*Official* Norco data storage products thread

Update... Back in June I posted after ordering a second pair of Norco RL-26 rails to mount my new RPC-4220. Newegg sent me the wrong item. They sent me some obscure rails that were labeled RL-26 but were not even ball bearing rails.
I spent about a month talking with newegg customer service until they eventually gave up. They credited my account and gave me an additional $20 bucks because they couldn't figure out what went wrong at the warehouse.

That was all fine and dandy and the $20 bucks kept my mouth shut from damaging newegg's reputation. So I went over to Mwave.com and ordered the Norco RL-26. Low and behold they sent me the same obscure rails newegg sent me! What gives!?!?!

Now I'm starting the return process with mwave and this time I'm skipping straight to a refund. I guess the next step is to contact Norco directly and see if I can sort this problem out with them. I'm starting to loose hope that I will get another RL-26 to match my existing RL-26.

Has anyone had this problem? I mean... surely someone else out there has bought Norco RL-26 from an online retailer in the last 3 months. I can't imagine I just have bad luck to receive the incorrect item 3 times in a row from two different retailers... :mad:
 
I returned one of the SAS backplanes today under warranty because one of the LEDs failed to light up from the array of four. There's something wrong with the soldering jobs in general of these backplanes, especially for the LEDs. The backplanes themselves work great, sometimes the LEDs just stop working...
 
@nowwhatnapster: I bought a set of RL-26 back in April and they are the ball-bearing type. Talk to Norco direct and see if they changed the supplier. Norco has a BAD habit of changing the actual item without changing the part number or at least stating a revision code on the item label on the outside of the box (e.g. RPC-4224 different revisions in the box but no way to tell from the part number/item label unless you open the box!).

@ugly: Are you referring to the blue LEDs?
 
nowwhatnapster said:
Update... Back in June I posted after ordering a second pair of Norco RL-26 rails to mount my new RPC-4220. Newegg sent me the wrong item. They sent me some obscure rails that were labeled RL-26 but were not even ball bearing rails.
I spent about a month talking with newegg customer service until they eventually gave up. They credited my account and gave me an additional $20 bucks because they couldn't figure out what went wrong at the warehouse.

That was all fine and dandy and the $20 bucks kept my mouth shut from damaging newegg's reputation. So I went over to Mwave.com and ordered the Norco RL-26. Low and behold they sent me the same obscure rails newegg sent me! What gives!?!?!

Now I'm starting the return process with mwave and this time I'm skipping straight to a refund. I guess the next step is to contact Norco directly and see if I can sort this problem out with them. I'm starting to loose hope that I will get another RL-26 to match my existing RL-26.

Has anyone had this problem? I mean... surely someone else out there has bought Norco RL-26 from an online retailer in the last 3 months. I can't imagine I just have bad luck to receive the incorrect item 3 times in a row from two different retailers... :mad:
Click to expand...

I believe that norco changed the rails. The last set you have is the same model that I have and it was ok, but I notice some flexing on the rails with with rpc4224 fully loaded. I see that they make the metal thicker on the newer one, but if it doesn't have the ball bearings, then I don't want it either.
 
treadstone said:
@nowwhatnapster: I bought a set of RL-26 back in April and they are the ball-bearing type. Talk to Norco direct and see if they changed the supplier. Norco has a BAD habit of changing the actual item without changing the part number or at least stating a revision code on the item label on the outside of the box (e.g. RPC-4224 different revisions in the box but no way to tell from the part number/item label unless you open the box!).

@ugly: Are you referring to the blue LEDs?
Click to expand...

It was both for me. I had a SAS drive plugged in and humming along just fine, but then the LEDs (both blue and green) stopped working. Maybe it's a vibration or QC issue. I've no idea.
 
I just got the new rail kit also, honestly this is a piece of crap. No ball bearings & no screws to mount it to the chassis, just some pieces of steel covered in grease.
 
