WTB: Norco 16-24 bay case

[wisem2540]

I have a 2u 12-bay case and I would like to upgrade to a case that can handle a standard ATX PSU and full height expansion cards.  Anyone have one for sale?  I am in the midwest

[arombo]

I have a new in the box Rosewill RSV-L4500 I'm thinking of selling. Was gifted to me, but I don't think it will work for my needs.

 

I'm located in the mid-west geographically.

[JonathanM]

2 hours ago, arombo said:

I have a new in the box Rosewill RSV-L4500 

Not ideal for unraid because of the lack of externally accessible drive bays in a rack mount case. Not sure what application that would be good for.

[wisem2540]

2 hours ago, jonathanm said:

Not ideal for unraid because of the lack of externally accessible drive bays in a rack mount case. Not sure what application that would be good for.

 

Agreed.  I do apreciate the offer, but this is not quite what I am looking for.

[s_mason16]

is the lack of hot swap really that big of a deal. Don't get me wrong, i understand the beauty of hot swap and would prefer it over not anyday, but i wouldn't be turned away(as of this moment)....   I've only been running unraid for a couple of months, and i haven't needed back at my drives. it's been kind of a set it and forget it, on the hardware side.

are you guys really into your drives often? and for what reason....drive failure? is that a common thing?

@arombo I'm in southern michigan, I might have interest

 

[JonathanM]

45 minutes ago, s_mason16 said:

are you guys really into your drives often? and for what reason....drive failure? is that a common thing?

No, but when you do need to replace a drive, one of the MOST common issues is knocking a different drive connection loose and not realizing it. That can lead to multiple drives being knocked offline, causing all sorts of havoc. Better to reduce the possible failure points when dealing with an array that is already running degraded, because that's when you are most vulnerable to data loss.

 

As far as drive failure being common, all hard drives will eventually fail, the trick is predicting when and catching it before you lose data. That's pretty much the entire reason for running unRaid or RAID, the fact that drives will all fail if given enough time. Backups are a must whether running unRaid or not, drive redundancy is for uptime reasons so you don't HAVE to restore from backups for many drive loss scenarios. Drive redundancy will not protect you against data corruption or accidental deletion.

[wisem2540]

Mason,

 

Something else to consider is that you may want to upgrade a smaller 1TB drive to a larger 4TB drive as they become more affordable.  In my own personal experience, just last week, I swapped an old (still functioning) 1.5TB drive for a 3TB drive that I got on sale for 45 dollars.  In a case without hotswap bays, it would be very difficult for a person to determine which drive is which.  How many drives would you have to unscrew before finding the right one?

 

Yes this case is cheap, and holds alot of drives.  But IMO, once the number of drives gets higher than 3 or so, you really need a quick easy way to identify which drive you are working with.

 

Do drives fail often?  No.  I have gone many years without a single failure.  

Is there a ton of maintenance?  No.  I have gone almost 400 days without even rebooting my server

Do we add or upgrade drives often?  That would depend on the person.  I typically add drives once a year.  Usually around Black Friday or Christmas, depending on what santa brought me.  I have 3x 3TB drives waiting to be installed right now.

 

The point is, it does not happen often.  But, when I add the newest drives to my server, this will be drives #9, #10, and #11.  I started with a very modest server of 3x 500GB drives about 8-9 years ago.  I am now up to about 12TB of data which, by unraid standards is still quite modest. 

 

The biggest advantage to the Norco / Supermicro case I am looking for is the use of a SAS backplane.  Meaning I can hook 4 drives to a single SAS cable.  In a case like the one above, could you imagine trying to manage 15 Sata cables and 15 power connectors?  In my 12 bay case, I have 3 SAS cables and (I think) 3 power cables, powering all 12 bays.  It costs more money, my case was about 300 dollars when I bought it.  But I can add, upgrade, or replace a drive in less than 5 minutes without ever unplugging a thing.  Trust me, it is worth it in the long run.  

 

Hope this helps

Edited December 29, 2017 by wisem2540

[arombo]

@s_mason16

 

I've already sold it to a coworker who was interested. 

[kingpin]

where in the midwest are you (you can pm me if that is easier). 

 

i believe i have a 20 bay norco around here somewhere. otherwise i have 2 of the supermicro 16 bay chassis on a shelf.

 

 

[wisem2540]

St Louis MO area. Don't mind driving a distance for the right deal 

[bobbintb]

On 12/23/2017 at 4:50 PM, wisem2540 said:

I have a 2u 12-bay case and I would like to upgrade to a case that can handle a standard ATX PSU and full height expansion cards.  Anyone have one for sale?  I am in the midwest

Coincidentally, I just got a new setup and am looking to get unload my Norco case. It's either a Norco 4220 or a 4020. I don't remember which, nor can I even tell the difference between the two. PM me if you are interested.

[kingpin]

here is a norco 4020 that i have on a shelf. i now use the supermicro systems.

 

located in Reedsburg, WI 

 

$200 local pick up. not sure on what shipping would be.

 

comes with what you see (yes, i do have the cover)