| NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Kevin Kelley - Edited by Olin Coles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 09 September 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norco RPC-4020 Case ReviewIn this article, Benchmark Reviews will examine the Norco RPC-4020 4U rack mount server case. This case supports twenty data drives, plus a separate OS drive, and slim floppy and optical drives. With the density of hard drives available today that means you can stuff 42 Terabytes worth of data into a case roughly the size of a full-tower desktop case. If you're looking for a high density storage case, you'll be doing yourself a disservice not to check out this case. With the RPC-4020 Norco has tried to bring something new to the area of high-density rack mount storage cases, affordability.The question, of course, is what did they sacrifice in order to get that low price. As someone who takes their storage seriously this case came from heaven, but it does hold a few surprises for the unwary. So, let's take a look at what this case has to offer.
Norco RPC-4020 Features
RPC-4020 Specifications
About Norco Technologies, Inc.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. 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. Closer Look: RPC-4020 ExteriorThe RPC-4020 is a 4U case, that means it is the standard 7" high. This is smaller than most full tower cases. For all of that they've managed to fit in a lot of features. The top section has, from left to right, a slim optical drive, a basic user interface panel, and a slim floppy drive. Below that are four columns of five hot swap caddies. These take standard 3.5" hard drives.
The top is very clean, with a couple of sliding locks for securing the case. To open the case you remove two screws from each side, push the tabs towards the center of the case, and then slide the top towards the rear.
The side of the case has a large number of screw holes. First are the two are the very top edge, these help secure the top to the main chassis. On the front edge are four screws for securing the handles (or "ears") to the case for directly mounting to a standard server rack. Next are are two rows of eight screws running horizontally across the side of the case. These are for attaching rails to the server, allowing for another (some would say better) option to attach the case to a standard server rack. About two-thirds of the way from the front of the case are two vertical rows of three screws each. These are holding the internal fan mounting panel in place. Finally, on the bottom edge near the front of the face are a series of cut-outs for drawing in fresh air.
Much like the side of the case, the bottom is very busy. There are several louvered slots in the center of the case for drawing in fresh air. Much of the back-half two-thirds are a series of screw holes for mounting various different motherboards. Norco includes plenty of offsets and the case can handle multiple board form factors, up to the EEB standard (12" x 13"). Lining up with the six screw holes on each side of the case you'll find another six screws for securing the fan panel.
Finally we've come to the rear of the case. You'll notice a few things right off, first it has a large number of cut outs for venting out warm system air. This includes the expansion slot covers. Next we have a pair of 80mm fans to help with keeping the system cool. The RPC-4020 takes a standard PC power supply. The PSU attaches to a removable panel.
Detailed Exterior FeaturesAs I mentioned previously, the Norco RPC-4020 includes four columns of five drive caddies, for a total of twenty hot-swappable drives. Here we can see that each caddy includes a simple lock, ejection button, and a pair of status lights. Overall the quality of the drive caddies is pretty good, though they do have some trouble properly lining up with the case. The front is perforated to allow the interior fans to pull air in across the drives to facilitate cooling.
Here you can get a look at the drive caddies. Each drive attaches via four screws on the bottom. Norco is nice enough to include the eighty screws you'll need to fully populate the case. On the right side of the caddy you will notice some clear plastic running along the inner edge next to the drive. These transmit the status lights from the backplane where the LED's are located to the front of the case.
Each caddy includes a spring loaded handle for removing it from the case.
When a drive is attached the SATA data and power connectors sit flush with the bottom edge of the caddy. You can also see that the screws for attaching the hard drive to the caddy mount flush.
The front control panel includes power and reset buttons, a single USB port and four activity lights. Norco includes the standard power and hard drive activity lights, along with two lights for Network Interface Cards.