That sucks to hear. I should be getting my RL-26 from Newegg on Friday, I'll update then.

My Supermicro rail kit was very nice and seem well engineered. Little things like rail kits will influence my future purchases of enclosures, hopefully Norco can give some feedback on the issues brought up here.
 
glad to hear in not alone. I sent an email to norco support but I have yet to hear anything back from them yet.

@dave99 - yeah these new rails don't even come close to the old ones which is why I'm so frustrated.

@adi - I am pleased with all my norco purchases thus far with the exception of these "new" rails. like I said before I spent a whole month going back and forth with newegg support and they basically gave up and handed me an additional 20 bucks for all the trouble.

I wish the both of you the best of luck if you intend to talk to customer service. Please post back with any news.
 
Got the kit, it's the grease covered metal version. It is also too thick for my rack, so even though my carpet, screw driver, and hands are covered in grease, I won't be racking the case anytime soon.

I remember reading somewhere that there are alternate racks if the RL-26 don't work, off to do homework on that, or put the Supermicro case back in my shopping cart.
 
adi said:
Got the kit, it's the grease covered metal version. It is also too thick for my rack, so even though my carpet, screw driver, and hands are covered in grease, I won't be racking the case anytime soon.

I remember reading somewhere that there are alternate racks if the RL-26 don't work, off to do homework on that, or put the Supermicro case back in my shopping cart.
Click to expand...

Found this thread when poking around. it's an old thread, but maybe it will help.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1434910
 
@adi - yeah they are significantly greasier than the old RL-26.

Mike @ Norco has confirmed the RL-26 have changed. Here is my transcript thus far. Read from the bottom up. (I replaced my name with Jon Smith, hope you don't mind)
Dear Mike,

I appreciate your response, however, I feel you have avoided resolving the problems at hand. While I appreciate your apology, it is not going to prevent this problem from reoccurring.

First and foremost I would like to address the revisions made to the RL-26 rails. I have reached out to the community and spoken with other owners of the "new" RL-26. We are all in agreement that we greatly dislike the revised RL-26. Primarily due to the lack of the ball-bearing mechanism. Without the ball-bearings the rails do not slide smoothly. Additionally, I found these rails to be significantly more greasy and unpleasant to handle than the old ones. Installation was quicker due to the notch on the end of the rails, but I think that is the only positive remark I have for the rails. Anyway you slice it the revised rails are a lesser product and their price should reflect that, which it doesn't.

This brings up the next topic, false advertisement. I bought the RL-26 because I believed I was ordering the same product I purchased last year. Unfortunately, all the major online retailers have not been informed of the product change and they are still promoting the old version. Even your own website still promotes the RL-26 as ball-bearing. "2U to 5U height, 26" 3-sections Ball Bearing Slide Rail." Once consumers are aware the product is falsely advertised, they will stop purchasing the RL-26.

This is hurting every party involved. Consumers are frustrated. Retailers reputations are being tested. Norco's brand name is suffering. There are products from your competitors that are a far better value. It is only a matter of time before the recourse of Norco's actions impact your sales figures.

I urge you to take action and resolve this in a logical manner.

P.S. I am still interested in obtaining the old RL-26. I would rather own a uniform array of products than a variety of mismatched products.

Sincerely,
Jon Smith

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: re: Problem Ordering RL-26
From: "Norco Mike" <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, August 31, 2011 8:38 pm
To:

Hi Jon,

RL-26 rails you received are new version which can work with all Norco new version enclosures. Sorry for your inconvenience.

Thanks and Regards,
Mike Wang
Norco Technologies Inc.
17531 Railroad Street
Suite C
City of Industry, CA 91748
Phone: 1(626)965-7470
Fax:1(866)430-0865
E-mail: [email protected]
MSN: [email protected]
Web: www.norcotek.com

---

Dear Service Dept,

I am a proud owner of a Norco RPC-470 & RPC-4220. Last year I purchased your RL-26 rails to mount the RPC-470. In June of this year I purchased another RL-26 to mount the RPC-4220.

