermicro bios isn't as aggressive as some of my HP blades. But once booted the sucking sound from 5 three pin fans does goes down a bit :)
 
I got an answer from Mike at Norco yesterday regarding the white connector and the 12 exposed pins next to it (far right on each backplane)

This is what he said: "The white small connector and 12 exposed pins are for testing only. You needn’t use them."
 
hyperion007 said:
I got an answer from Mike at Norco yesterday regarding the white connector and the 12 exposed pins next to it (far right on each backplane)

This is what he said: "The white small connector and 12 exposed pins are for testing only. You needn’t use them."
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Well that was anticlimactic...

Any chance we can get a pinout?
 
Well, since they won't even provide a manual of any kind and that short "shut-it-down-quick" answer makes me think it would be kind of hard getting any info about the pinout even.
 
So if you have 24 drives and one of them dies how do you know which it is?
 
nitrobass24 said:
On my 4020 the activity Light will be Solid Red.
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Is that only of a drive has completely failed or does it also do that if you eject a drive from the array? As in such a situation where a drive is failing but hasn't gone the way of the dodo yet.
 
I cant "eject" a bad drive on my 1680 AFAIK so i have no idea.
 
nitrobass24 said:
I cant "eject" a bad drive on my 1680 AFAIK so i have no idea.
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So if a drive is giving you 1,000's of errors you just have to live with it until it dies? That sucks because during that time you could have some serious data corruption. Am I wrong?
 
I would just pull it out and let it rebuild with the Hot Spare.
 
But how would you know which drive it was if the red light only comes on when the drive has failed?
 
nitrobass24 said:
On my 4020 the activity Light will be Solid Red.
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How does the 4020 know when a drive is bad? Is there some standard pin on the SATA interface that tells the backplane which LED to light up?

I always thought this was something the controller had to be involved in, possibly using SGPIO pins, but it would be great if I'm wrong.
 
Could someone also enlighten me as to what the different colors mean?
 
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