Comments on: Hands On: Norco RPC-4220 Rackmount Chassis

By: Ironpossum

Ironpossum — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:37:17 +0000

Frederic,

I've hit the same problem, only without purchasing the rails. I wasn't going to buy them at first because the chassis itself can be rackmounted…. only it doesn't fit in my APC 19" 4 post open rack, just a hair too wide where the holes are. So I was like, okay sweet, rails will fix this – WRONG – research proves otherwise. The closest thing I have found to make this work is: http://www.norcotek.com/item_detail.php?categoryi…
or http://www.norcotek.com/item_detail.php?categoryi…

I'm seriously doubting the SA-3202, the shelf would probably work though… but I made several shelves for myself and if I wanted to put a random chassis in a rack, then that's what I'd use, but I bought a RACK MOUNT CHASSIS and CAN'T RACK IT!! Annoying, to say the least.

All that being said, I'm in the same boat as you, so if you find anything please let me know! If no good options come along I'm looking at just drilling the holes on the front of the chassis a little bigger (towards the inside, to give access to rack holes) but I'm sure I'll run into issues and it'll be a total hack job, not really what I want to do…

Best of luck to you!

By: Frederic

Frederic — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 01:33:03 +0000

Watch out… I bought the RPC-4220 in October 2009. Around the same date Norco's web site mentioned that RL-20 were the rails compatible for rack mounting, so I bought them for future mounting. A month ago I've decided to buy a really nice rack from Germany (shipped at my home to Canada), but when it was time to put the rails on, they didn't fit, holes don't align at all! I went back to Norco's site, and now they state that it's the RL-26 that should be bought, so I did buy the RL-26 at Newegg… But they also don't fit!!! So now I'm left with a nice rack, 2 pairs of rails, and my RPC-4220 server still laying on a counter… I tried to contact Norco, but they don't provide any phone number on their Web site nor any e-mail address, and they are located in China!!! BEWARE, if you have any issue, you're left alone with that chassis!

If someone has found compatible rails and would be kind enough to give that reference, I'd really appreciate it…

P.S.: EXCELLENT review! Many thanks.

By: dexter

dexter — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:24:47 +0000

I have 2 4020 cases and am using the Supermicro controller on Tyan
MB's They work great and at $100 you cant beat them. One con is that
the PCI-X drivers are not Windows certified so Win7 64 bit will not accept
them. The workaround is to run a bootmanager program so that test
mode is activated upon startup. Then you can use the drivers.
10 more 2TB WD green drives and the cases will be full.

By: Post Nasal Drip Treatment

Post Nasal Drip Treatment — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:03:49 +0000

*.” I am really thankful to this topic because it really gives great information -~`

By: Ronski

Ronski — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:41:16 +0000

For any UK buyers Xcase have a very similar looking case (possibly even is a Norco) available for £300+VAT, it can be found at http://www.xcase.co.uk/X-Case-RM-420-Hotswap-4u-p...

By: J.D.

J.D. — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:38:21 +0000

This is no doubt a stupid question, but I'll ask anyway and hope for a kind response. I am considering moving my server to a rackmount case. This Norco obviously has tons of front-accessible hot-swap bays for installing/removing hard drives. How about some of the other 4U cases though – most have 5.25" drive bays front accessible, which to me means you would need to have a mounting adapter installed to hold 3.5" hard drives … correct? So what's the benefit to front-access to a 5.25" drive bay when you still need a mount in order to install a new drive. Unless you have a SATA backplate or something …

Or am I thinking about this wrong?

I love this case, wish I could afford it …

By: Cabdriverjim

Cabdriverjim — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:59:12 +0000

The backplanes have been redesigned on the current version of this chassis. They are in the center and are no longer butted against a metal edge. There's also a feed-through for the wiring on the "firewall" of fans.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 06:31:26 +0000

As of now (Aug 2010) there is a distributor in Europe: Ri-Vier Automatisering http://cybershop.ri-vier.nl

By: matt_br

matt_br — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:48:13 +0000

Hello
I have good news, I have found a reseller in the Netherlands for us Europeans. http://cybershop.ri-vier.nl/
It is listed for 410.55€ incl VAT.
The reseller is planning to have the Norco 4224 when it is available. (I asked him).

Have a nice day.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:27:24 +0000

Dustin has the Norco 4220 available in Sweden at SEK 4265 excl tax.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:07:08 +0000

You dont need to connect all power connectors to the backplane.. there are 2 per backplane, but you need only to connect one.. the other one is for redundant power..

By: George

George — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:56:00 +0000

great review guys very detailed and hepful. Please let us know if you find any good power supply with 12 molex connectors.