So I recently purchased 3 Norco SS-500 5-3 Cages as the first step in an unRAID build I'm planning (15-drive budget box in a Sharkoon T9) and I was pretty unimpressed with the stock 80mm fans.  I'm not an avid case modder (at least not yet) but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try my hand at it, so I modified the back piece of the 5-3 module to accept 92mm fans.  It came out fairly well.  In hindsight, it could have worked better (I'll talk about that later) but overall it's really a great mod.

 

To start with I broke them down:

 

 

Unfortunately I don't have any process shots, but basically I marked out the larger blowholes for the 92mm along with the screw holes, then drilled the screw holes on a drill press, cut out the original fan grill with some basic metal cutting shears, roughed out the blowhole with a file, then used a spindle sander to finish.  After that did a little deburring (I didn't worry too hard about scuffing the metal, it won't see much daylight when all is said and done).  You can see the finished product below:

 

 

 

The fans are Gelid Silent 9 92x25mm fans.  Very solid.  I'm really pleased with how it all came out.

 

However, if you undertake this mod, I'd recommend that you retain the bottom-right screw hole for the 80mm fan and use that as the bottom-right screw hole for your 92mm fan.  This will place the fan off center, but I doubt it will affect cooling performance significantly.  It's possible that there isn't enough room on the back piece with the 92mm fan's bottom-right corner placed there, but just eye-balling it, things look okay.  Basically, the center positioning, as I have it, causes part of the fan housing to very nearly rest on (I believe) a battery on the PCB.  I'm assuming this isn't an issue, but by positioning the edge of the fan where the edge of the 80mm fan is relative to that battery, you avoid potential fitment issues and get to remove the other 80mm fan holes while you're at it.  That is, rather than the circular blowhole I'm using, I'd use a shape more like a square with the corners cut off, better airflow and it'll enable you to remove the rest of the screw holes and grill.  Once again, that recommendation is theoretical, but I think it'd work.

Nice work, that's a very clean and professional-looking mod.  However, I'm afraid not many will follow in your footsteps as Norco recently released a new version of the Norco SS-500 with an externally mounted 92mm fan: link. - Nevermind, see below.  Same thing happened to me a while ago - I spent many hours modding a Norco 4220 fan bracket to accept three 120mm fans, then about 2 weeks later Norco released their official 120mm fanplate for only $20

Nice work, that's a very clean and professional-looking mod.  However, I'm afraid not many will follow in your footsteps as Norco recently released a new version of the Norco SS-500 with an externally mounted 92mm fan: link.  Same thing happened to me a while ago - I spent many hours modding a Norco 4220 fan bracket to accept three 120mm fans, then about 2 weeks later Norco released their official 120mm fanplate for only $20

 

This is the old model of SS-500, and a truly piece of junk. They are the reason I use unRAID today, after two faulty ports on the same backplane lend to an unrecoverable failure of my previous RAID5 array. Trow away two of them and now I can't even heard about hot swap bays without feeling chills.

 

The design of the new version (Alecthar's ones) is far more solid and seems a lot more reliable.

Thanks gfjardim, I wasn't aware that those were the old versions.  They are 'new to me' .  Too bad that they aren't reliable, the design looks pretty solid to me.

I will echo what Raj said.  It is to bad the old design was not more reliable as the overall design (fan on the exterior) would have been a step in the correct direction.

Thanks gfjardim, I wasn't aware that those were the old versions.  They are 'new to me' .  Too bad that they aren't reliable, the design looks pretty solid to me.

 

Not those SATA ports in the back, as they easily break with any tension. The first one arrived with one SATA port dead. Norco send me another backplane, but the second unit I bought failed after two months, and I realize that it was a flaw of the design itself. Norco support is really nice as they sent me a backplane to Brazil without questions, but those old SS-500 and old RPC-4020 are really junk, odditory (Norco employee and user at Hardforum)  itself trow away his first 4020 instead of selling it. The new models  with horizontal babkplanes seems really fine.

 

I agree that an external 92mm fan is preferable, but I vote for stronger SATA ports.

@Alecthar

 

Very clean job,,

 

In case you've already build your UnRaid server,, i am very curious what kind of drive-temps you get with these 92 fans,, (Also tell what type of drives you use,)

 

I have the same 5 in 3 Cages and also considering this modification.

 

(not having problems with the sata-ports)

@Alecthar

 

Very clean job,,

 

In case you've already build your UnRaid server,, i am very curious what kind of drive-temps you get with these 92 fans,, (Also tell what type of drives you use,)

 

I have the same 5 in 3 Cages and also considering this modification.

 

(not having problems with the sata-ports)

 

I will definitely post my completed build, and will include temps.  The plan right now is to start with 3 Hitachi 5K3000 drives.

 

And as long as horizontal case space allows, and you're okay with a less "clean" look, the fans can easily be mounted on the outside of the backplane, the 4 holes on the right and left sides are large enough to thread even a sleeved fan cable through, so you could definitely mount the fan that way if you chose.  That option does have the benefit of avoiding potential fitment issues, too.

Maybe one of you guys would know, does Norco allow you to purchase spare parts for these at all?  Looking at it now, one of the backplane PCBs on mine looks pretty shoddy, maybe a refurb of some kind, and it would be awesome if I could get another back piece to mod, just to see if my changes would work out as well as I think they would.

I think this might be the right one?

 

http://www.ipcdirect.net/servlet/Detail?no=154

 

IPCDirect is Norco's online storefront.  I would definitely contact them or Norco directly to make sure that this is the correct model.

Maybe one of you guys would know, does Norco allow you to purchase spare parts for these at all?  Looking at it now, one of the backplane PCBs on mine looks pretty shoddy, maybe a refurb of some kind, and it would be awesome if I could get another back piece to mod, just to see if my changes would work out as well as I think they would.

 

Try contacting Norco directly, the support service is really great, and if they have spares is probable that they will sell it to you.

 

There is an official support topic on HardForum: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1498268