**ENDED** Rosewill RSV-L4500 4U Rackmount Server Chassis - was $69.99, FS

[j.metts]

*** Price changed from $69.99 w/ FS to $99.00 w/o FS. Although not as good a deal, it's still not bad. ***

 

I didn't see this listed anywhere here and not sure how long it has been, or will be, at this price, so I figured I'd post it.

 

I've been putting off replacing a piece of junk case that has been housing my unRAID server for way too long and started looking into some towers with top to bottom 5.25 bays, then looked into some of the Norco hot swappable cases people use and love. Perusing newegg, I came across this case, and saw others here that use it. I don't need hot swap and for this price, I couldn't pass it up. Beats all other options for me right now. My system only has 6 HDD's for now, so this offers good expansion before I jump into the 16+ market.

 

15 Internal HDD Bays

8 x included Cooling Fans

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147164

[jamerson9]

At that price and free shipping, looks pretty good.

[Brian B.]

they are also selling a 4 in 3 hot swap adapter for $30

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132037

[intoran]

I have that same case.  Not sure you could use adapters with it.  Seems like it's built only for the style that come with it.  It is a bit of a pain if you need to swap drives but the price is right. 

[j.metts]

My case arrived yesterday, so I had "fun" putting everything together last night. My attempt to use the C2SEE mobo I've had in my closet for a few years was a no-go due to some finicky RAM issues (I think/hope that's the problem). That was the "fun" part. Assembling everything only to realize your RAM is not going to work, then disassembling everything to re-assemble the previous rig. Now to get some RAM on Supermicro's approved list (which is what I should have done to begin with).

 

Initial impressions:

• Cable management was kind of a pain with all of the fan's molex cables. Routing cables under the middle fans and using the bar at the top for routing with zip ties wasn't too bad, but soooooo many molex connectors with curled up wires! Seriously, 8 fans = 8 annoying curly wires + 16 molex connectors (male/female). Combine this with the fact that my PSU isn't modular made for some painful moments. Also, the space between the middle fans and back of the drives is not for bigger hands. With a few cuts and scrapes, I warn others to be a bit more careful than I was.
  
• This thing is big! This is my first rack mountable server case, so those that have/do use them, this is probably no surprise. Big case = lots of space = good.
  
• Hard drive cages weren't as difficult to deal with as I have read. 2 screws holding each cage in, and they pop right out. Some people made it seem like they had to put some force behind it to get them in and out. Maybe I'm the lucky one? Over time I'll probably replace them with Norco SS-500 cages, but since I didn't have much issue with them I am in no rush at all. If I do eventually replace them with the SS-500's, I realize at that point I could have bought a Norco RPC-4220, but the price of admission to the 4U world was $70 and who knows how long I'll take to turn these into hot swap bays. May just wait for the right deals to come along and piece it together in time.
  
• This thing is quiet! I've read reports of both quiet and loud. I'm not sure where the loud reports are coming from because this thing is much quieter than my previous setup with double the amount of fans, as well as my gaming tower (of course, that doesn't say much since it sounds like a jet). With 6 120mm & 2 80mm fans, I had expectations of it being loud. Luckily, this is NOT the case.
  
• Not a fan of the power/reset buttons, but how often are they used anyway? With that said, I think the plastic portion over my power button may not be as intended. The reset button is slightly convex whereas the power button is slightly concave. Maybe this is intentional? Again, not a big deal.
  
• All black! I'm not a fan of the bare metal that the Norco's and others have, and yes I understand they are meant to be in racks where this isn't seen, but for me, this case sits on a nice "ledge" in a closet, not in a rack. So I like the fact that it looks like a normal case. I read some reports of it coming with rubber feet. Mine doesn't have them, but I plan on putting some kind of rubber feet on it anyway.
  
• Cooling. This doesn't say much since my previous case had absolutely terrible cooling (killed 2 WD Black drives with heat until I pulled it out of the closet in a more open space for over a year before buying this). Put this back in the same closet, closed the door, and monitored temps last night. Easily 10C less for each drive, and this is in a smallish closet whereas the hard drive killer was out in the open! Insane I know, but again....previous case sucked!! The real test will be next summer. During this time of year those drives will stay nice and cool in the mid to low 20's spiking to around 27-28. A good test will be a parity check, so I'll plan that over the next week or 2.
  

 

For my 7 drive system, this will offer some great expansion for me in the future until I have the need for 16+ drives.

[j.metts]

I have that same case.  Not sure you could use adapters with it.  Seems like it's built only for the style that come with it.  It is a bit of a pain if you need to swap drives but the price is right. 

 

Since they appear to simply be 5 in 3 cages, I don't see why the hot swaps wouldn't work in their place. The hot swap bay fans will be awfully close to the middle fans, so I'm not sure how that portion would work since the drives currently have a push-pull fan setup, and this would make it into a pull-pull (??) setup?

[rick.p]

I have one of these and have 3 Norco SS500 in them. Mounted with ZERO issues.

 

I did replace all the fans with 3pin fans tho, a few splitters and the wiring is much less gnarly.

 

Keep an eye on Amazon, they till pop up there for $65 from time to time, I got mine that way.

[jon.yonke]

Has anyone successfully rack mounted one of these with out issue? I am going back and forth between this and a Norco unit, but I have seen a ton of comments over the past couple years on 4U Rosewill Server cases having issues fitting in a standard rack. Some say they hack up the handles to make it work, but that is less than ideal.

[burr]

I have a RSV-L4000 and i can tell you it's a pain to rack with the Rosewill rails.  I'm using a compaq 9000 series 22u rack, pretty standard.  I had to take off the handles to get it to work and it's still not optimal, if i had to buy again i'd look elsewhere.  I have several other supermicro cases ranging from 1-4u and have had no issues with them.

[c3]

Some Norco are also very long and difficult to fit within a "standard" rack (front to back).