Are You Looking For A Less Expensive Norco 4220 / 4224 Alternative? - Page 4

Ok, I'm in for one too.

I've disassembled other power supplies like those and replaced their fans with much quieter units. That or rewired them to use an external fan controller. I've found that using analog fan controllers useful in tuning the noise level to more acceptable levels. Like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Pin-PCI-Bracket-3-Fan-Cooling-Bracket-Speed-Controller-Speeder-Noise-Reducer-/150679547846?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2315336fc6

I rejigger the fans to have them all humming at a similar harmonic. I find it's better to have more fans at a less annoying sound level than fewer fans making a racket. Watching out for temperatures, of course.

But this has only been with 3U & 4U cases with no more than eight 3.5" drives (each in their own 5.25 carrier with fan). Whether that technique pans out with this 24 drive beast might be a different story.

Well, I jumped on it. I have some plans for the system, and will post with updates. I was able to find an actual AIC back window for ATX motherboard and ATX Power supply. Thank you very much for posting the actual brands of the components, as it helped me get some degree of comfort that the back plates would fit the case. I'll post as soon as I figure out if the plates fit.

Very excited to start this project.

I'll make you a deal; if the parts work, I'll disclose my sources. If they don't, you don't have to worry about it

I too would be interested in where you sourced these.

I got mine on Tuesday (ordered on Friday the 1st). Packaging was great, all nice and secure. I had an issue when I powered it up...a constant high pitched alarm, reminded me of a CPU overheat alarm. So I reset all the ram, cleared CMOS, and it still was going beeeeeeeeeeeep. I emailed Jason at Tam Solutions and he responded quickly. Said he hadn't had this issue before. I told him I was going to re-seat the CPU and apply new thermal compound. He said to try it and check in this forum for help, but if that didn't work he wanted me to be happy with my purchase. So they get an A for service! At any rate, I did the CPU re-seating and still got the alarm. That's when I noticed a Bu. Reset button on the back. That did the trick. Major 'DUH' on my part.

So I'm totally happy with my purchase, the packaging was good and secure, shipping was fast, customer service was quick, friendly, and courteous. Overall, would recommend.

I'm going to post a few pics of the unboxing soon, along with some readings from a cheapo db meter with and without the fans (this thing is LOUD), and some readings from the Kill-o-Watt meter. Big thanks to the OP for turning me on to this deal.

Edit:
Deal. Thanks!

So is anyone running this with UnRaid? I was considering a Norco for an UnRaid build, but this looks too good to be true. I just want to know if this works with UnRaid - particularly if anyone is using the RC's of the new version.

This should work just fine with unRAID. Actually, the first mention of this deal was made on the unRAID forum months ago.

Did you have to put in a NIC card? Or was the onboard NIC a good one? How are your speeds? This sounds too good to be true, but sounds like people have really had no problems. Doesn't look like he has the opteron available, only the xeon. Having the PCI-e slots would be nice. Just not sure... Thanks for all the great info.

One other question, if you don't mind.

Does this have the power to run Plex on it as well? My current WHS maxes out the CPU when I try to use it and watch a movie with my cell phone.

The Supermicro server boards have almost the exact same gigabit NIC as the Intel Pro 1000 that are so popular. They are rock solid and I can get full speeds with all my other boxes.

I plan on trying out Plex on mine too. Unfortunately I won't have time to do the mods for a bit, so it's going to be a while before I can say how well it works, but I definitely will when I do. On another note, Tamsolutions sounds like they have gotten a good bit of business from this thread. I linked this thread to Jason there and he said he might post...so maybe some direct contact? Hopefully he does...they have been great to do business with so far.

This is why I plan on changing out the CPU, and maybe adding a 2nd. If I use this a my main Plex machine, it's gonna need more power to transcode for iOS without hiccups.

This server has only one dual core Xeon on it - you'd have to compare the specs of the board and that processor to your current setup to see if it's more powerful than what you have now. However, the guy is also selling a set of quad core Xeon processors for $75 that will fit in that motherboard. Buy a couple of heatsink/fan combos and I think you'll have all the processing power you'd need.

Strongly agree with the bolded.

After agonizing over whether to drop the money on the mods for this chassis after seeing your success, I decided to try one last quieting option - an inline resistor to bring down the speed of the PSU fans. So I yanked one of the PSUs, disassembled it, unplugged the fans, and wired them up to an old AT PSU for easier testing purposes. Unfortunately it appears that they just won't operate with less than 12V, and they are 38mm fans, which is not an easy size to locate cheap, quiet replacements for. Guess I'll have to take the plunge on modifying the case when I redo my server rack.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what other folks here do with these servers.

Well you guys all but convinced me. I was going to build an UnRaid Norco 20 drive system, but this seems too good to pass up, for less than just the case. I emailed them to see if they have the AMD version available. I am hoping they do.

When I ordered mine they replied the AMD units were sold out. I've got a couple of PCI-e Areca RAID cards that I'd like to use, but can't in the PCI-X motherboard this comes with. But I think I'll give the supplied cards a try to see how they perform. If not, well, it's cheap enough for just the case alone!

Litlgi,

Which version do you have? The xeon or the option? Sounds like you may have the xeon, if so any downside you have with not having the PCI-E slots?

There is NOTHING wrong with the AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards. They are the workhorses of the Supermicro line. They are quite fast and have never given me an ounce of trouble with any drives.

Can't wait to hear what you have planned. I am picking up something tomorrow. Hoping they have the AMD, but I guess if not, and there isn't any real need for the PCI-E slots, I guess I can live with a Quad Core or would it be dual Quad core...

You can buy a lot of 3 3Ware true hardware RAID cards from the guy for $20, if you think there's an issue with the Supermicro cards (which are perfectly fine, IMHO).

I sorta did.

That being said, I have all the components for the upgrade, and will certainly do it at some point. But I've had the server going for almost a week now, and not a single complaint from the fam.

I ordered the 2 six-core 2419's, and my first orders of business are:

1) trying to get them to work. I don't know how exactly I'll flash the BIOS firmware right now such that the mobo will take the 6-core CPU's. The method I saw on the lime-tech msg board (involving using something from Windows 98?) makes me a tad confused. I'm sure I'll get it done, but I wish updating the BIOS were a little less annoying -- edit: got this one done finally

2) getting RDC to work w/ WHS. My only Windows HTPC is a Home Premium build, and it doesn't have RDC. The Windows RDC I have on my macs is, for some reason, not working for the server -- edit: fixed this one!!

So, right now, I'm going one issue at a time on the software. Once that's done, then I can start playing around more with modifications.

One disaster at a time...
Edited by NewOrlnsDukie - 6/11/12 at 1:05am