We Got Served – Windows Home Server & Your Digital Home

In some earlier rackmount case reviews, I made the following statement:

Rackmount Chassis/server cases are becoming the preferred case of choice for a growing number of WHS enthusiasts.  A very small number perhaps, but growing.  Depending upon the style and overall case size, they are quite easy to stick on a shelf, install in a rackmount enclosure (Doh!), or even use it for a media center computer and place it alongside the rest of your AV components.

Why do I say this?  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Do I need to say more?  Well, that was a stupid question, wasn’t it?

Ahem, moving right along…

I would like to thank Norco for making the RPC-4220 Rackmount Chassis available for review.  This is a 4U case which has the capability of holding (20) 3-1/2” hotswap drives plus an additional 2-1/2” drive.  It is designed to accept Micro-ATX, ATX, CEB, and EEB style motherboards.  One of the major features of this case is the use of (5) SFF-8087 Mini SAS connectors for use with the hard drive backplanes of this case.

This is one rackmount case that did not have the “normal” consumer in mind during product conception and design.  Reading through the Features and Specifications, one might think at first that the major difference between this case and the RPC-430 I reviewed a few months ago is the number of drives it can contain.  Peruse down a bit further, however, and you shall see what I mean by the first statement of this paragraph.

Features:

• 4U rackmount design
• 20x hot-swappable SATA (I or II) / SAS drive bays, one 2.5″ drive bay
• Five internal SFF-8087 Mini SAS connectors support up to twenty 3.5″ SATA (I or II) or SAS hard drives;
• Hot-swappable HDD tray with special designed power-off and lock mechanism.
• 1 x slim CD-ROM bay,1 x FDD bay, 20 x 3.5 ” hot-swappable drive bays, 1 x 2.5″ drive bay.
• Six ball-bearing cooling fans for better ventilation
• Support EEB (12″x13″), CEB(12″x10.5″), ATX (12″x9.6″), Micro ATX (9.6″ x 9.6″) motherboard
• Screwless top cover
• Smooth border prevent lacerating your skin

Specifications:

Drive Bay: 20 x hot-swappable SATA (I or II) / SAS drive bays, 1 x slim CD-ROM bay, 1 x FDD bay, 1 x 2.5″ drive bay
Cooling Fan: 4 x 80mm middle fans wall, 2 x 80mm rear fans
Switch: Power ON/OFF x 1, System reset x 1
Indicator ower ON/OFF x 1, HDD x 1, NETWORK X 2
Connector:One front accessible USB port, five internal SFF-8087 Mini SAS connectors, ten 4-pin molex power connectors
Motherboard Compatibility: Support EEB (12″x13″), CEB(12″x10.5″), ATX (12″x9.6″), Micro ATX (9.6″ x 9.6″)
Power Supply Options: Standard ATX power supply, mini redundant power supply
Dimensions ( W x D x H ): 19″ x 25.5″ x 7.0″ (483mm x 650mm x 176mm)
Packing:Double boxes
Weight (without hard drive): 18 kg/39.7 lb (NET) 21.2 kg/46.7 lb (GROSS)
Environment Temperature:0/40 °C, 32/104 °F (Operating) -20/60 °C, -4/140 °F (Non-Operating)
Relative Humidity: 5% to 95%,non-condensing

If you plan on using this case, and filling it with drives, you better be prepared to dish out some serious bucks.  Of course, if are looking at any 20-drive case, you are probably already aware of the potential costs to employ this type of solution.  But first things first.

Before I give you a hands-on look at this chassis, it is appropriate to provide some background information about Norco.  From their website:

NORCO, formed in 1991 through the merger of leading industry innovators, is the leading worldwide supplier of server rackmount, storage systems, network appliances, industrial PC parts and solutions distributed by 100 companies around the world.

Introduction

We are a leading manufacturer of server rackmount, storage systems, network appliances, industrial PC parts and solutions. The company also manufactures enclosures, primarily for industrial computers. Since its listing in 1990, the company has grown significantly in terms of revenues and profit. We now have a market capitalization of over $1 billion USD.

