August 16, 201114 yr Great review! Love that massive C-clamp... Thanks! No prizes, but who will be the first to say what is wrong with the photo above? The drive is inserted the wrong way! Nope, the drive is the correct way round - electronics to the left, connector to the rear.
August 17, 201114 yr No prizes, but who will be the first to say what is wrong with the photo above? Not on Kodachrome? PATA drive?
August 17, 201114 yr No prizes, but who will be the first to say what is wrong with the photo above? Not on Kodachrome? PATA drive? It's your build... & not mine
August 17, 201114 yr No prizes, but who will be the first to say what is wrong with the photo above? PATA drive? Yep, if you look carefully at the connector, you can see that it's PATA, not SATA! I'd just fitted the cage into the case and had a pile of old PATA drives on the table beside where I was working. The SATA drives were across the other side of the room, and I'm lazy!
August 17, 201114 yr No prizes, but who will be the first to say what is wrong with the photo above? It's your build... & not mine Thanks for the compliment! I do have to say that I'm very pleased with it ... with, perhaps, a little pride creeping in!
August 17, 201114 yr Author Ahh yes, I think we all look at our "babies" with a bit of a twinkle in the eye... course mine has the god aweful look of four different cages... dare to be different I say. Shawn
August 17, 201114 yr ... course mine has the god aweful look of four different cages... Which is why I think that it was very public-spirited of you to conduct the comparisons. Not only do you have to put up with using trays, but you have four incompatible tray types to contend with!
August 17, 201114 yr Author Which is why I think that it was very public-spirited of you to conduct the comparisons. Not only do you have to put up with using trays, but you have four incompatible tray types to contend with! Oh for the love of... I never even thought of that! Oh wait, I did - when doing some of the temprature testing, took 30 minutes to swap the drives in between trays... those tinny screws can be a real PITA. Anyone want to trade four slightly used cages from some trayless ones? But, honestly, I do like the look of the unit, very unique, and anyone who comes over and sees it, cannot help but ask what the heck it is. Then I get to ramble on about unRaid and streaming movies, centralized storage... the <geek> in me comes out... Shawn
August 18, 201114 yr ... the <geek> in me comes out... Really? You surprise me! ... but I'm convinced that trayless is the way to go! As for temperatures - I've had a rebuild running overnight - now, at 8 am, ambient is 27C. Highest drive temperature is 36C and no noisy cage fans - I'm pleased with that.
August 18, 201114 yr Author As for temperatures - I've had a rebuild running overnight - now, at 8 am, ambient is 27C. Highest drive temperature is 36C and no noisy cage fans - I'm pleased with that. Sweetness Shawn
September 10, 201114 yr Hi everyone! After reading your reviews, I was going for the SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5x 3.5", but the buttons are red. Are the led's red also? I was looking for something blue. (yes, I know that my biggest concern has to be the performance, but I have to capture my wife with the look...) What is the best-not-so-expensive 5in3, with blue led's? What do you think of the Norco SS-500 vs the Supermicro? Thanks in advance!!!!! Juan
September 10, 201114 yr They have no "power" LED, just activity that is green, but not crazy bright. There is also a Yellow Fail LED that I belive only works with the correct hardware.
September 10, 201114 yr OMG - WHAT A SETUP!!!!! You Supermicro looks awesome, but what do you think about the Norco SS-500?
September 10, 201114 yr OMG - WHAT A SETUP!!!!! You Supermicro looks awesome, but what do you think about the Norco SS-500? they do the job. I prefer the supermicro units myself. I really should get the norco units since i have several RPC-4224's. That would allow me to switch drives easier between my rackmounts and towers. but I don't.. Most everyone has a preference to what they like. I like the supermicro hardware a bit better for its enterprise level quality. but, norco saves you a few bucks and does the job almost as well. off topic- which case is this? [OT] Nexus Prominent 9 It will hold 3 5in3's. I had 3 in there but I had a defective backplane in my 3rd SM box (I got it open box and it was physically damaged by the previous owner). Since I have that as a 14 drive build. I replaced the defective unit with one of the 4in3's supplied with the case in the bottom section. Raj turned me onto it.. A very nice case. expensive, but worth it. [/ot]
September 11, 201114 yr Author OMG - WHAT A SETUP!!!!! You Supermicro looks awesome, but what do you think about the Norco SS-500? For my setup I am obviously running four different units, but next to the SuperMicro, the Norco are my next favorite. Great price and good quality solution. Shawn
September 13, 201114 yr I was looking for something blue. (yes, I know that my biggest concern has to be the performance, but I have to capture my wife with the look...) What is the best-not-so-expensive 5in3, with blue led's? The iStarUSA BPN-350V2 has a blue led for every drive which is installed/powered. Together with the blue 'power on' led on my Thermaltake case, it all looks very cool!