Closer Look: RPC-4020 InteriorNorco includes a good set of accessories with the RPC-4020. Along the top are the included screws. This includes screws for mounting your motherboard, and some spare standoffs (very tall ones I might add). They also include the special screws you'll need for mounting the slim optical and floppy drives. The final bag is full of the eighty screws for putting hard drives in the hot-swap caddies. Along the bottom we have a small wrench for attaching and removing the motherboard standoffs, a mounting plate for Intel Socket 775 heatsinks, and a pair of mounting plates for Intel Socket 771 heatsinks.
When you first remove the top of the case this is what you're greeted with. The front third of the case is focused on the drives attached to the system. Norco includes a separate internal drive carrier for your system hard drive, along with room for slim optical and floppy drives. Splitting the case is panel which holds five 80mm fans, and includes a molex to 3-pin power adapter.
The carrier for the system drive is removable and includes a few extra features. First Norco included some soft grommets to help reduce some of the noise generated from the drive spinning up. They also included a small strip of plastic along the front edge to keep you from slicing up the connections from the front control panel.
Here's an up close view of the grommets which Norco included.
Detailed Interior FeaturesWhen you put twenty hard drives into a case this size keeping them cool is also something you have to worry about. Norco addresses this through blunt force. Splitting the interior of the case is a panel which holds five 80mm fans. These fans were picked with a data center in mind so they are quite loud. They are also effective. The bottom of the panel has four large holes for passing through your data and power cables to the connectors on the backplane.
Along the top edge of the panel is power converter break out. This simple PCB converts a single 4-pin Molex connector into six 3-pin fan connectors. No, I don't know why Norco included six connectors when the panel only holds five fans.
The true heart of this system, the SATA backplane. Norco opted to go with five separate back planes, one for each row of four drives. On the left side you have ten 4-pin molex connectors for providing power to your hard drives. On the right side is twenty SATA data connectors.
The SATA connectors map directly to the drive caddies, one connector for each caddy. Because most SATA controllers come with connectors in groups of four (e.g., 4, 8, 16, etc...), this makes it very easy to organize your drives and keep track of which drives are connected to which controller.
One of the biggest complaints about the interior fan panel is that there is very little room between the fans (which are standard 80mm x 25mm) and the connectors on the backplane. This shot shows just how much room you have. Several people have reported getting around this problem by swapping the fans to the inner side of the panel.
Norco Rackmount Case Final ThoughtsWhen it comes to the value of this case it just can't be beat. There is no other way to get twenty drives into a server for the price.The downside of course is that you trade in the savings for a lower build quality. Surprisingly, Norco did a great job of covering some of the basic details, including the grommets on the system drive and the dual LAN activity light hookups. Unfortunately they really missed the ball on several others. The number one thing which Norco can do to improve the RPC-4020 is to remove the sharp edges which proliferate this case. I discovered this the hard way involving tetanus shots, anti-biotics, and large quantities of blood. The only other flaw which may be a show-stopper for some is difficulty of getting the drive trays into the case. Whether the trays are empty or not it seems impossible to get them to line up correctly without making several attempts.
Norco RPC-4020 ConclusionThe RPC-4020 ships from the factory double boxed. This means that whether you are getting it drop-shipped, or dealing with UPS Ground shipping, it will almost certainly arrive without any damages. In addition to this Norco ships the case with a layer of this plastic film over the metal surfaces, helping to insure that they will not be scratched or otherwise injured in transit. While Norco won't be winning any awards for innovative design, they also didn't make any major mistakes with the appearance of this case. It will be perfectly at home in server rack, or in a home office. Norco had to make sacrifices somewhere, and overall build quality is where they did it. Every single edge of this, with the sole exception of the holes in the fan panel for the data and power cables, are razor sharp. I also had some problems with plastic front panel popping off the chassis while moving it around. Functionality and value is where the RPC-4020 shines. When it comes to raw storage density you just cannot beat this case. As of September 2009 the Norco RPC-4020 Rackmount case is selling for $289 at NewEgg (before shipping). This seems to be lowest price from the various online retailers. Pros:
+ Attention to some details Cons:
- Build quality Ratings:
Final Score: 8.7 out of 10.Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.
Related Articles:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
