July 10, 201015 yr Hey guys... I received my new RPC-4220 yesterday and found the SAS backplanes are v31. The SFF-8087 connectors are now close to the middle of the board on this version. Should make cabling interesting. We shall see. Here's a few pics.
July 10, 201015 yr Guessing it didn't come with those Noctua fans? I love those on in my i7 gaming/audio/general desktop...Will have to consider popping them in the Norco too! Is it easy to get them in? 3 120's instead of the 5 80's?
July 10, 201015 yr Author Yeah, definitely replaced the originals with Noctua's. I swapped out the fanboard with the one I purchased from cavediver on the mediasmartserver.net forums. Piece o' cake. http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009/09/02/forum-member-makes-120mm-fan-board-available-for-norco-rpc-4220-server-case/
July 11, 201015 yr Eeks... $40 + the 3 fans + shipping is well over $100... I'll have to see if I can hear it in my front room from the storage room where it will be.... Thanks for the link though, definitely something to consider... Besides noise, do the 3 120's push more air and keep temps down more than the stock?
July 14, 201015 yr Also, inside the latch of each hard drive bay is a vent cover that slides left and right to open/ close each bay. I have all non-used bays closed so that the most air is pulled over the drives. Nowhere in the documentation is this mentioned. Wait... what documentation? -JOHN
July 14, 201015 yr 4 screws on the side Oh, hahaha... I thought I'd read somewhere that the top was screwless, so I spent a large amount of time trying to figure out how to push those little things that say push. Thanks!
July 15, 201015 yr Author Okay, I may be mentally challenged... How do I get the lid off. Ha, I thought the same thing when I first attempted to remove the cover. After careful inspection I located the screws and all was well. Besides noise, do the 3 120's push more air and keep temps down more than the stock? There is a bit less airflow with the Noctua fans but I imagine it is a little more even from top to bottom as the 120's are nearly full height of the drive cages. This may make little to no difference though, just a thought. They are so much quieter I cannot hear them over any other of the PC's in the room and they are pricey but should last a good long time. I've yet to replace a Noctua. Stock Fans 57.21 x4 = 228.84 cfm Noctua NF-P12's 54.32 x3 = 162.96 cfm I haven't even tried the build with the stock fans, I had planned from the beginning to replace them with Noctuas. I believe I read in Cavediver's thread over at mediasmartserver that he observed slightly lower temps with his 120's though I could very well be mistaken. I'm seeing pretty good temps with my current setup but I've yet to fully populate it with drives. Currently with 8 WD Green 2TB drives the highest temp I've seen is 34°C while performing a parity-sync. Ambient room temp is typically 25°C.
July 15, 201015 yr Okay, thanks Thalasi... I guess who am I kidding? After spending all that dough on a good case, CPU, motherboard, power supply, RAM, and HDs... of course I'm going to spring for the 120mm fanplate as soon as it's back in stock BTW, I just can't get over how BIG this thing is.... the question isn't "where do I find a big enough rack for this" it's "where do I find a big enough ROOM for this"
July 15, 201015 yr Author Talking with a fellow from Norco today I was informed Norco plans on making available their own 120mm fan board for the RPC-4220. This new fan board will also have a hole in the middle to feed cables through to the new SAS backplanes which have their connectors near the center. I found that 50cm cables do not reach from the AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards, around the side of the fan board, to the center of the backplane. Shouldn't be an issue with the new board. Once it's available one will be able to purchase it separately through ipcdirect.net. No mention on pricing though.
July 15, 201015 yr Talking with a fellow from Norco today I was informed Norco plans on making available their own 120mm fan board for the RPC-4220 How about for the 3216?
July 15, 201015 yr Author Not sure, we were only discussing the 4220. One would think (and/or hope) they would make a 120mm fan board for all their cases that are big enough to accept 120's.
July 16, 201015 yr ... Norco plans on making available their own 120mm fan board for the RPC-4220. ... one will be able to purchase it separately through ipcdirect.net Thanks for the info, I'll definitely be checking that out when it's out!
July 16, 201015 yr Started putting mine together today... I just ordered mine from newegg last week, and the SAS ports are all on the right... Not sure whether to be disappointed that I got an older model, or happy that the SAS cables I ordered are long enough
July 16, 201015 yr Seems to me that having the SAS ports located in the middle would be a pain if you ever had a cable die and needed to replace it. I like that mine are located on the side and not blocked by the fan plate.
July 20, 201015 yr Holy crap, this thing is loud!!!! I thought it wouldn't matter, since it's in the next room with the door closed, but this thing IN THE NEXT ROOM is still louder than my air condition (on high) five feet away. I hope Norco comes out with that 120mm fanplate soon!
August 2, 201015 yr Just built my second Norco today and this one had the SFF connectors in the middle. I ran 2 cable under the fans and the other 3 over the fans. Having a Dremmel tool to do the cutting came in very handy. That way I had enough length to make all the connections without issue. Right now Cavediver has no stock but I sent him all the details on the new location of the SFF connectors. Let's see what he comes up with.
August 2, 201015 yr I'd just wait... Norco told me they have their official 120mm fanplate coming out this month for $15... EDIT - Norco sent me this on July 20th: "We're going to apply 120mm fanplate in a month. When it is available, we'll put it on ipcdirect.net (price would be $15 each). Thank you."
August 3, 201015 yr I'd just wait... Norco told me they have their official 120mm fanplate coming out this month for $15... EDIT - Norco sent me this on July 20th: "We're going to apply 120mm fanplate in a month. When it is available, we'll put it on ipcdirect.net (price would be $15 each). Thank you." Sweet, please let us know when those become available. Maybe post in good deals or just in this thread. I just migrated my server to my Norco 4220 and I'm just dealing with the noise for now. I'm thinking of taking a dremel or similar to the fan plate, since I just ordered 4 120 mm fans.
August 3, 201015 yr I replaced the stock noisy fans with some that are nearly silent, and don't push near enough air... my HD temps are nearing 40 always. But I figure just for a couple of weeks won't hurt... at least I hope!
August 3, 201015 yr I'd just wait... Norco told me they have their official 120mm fanplate coming out this month for $15... EDIT - Norco sent me this on July 20th: "We're going to apply 120mm fanplate in a month. When it is available, we'll put it on ipcdirect.net (price would be $15 each). Thank you." Oh damn! Well I have just taken an angle grinder to my fanplate and modded it to take 3 x 120mm fans. Never mind, it will do the same job.
August 15, 201015 yr I'd just wait... Norco told me they have their official 120mm fanplate coming out this month for $15... EDIT - Norco sent me this on July 20th: "We're going to apply 120mm fanplate in a month. When it is available, we'll put it on ipcdirect.net (price would be $15 each). Thank you." Any update on this?
August 16, 201015 yr I'd just wait... Norco told me they have their official 120mm fanplate coming out this month for $15... EDIT - Norco sent me this on July 20th: "We're going to apply 120mm fanplate in a month. When it is available, we'll put it on ipcdirect.net (price would be $15 each). Thank you." Oh damn! Well I have just taken an angle grinder to my fanplate and modded it to take 3 x 120mm fans. Never mind, it will do the same job. Same here. I just need to drill the screw holes and it will be complete. I'll post in 'pimp your rig' when I'm done. Care to post pics so we can compare our work?
August 16, 201015 yr I'd just wait... Norco told me they have their official 120mm fanplate coming out this month for $15... EDIT - Norco sent me this on July 20th: "We're going to apply 120mm fanplate in a month. When it is available, we'll put it on ipcdirect.net (price would be $15 each). Thank you." Any update on this? Haven't seen it yet, I've been checking ipcdirect every couple of days..
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