Unfortunately, the RL-26 I received this year look nothing like the RL-26 I received last year. In fact they do not even use the same mechanism to slide. The RL-26 I received this year is not ball-bearing like the ones I received last year.

I ordered from newegg.com in June. They sent me the wrong item, twice. Eventually they gave up, credited my account and gave me an additional $20 and sent me on my way.

I ordered from mwave.com, assuming the problem was localized to newegg.com. They too sent me the wrong item. I am beginning the return process with them right now.

I enjoy your products, but I am getting incredibly frustrated trying to obtain them. I would greatly appreciate it if you could look into this matter for me.

Thank you,
Jon Smith
Click to expand...


So there you have it. Ball's in their park. Doesn't look too promising.
 
I sent them a similar email a couple days ago, pointing out that I received no mounting screws with the rails, and that they weren't ball bearing as advertised. We'll see if they respond with anything.
 
Has anyone tried these rails on their Norco 4224 or 2208? They looked like the same thing. If I have to drill holes into them, then I will.
 
I was looking at those also, as I think habey rebadges some norco cases. Who knows though, you might still end up with the same crap rails if it all comes from the same supplier.
 
can anyone confirm if the norco 120mm fan bracket works in the rpc 470?
 
I've been using a Norco case for several years.

It came without the screw kit so I had to find another source for mounting all of the HD's, I had to replace the fan board and one of the backplanes because the solder joints were so bad components fell off, and I've had to replace the front panel board (lights and switches).

Norco has AMAZINGLY bad quality control. I mean, completely crazily bad. If it weren't so annoying it would be comical.

The fact that they are messing with the rails now doesn't suprise me. What does surprise me is that they are still clueless about how to deal with their supply chain and customers.
 
mbahr said:
I've been using a Norco case for several years.

It came without the screw kit so I had to find another source for mounting all of the HD's, I had to replace the fan board and one of the backplanes because the solder joints were so bad components fell off, and I've had to replace the front panel board (lights and switches).

Norco has AMAZINGLY bad quality control. I mean, completely crazily bad. If it weren't so annoying it would be comical.

The fact that they are messing with the rails now doesn't suprise me. What does surprise me is that they are still clueless about how to deal with their supply chain and customers.
Click to expand...

Did you try contacting norco about your issues?
 
Its been over 2 weeks since I replied to Mike @ Norco email. Sent a followup email today. Bout to give them a bad rap on newegg and sell my norco rails.

-edit-

Got a reply, Mike forwarded my email to a product engineer. He also is going to hook me up with an old RL-26. Not gonna lie, that makes my day right there. Hope he keeps his word and more imporantly I hope the product engineers realize they made a big mistake.
 
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I am interested in JBOD version with 24 disks. However, the DS-24D is more expensive than RPC-4224. Would it be possible to buy a RPC-4224 and cut it in half?

I will not use a motherboard, I will use the disk chassis with ZFS and SAS expanders. The RPC-4224 is too deep. I could saw off half of the RPC-4224 chassis an save space. It is too big.

Why are the smaller JBOD versions more expensive than the RPC-4224?
 
Does anybody know if these ugly CD/DVD-Drive Bezels of the 4216 can easily be removed to fit a 4*2.5" bay and another non-drive device?
 
hotzen said:
Does anybody know if these ugly CD/DVD-Drive Bezels of the 4216 can easily be removed to fit a 4*2.5" bay and another non-drive device?
Click to expand...

Yes, but they are oversized cutouts, so you will have a decent size gap between your cage and the rest of the chassis so it would look like crap. The bigger problem is that is going to wreck the airflow over the 3.5 drives below, as the air goes for the path of least resistance. You would need to build some kind of gasket around it to stop that.

