LIAN LI PC-A77, Norco 4020 Competition?

[smino]

What do you guys think of the Lian Li case?

I really like the fans in the front and back of the case for great are flow.

It has 12 5.25 inch bays in the front and 3 3.5 inch bays top rear.

Maximum drives using 3to5 inserts 23 drives with lots of airflow.

 

 

http://www.lian-li.com.tw/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=212&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=61&g=f

 

I am having a hard time deciding between this and the Norco 4020(20 drives hot swap) and the LIan Li cube (30 drives++not hot swap).

I suspect the Lian Li Pc-A77 is the best option for being able to read the hard drive serial numbers on the front of them when they fail. My current case allows this, and I love it. It saves me much time when I am tinkering and accidentally hookl a sata cable or power cable lightly.

I want a min of 16 drives, max of 20, I prefer to have fans in front of the drives to push air in as well as pull air out the top and back.

I am worried that the Norco case will be annoying when trying to read serial numbers, and overall cooling it does not seem 100% perfect.

Price wise the Lian Li case is also a little cheaper, until you add the needed "5 into 3" 5.25 inch slot converters at 30$ each. Now the Norco does have the backplane advantage for both power supply and SAS or SATA connectors...depending which one you get.

 

 

The other case : Lian Li PC-B71

It has a built in 7 Drive raid cage hot swap (power runs included) 3 more drives top rear for 10 sata drives out of the box. Then you have 5x5.25 inch trays left..

[Romir]

I'm holding out for the 24 bay Norco RPC-4124 with sas backplanes. Its overkill but at $400~ it'll cost less than my 4 5-in-3s (which I'm selling).

 

"According to Mike at Norco ... They ARE planning on releasing a SAS backplane version in 4 weeks but they have not released that picture and that is not what it looks like. The model number will be RPC-4124 and as you can probably tell, it will be a 4U 24 bay case. That should be much better for those people looking to purchase 24 port RAID cards like myself. The price point should be sub $400." -mtehonica @ avsforums

[smino]

Yeah 400$ is getting up there. I am also trying to build this in a way that can be reproduced by friends and family. They tend to copy me on most things...

Although I think the LIan -Li case is sexy, and I love the fans in the front to cool off the drives, I think I am leaning towards the 4020 right now.

 

[WeeboTech]

As nice as that case is, that case has a significant price tag on it.

If you're modeling a system for others, then a more cost effective and easier maintenance approach may be more effective.

 

I've really learned to love the Tray less SATA re movables along with the Centurion 590 and 4 120MM exhaust fans.