Strategy

NORCO’s objective is to maintain our position as one of the leading manufacturers of server rackmount, storage systems and other industrial computer accessory. We also aim to successfully develop products and market for use in network communication and embedded system products. A number of strategies have been developed to attain this objective:

Develop strategic relationship with industry leaders – By working closely with top-tier chipset and bois companies, NORCO is able to predict market trends accurately and introduce new products ahead of our competitors.

Achieve further vertical integration – Further integration of the production process allows NORCO to exercise better control over the quality of our products.

Maintain technologically advanced and flexible production capabilities – This increases NORCO’s competitiveness relative to our peers and allows us to stay one step ahead of the opposition.

New products – NORCO leverages from our manufacturing expertise, and continues to move tirelessly into new areas of related business.

Research & Development

Research and development (R&D) are the lifeblood of any high-tech company. In a market as competitive as that of the PC industry, NORCO depends on our R&D efforts to bring products to the market before our competitors. Approximately 5% of NORCO’s revenues are committed to R&D expenditure.

NORCO works closely with our clients to implement the latest technologies. Research is a two way process – not only does NORCO provide what the client wants, but through extensive dialogue and consultation, we exceed their requirements.

Quality & Speed

At NORCO, quality is more an action than a slogan. Quality control is implemented in all aspects of operations to meet the high standards of top tier customers. This philosophy permeates all levels of the production process. NORCO conforms to the most rigorous standards of quality and safety.

Global Network

NORCO’s ability to quickly deliver “Built-to-Order” products, as well as our superb time-to-market and global inventory control abilities are NORCO’s other significant competitive advantages.

NORCO’s principal manufacturing operations are based in China. NORCO has production facilities located in two areas – Shenzhen, in the Guangdong Province and Shanghai

In North America, NORCO has branches located in Los Angeles and Toronto. NORCO will continue to build its global distribution and production operations.

Future Growth Potential

• RAID storage systems
• POS boards
• DVR cards and system
• Compact PCI enclosures and boards
• Low power embedded system application

What’s In The Box?

Getting back to the item being discussed today, the first thing one must do is remove the item from the shipping box.

However, before opening the box, one must move it to a convenient location to open.

Looking at the unopened box gives you your first clue that this is going to be different from the RPC-430 and RPC-230 cases I looked at earlier.  And please note the shipping weight of 40 pounds!

As with these previous cases, the RPC-4220 comes double boxed and each box is double corrugated!  You *might* be able to drive a tank over this box without damaging the contents.

Digging a little deeper reveals the case.  What can I say?  With packaging like that, it would be difficult to receive a damaged piece of merchandize.

Lifted part way out out the shipping box.  A storage fantasy coming true!

And a shot showing off the depth of this monster!  You will notice that the top (and bottom) panels arrive with a protective “skin” and it is tough getting off.  This is the real deal in “cling-ability”.

And when I mean depth, we are looking at a depth 25-1/2” vs. the RPC-230/430 depths of 15-1/4”.  This case is not going to set on just any old shelf.

To give you a better idea of the difference, here are pictures of the RPC-4220 and RPC-430 in approximately the same positions:

The RPC-430 appears as if half the case is missing compared to the RPC-4220!

The Guts

I removed the top cover to take a look at the guts of the RPC-4220.  One can immediately see why this case is so deep.  A hard drive fan cooling array acts as a “firewall” between the hard drive section and

the motherboard area.

A close up of the rear wall with (2) 80-mm fans.

A closer view of the “firewall”.  More 80-mm fans.

The mounting plate for the 2-1/2” drive which is flanked on each side with mounting apparatus/bays for slim DVD and floppy drives.

Just an overall close-up shot of the front,

the controls and LED array.  From left to right are:

• On/Off button
• Reset button
• USB port
• Power-on LED
• Disk-access LED
• NIC 1 LED
• NIC 2 LED

The knock-outs for the slim drives.