I just can't figure out why norco would have thought these were a good idea. Between this and the new shitty rails, someone in their design department is brain dead.
 
brutalizer said:
I am interested in JBOD version with 24 disks. However, the DS-24D is more expensive than RPC-4224. Would it be possible to buy a RPC-4224 and cut it in half?

I will not use a motherboard, I will use the disk chassis with ZFS and SAS expanders. The RPC-4224 is too deep. I could saw off half of the RPC-4224 chassis an save space. It is too big.

Why are the smaller JBOD versions more expensive than the RPC-4224?
Click to expand...

It cost more because it comes w/ a PSU and 6 SAS connectors, if your planning on putting an expanders in the case then some/all of the 6 SAS connectors would likely not be used, so if you felt like it you could shorten a RPC-4224 and supply your own power supply, what you might save could easily be offset by the work it would take.
 
Btw, what is the distance from the backplane to the HBA (IBM M1015) ?
Should I use 50cm (19.7 inch) or 60cm (23.6) SFF-8087 cables?
Thanks
 
I have plenty of slack with my 50cm cables, going to my LSI HBA with front facing ports.

If I'm not feeling too lazy I can take a picture of a loose cable showing how far it reaches.
 
I use br10i adapters (which face upwards, not out the back) and .5 meter cables, and they reach ok without stressing anything. However if you are going with the 3x120mm fan mod plate, keep in mind the cable cutouts are not lined up with the backplane ports, so you'll need a fair amount of extra slack to make the curves. I didn't keep this in mind, so I'll be spending another $50 for longer cables...
 
For the record newegg.com has updated the pictures of the RL-26 rails. Only took them 2 months of my complaining :), Mwave on the other hand is still using the old picture.

Mike @ norco kept his word and got me an old set of RL-26 for a trade in of the crappy new RL-26. Got to hold both of them in my hands today. The new rails are truly inferior product.

I wont be needing any new rails for quite some time. Hopefully norco decides to "revise" the RL-26 in the future. Until then I DO NOT suggest investing in the RL-26.
 
Are the old rails any shorter than the new ones? I've figured out that the new rails won't fit in my rack, being a bit too deep front to back to bolt onto the vertical rails of the rack.
 
@dave99

I didn't notice any difference, but I suppose my rack doesn't extend the rails fully. I haven't shipped out the new rails to norco yet, I'll measure them tonight/tomorrow.

@Techmasta

Seems like a pretty legit deal, too bad I already bought mine. I would love to try out WHS11
 
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Speaking of Newegg, has anyone noticed that they (As well as MWave and all the other distributors that are known to normally carry it) are OOS on the 4224?

Supply issue? Or is Norco about to refresh it or release something new altogether?

Only AxionTech seems to have it "in stock", but they drop ship it from Norco so maybe they just haven't received the memo?
http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?item=92336
 
How do these fair in small office environment? i currently have 2 12 bay full of 1tbs running R5 with 1 spare, and xraid with 6x 750 and 6x 750 both raid 5s with 1 spare. I have a 24bay enclosure with scsi connector spare, might use that or build something based on this. 45 max employees with only part of them doing much on file servers.
 
I was going to jump on the RPC-4220 deal at newegg, but it went out of stock before I could go through the checkout.

While looking at the Norco products section, I saw the RPC-4164 chassis. This is the first time I have run across this one, and I'm not sure if I've just overlooked it up until now, or if this is a new release from Norco.

It has 64x 2.5" bays instead of the 20/24x 3.5 bays. I hadn't considered using 2.5" drives due to the lower capacity, but I am wondering if there is a cost/power/efficiency advantage.

I haven't found anything on the 4164 after searching this forum, and Google wasn't helpful in locating any reviews. I'd like to get some opinions for this chassis; just based on the specs, or from anyone who has had their hands on one. Thanks!

Newegg Link
Norco Link
 
2.5" drives are not cost effective for storing large quantities of data. You would only get that if you need extra spindles as opposed to capacity.
 
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