Are You Looking For A Less Expensive Norco 4220 / 4224 Alternative? - Page 3

I live in a condo that shares a wall with next unit. If i stick this in my utility room with the door closed, will it still likely to be heard?

I like your mods, but no cash at the moment for new fans and extra stuff. I got a 750w psu I will stick in there through. Eventually I will get what you recommended through. So keep updating your experiences for us!

In any case, I don't need this immediately, I was just gonna stick WHS on this thing to make sure things worked, and wait till I can get fans and such. I don't need any extra programs to share media do I?(Plex mentioned earlier). I mean WHS has smb doesn't it?

Many thanks for all your advice. I'll definitely be giving them a call tomorrow am (granted, I already bought the server -- maybe my mod can be a 'backless build' if I can't get it ).

Srsly though -- on the off-chance you remember, what size drill bit did you use to make the holes? 3/16th inch? Quarter inch? Please forgive the noob question. I'm probably going overboard on the 'measure twice, cut once' mantra, but I'm pretty much an idiot when it comes to case mods, and I can't afford a 50% failure rate on my cuts.

BTW, I put everything in my shopping cart on newegg. Luckily, I have a leftover gift card from my in-laws from xmas.

If I can get the fan plate for $10 and the back plate for $8, and I get my rebates for WHS and the Corsair, then the cost to me for all the mod components will be $28.

If this all works out, I will be naming my next kid Litlgi74.

I like nexus fans better for almost half the cost of noctua.

I think I may grab the 120's, but stick with the SilenX for the 80's.

Or option (3), the correct way is to use a drill and tap to create a threaded hole. You can buy drill and tap sets at good hardware stores, or you can buy taps individually, for example, from McMaster-Carr.

There's nothing I enjoy more than a threaded hole...

Which ones did you end up going with?

Any idea on the power draw at idle, and with the drives spun up?

How hard would it be to turn this into a consumer-grade server/htpc? As has been said before, it's worth the $199 for the case alone. Let me explain what I mean by consumer-grade...

Here's the list of modifications I would make


Typical fan mods to quiet the beast
Replace the power supplies
Yank out the motherboard and go with a more HTPC-friendly board - read: AMD llano or Intel i3 for integrated video, low power consumption, etc.
Plug the expanders into an honest to goodness RAID Controller like the Adaptec 6805
Insert a Ceton Infinitv
Install Win7, running media center and mediabrowser and all the goodies.

I know I'll end up doing the same kind of mod the OP did, drilling new standoffs for the Motherboard to get it seated properly. Also, will have to do something similar to modify the case to accommodate an ATX PSU.

This would become the centerpiece of my entertainment center, plugged into my A/V receiver, but hidden away in a closet or cabinet (TBD). It would also be used to serve two XBOX360's located in different rooms in the house over wired network.

So AVS, I ask you: should I take the leap and start on this project, or is this pure folly?

Done any drive I/O throughput tests on that box? Both local and network drive access, that is.

Just how well does it perform?

I've got a pair of servers that could be nicely consolidated in something like that, but not if it's got weak storage throughput.

Using JBOD or Flexraid, I see ~100MB/s read/write on large transfers, which is way more than enough for media streaming.

Ordered one! Got an Intel one but it doesn't matter since I will be replacing the internals.

Also got the fan wall for $10 and the 4224 back window for $12.

I have to check this forum more often but....

DUDE!!!! You let our secret out!!! LOL

I also got one of these last month and by far its the best deal of the year for a totally built 24-bay media server.

If I wasn't saving money for something else I would buy one or two more.

Great!! There goes my tough guy, meanie, and a$$hole reputation.

BTW, Allen Liu and the Norco guys were very prompt and helpful. The back window was $21 shipped.

I've now gotten everything delivered. Got everything in Litlgi's build except I splurged for the Noctua 120's. With the gift card, and including WHS, my overall cost was $360.

Now I have to somehow find time to do the mods in the next month.

A huge thumbs up and thanks to Litlgi for his help!

Dude, I gotta get it working first.

I'll probably end up screwing my case into the kitchen table.

LOL

I just got the kids to sleep. No way I'm risking it.

Good call. You would wake them up, the kids down the block and probably a few of the dead ones at your local cemetery. Those 60mm fans are the loudest fans I have ever heard. They gave me a migraine in less than 10-minutes.

Well, just started it up in the guest room w/o mods (fwiw, the guest room is only used by my in-laws 4 days a yr at most, and the door is always closed so that my Great Danes won't start sleeping on the bed).

At first, my reaction while watching TV/Movies in the downstairs HTPC lab (one wall, and about 30 feet, away) was that I didn't think the noise was that bad. I went upstairs to our main living area (and our main HT), and couldn't hear a thing. Frankly, the only fan noise I could hear was from the fans for my Sanus rack, which is right next to the HT in another room.

Now, OTOH, it's been about 30 minutes, and I am still watching TV downstairs. I've become more attuned to the high-pitched whirring of it. Our AC is actually louder than it is, but the rub is that the AC is not as high-pitched (some of you may assume that the AC isn't on that much, but, if you'll notice my handle, it's on about 11 months of the year here.

I'm actually debating the possibility of building the server db as-is right now. I think what I'll do is leave it running the next couple of days and, if both my nanny and wife complain about the noise, I'll do the full mod -- because, let's be frank here, the main mod that's necessary is the PSU, and there's just no way to switch PSU's unless you do the full mod.