September 14, 201114 yr Author The iStarUSA BPN-350V2 has a blue led for every drive which is installed/powered. Together with the blue 'power on' led on my Thermaltake case, it all looks very cool! I just had to post this Peter - speaking of Thermaltake - spent the weekend building my new gaming system - with a Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition. And the blue looks sweet!!
November 21, 201114 yr Hi there.. just a note for this of you considering the SS-500's. They are pretty loud - not like yell over them loud, but 2 in a case, and the machine is as loud as my fridge. Thanks for Raj for recommending the Coolink SWiF2-801 as they make it damn close to silent. Cheers, whiteatom
December 30, 201114 yr They have no "power" LED, just activity that is green, but not crazy bright. There is also a Yellow Fail LED that I belive only works with the correct hardware. I definitely like this case and those drive bays!
January 6, 201214 yr ... I then went through several traumas attempting to get the iStar units, which are only easily available in USA, shipped to me. Much of the frustration centered around PayPal - the preferred payment method for many online retailers. Another problem is that many iStar retailers do not hold stock, but arrange shipping directly from the factory - this also seemed to cause great problems when I tried to use a third-party purchasing/shipping agent. Eventually, Rackmount Chassis Plus, who seem to be the only retailer who holds stock, added wire transfers to their accepted payment methods. Now I was all set but I discovered that Rackmount normal shipment method was via USPS, which gave me cause for concern because the Philippine post office is not reliable (it took eight months to deliver one package I sent from UK). At my request, Rackmount obtained pricing from DHL/UPS but these were horrendously expensive (much more than shipping agents had quoted me for the same shipment method). So it was that I placed my order for three units, accepted USPS shipping and made the wire transfer. The units were shipped on July 11, with an advertised delivery time of 5-10 business days. Time passed, and I became more and more impatient. Eventually, after correspondence with Rackmount, I visited the local post office on August 10, to find that my parcel had been sitting there since July 26! For more than two weeks, no one had bothered to inform me that my delivery was available for collection! Still, the good news was that the Philippine customs hadn't shown any interest in my parcel and all I had to pay was the standard post office handling fee of approximately one US$. ... Hi Peter, Thank you for featuring us in your post. We are very grateful and gladly shipped any items you need for your next build to Philippine. While we are always expanding our products, you can be sure to find most of what you need with us to build your next server. For the users that visit this forums, please remember we ship worldwide. As recent as last week we just shipped to Australia and before that another shipment to UK. Thanks, Jerry Rush. Customer Service Rackmountchassisplus.com
January 10, 201214 yr For the users that visit this forums, please remember we ship worldwide. As recent as last week we just shipped to Australia and before that another shipment to UK. Thanks, Jerry Rush. Customer Service Rackmountchassisplus.com That must've been my order Patiently sitting here waiting for them to arrive. USPS tracking information doesn't show anything useful.
January 12, 201214 yr I have a CMStacker 810, how many of the RC-BPN-350V2-SS will I be able to run in the case? At the moment I am using all 12x 5.25” drive bays (4x 4in3 modules). Will the 5x3.5" actually fit the case?
January 13, 201214 yr A 5-in-3 takes up the same space as a 4-in-3 (the drives are just closer together). It should fit.
January 13, 201214 yr Thanks! Is there any way to reduce the fans speed? Like using a Zalman Fan Controller, like the one below http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000292DO0/ref=asc_df_B000292DO06101422?smid=A1HYUQEVEP9KPZ&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22218&creativeASIN=B000292DO0 At the moment, the 4-in-3 fan is really silent, but it is a pain in the rear to upgrade drives, replace drives etc...
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