A hard drive tray, empty and with a drive.

Front and rear shots of the hard drive fan “firewall”.

A closer shot of the fan power strip.  One standard Molex connector supplies power to all 4 fans.

Molex connectors is one item you will either need plenty of on your PSU or have on hand a “dongle” with additional Molex connectors.  To power the fans and complete hotswap array, you will need 12(!) Molex connectors.  The picture below shows the drive backplanes with the 10 Molex connectors required for the backplane/drives,

and the SFF-8087 SATA connectors on the right.

To connect one row of drives to your motherboard connectors, you will need a cable like the one pictured below.

This particular cable is a 3ware Multi-lane Internal SFF-8087 Serial ATA Reverse Breakout Cable.  The reverse version is to allow connection from 4 discrete controllers to the backplane’s SFF-8087 Multi-lane connector.

Finally, a shot of the box containing the the rubber feet and all the hard drive screws and extra motherboard standoffs and

a close-up of the fans.

These fans are what I would term Delta “screamers”.  Sucking .9 amps per fan from the wall; an output of 80.16 CFM @ 5700 RPM; a maximum pressure differential of .81 Inches H20; all at a “say, what” sound level of 52.5 dBA.  All of which may be required if you are using this case for a business server and are accessing most or all of those drives at any given moment.

For the environment one would see in a Windows Home Server, these type of fans are overkill for airflow, and completely undesirable due to the noise levels associated with these types of fans.  NewEgg sells a Masscool 80mm case fan for $1.29 each in lots of 10 (free shipping) which outputs 31.7 CFM @ 28 dBA.  Pair these up with a 7V power connector, you have one quiet machine.

The 2 exhaust fans on the rear of the case are of a more mundane variety: .16 amps per fan from the wall; an output of 35.31 CFM @ 3000 RPM; a maximum pressure differential of .16 Inches H20; all at a sound level of 31.0 dBA.  While I was changing out the screamers, I decided that I might as well change out these also.  What are 12 more screws between friends, anyway?

The Build

One more time, I removed the WHS guts from my trusty Cooler Master Centurion 534 case to move it all over to the Norco RPC-4220.  Due to the cavernous qualities of the RPC-4220, this was a piece of cake.  Of course, I did change out the fans from the Delta’s to the Masscool’s prior to this case swap.  I suppose that I could have left them in there for a “first impression”, but why bother?

Delta fans: Business server application in a dedicated room for servers.  I *suppose* one could leave them in for home use, assuming one has an appropriate isolated space for this computer.

Masscool (or equal) fans: Home server application that could be installed anywhere in the home.

As this is a simple transfer of assembled components from one case to another, there is not much to document.

A shot of my WHS in the CoolerMaster case, just prior to the transplant.

The PSU bolted into it’s new home.

A couple of shots of the motherboard just after it was bolted down.  If I did not know better, it would appear to be a mATX board!  One nice benefit of this kind of move is that I able to take some compressed air and blow all the dust out of the components.

Similar shots with all the wiring connected.

Even though there is lot of room in this case, you will find that you have to remove the fan “firewall” (unless you have much greater dexterity than I) to plug the Molex power connectors into the backplane and to the fans attached to the firewall itself.  I have “only” 4 drives, so I needed to power just one backplane.

Attaching the SFF-8087 connector to the backplane can be done without removing the “firewall”.  However, the reason I used the second row to install my drives is that the connector fits securely in some mating halves and not in others.  In the picture below, you may notice the metal plate just above one of the female halves.  It is just close enough to the connector where you will find that the locking clip will not fully engage.

Finally, the case all put back together and placed back into it’s temporary home for the summer.  When I first fired it up, I discovered that disk order is from left to right, so make sure that your boot drive is in the left most caddy.

What follows are some light/dark shots of the individual power and activity LED’s for each caddy.

Same as above except a little closer.  The blue light is the power LED and the green light is the activity LED.  They are easy to see, without lighting up your whole room.  They are just about impossible to take a good picture of, however.

It was at this point that I found the fans just a bit too loud for me yet.  I had some 7V connectors laying around, so I hooked them into the fans.  I was rewarded with a very acceptable level of quietness.  Of course, you might ask at this point, “How do your drives accept this low-flow condition?”

I shut down the machine for the evening, came back the next day after work, and fired it up.

Initial temperatures after 15-20 minutes:

A few hours later after completing 3 backups and while running Drive Balancer:

And just after Drive Balancer finished:

To put it simply: until I start filling up a few more caddies, I feel comfortable that the current fan setup will do the job.

Expansion Capabilities

My motherboard has “only” 4 SATA ports.  Regardless of whether you have 4, 6 or 8 ports, you will eventually run out of MB ports and you will have to find controller cards to provide the HD control function.  SFF-8087 connectors are very nice for reducing cable clutter inside your case.  Especially nice when you use SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 connectors.  One cable, no “fanouts”.  The downside is that you pay for this convenience.  Controllers that incorporate these types of connectors start out expensive and go up from there.

Looking through one my favorite etailers, it would appear as though this HighPoint card might be the one to get, as in it incorporates (4) SFF-8087 ports which allows control over 16 hard drives.  Cost: $699.99.  Put another way, $44 per drive sounds a lot better.  If you were to populate just the 20 bays up front with the current king of drives, you are looking at:

Case: ~$350
(5) Cables: ~$80
Controller: ~$700
(20) 2TB drives: ~$5000

Total: ~$6130

Of course, that does not include the remaining computer components needed to complete a “new” build. In addition, since this is a rackmount case, you might as well purchase a rack enclosure to mount this case in.  I found a really nice looking open rack for about $300 shipped.  If you want an enclosed rack, be prepared to spend $600 or more.  Plus by the time you add rack accessories and other rackmount components, you have created a nice basis for divorce from your other half!

Regardless, this would make one serious WHS.

Costs and Conclusion

Pros:

• Massive HD capacity.
• Drive caddies hold the hard disk securely and have a very secure feel when inserted into the case.
• Heavy-duty construction.
• SFF-8087 SATA connectors.
• Massive fan capacity for business applications.

Cons:

• This can get expensive very quickly.  You are looking at a significant investment if you plan on truly making use of all those HD bays.  Of course, this can be said of any case of this type.
• No manual.
• Despite the marketing claim, there are sharp edges to be had.
• Removal of the fan “firewall” is required to install power connectors.
• Loud fans for home applications.  It might be nice to have a quiet 120mm “firewall” fan option for home use.
• SFF-8087 connector clips may not fully engage on some backplane connectors.
• You really should have a rack enclosure for this case.  Mainly a con simply because rack enclosures are quite expensive for a home environment.

Would I recommend this rackmount case?  If you need massive amounts of storage capacity, I would consider this a compact design for 20+1 drives.  It is built like a tank, has all the important state-of-the-art drive features, and despite the numbers I put together above, a fairly cost effective solution for this kind of capacity.  If we take out the cost of the drives, $1100 (~$50/drive) is fairly reasonable.

So, if you need this kind of storage capacity, just buy it.  You won’t be sorry.  Norco is putting together products with the kind of feature appeal that can satisfy both business users and home users.  They may not be perfect, but the way I see it, Norco is taking a case designed for the business segment and looking to expand it into the consumer segment.  No, the RPC-4220 won’t match the fit and finish of those Lian Li cases, but the Norco cases are built to “take a licking and keep on ticking”.  Function and features over fit and finish says it all.

By the way, 10 brownie points for those who can associate the correct product with the “licking/ticking” slogan.  -10 points if you have to look it up on the internet.  We will see who gets it right as a comment to this article.

Company: Norco Technology Inc.

Model Reviewed: RPC-4220 4U Rackmount Chassis

Cost: Newegg price: $349.99

Final note: I must apologize on the pricing detail, as I am in the U.S.  If a reader elsewhere spots one at their favorite etailer, I (and others) would appreciate it you could note source and cost as a comment.