Does anyone have any experience with the Supermicro SC936A-R900 chassis? I emphasized the A in the model number since Supermicro's "A" chassis seem to be the closest match to the Norco servers, with a "breakout" backplane. That is, the backplane is not an expander (E1/E2 models) nor does it have a bunch of SATA connections (TQ models).
The 936A has four fewer bays than the 4220, but that is fine for my needs for this particular server. I can't see anything about it that looks problematic. My only complaint is that comes with a power supply; I'd like to reuse my Corsair AX750, but I'm pretty sure the PSU mount on the SM chassis is proprietary (or at least not ATX).
Anyway, if anyone has any experience with this chassis, I'd be interested to hear it. Note that the 836A-R1200B looks almost the same, except the hard drives are oriented horizontally instead of vertically, and the PSU is more powerful. Prices for the 936 look cheaper, so that's where I'm leaning.
What follows is a rant about my Norco 4220...
This weekend was the last straw for me with Norco. I posted about my frustration racking these cases. I thought I might just go to the source, so I bought a set of RL-26 rails from IPCDirect. Looking at the picture on Norco website, I realized that the RL-26 rails are different from the rails I have. In all fairness, these rails did fit. However, they are not ball-bearing rails, and they don't have a second "arm". So the case only slides out about 2/3 of the way. I'd have to take it out of the rails completely to do any real work.
I thought maybe I could live with that, since I really don't work on the server that much, and at least now it's not sticking out of the rack. But the power button on my 4220 has been flaky for a while now. It's one of those buttons that randomly works, after dozens of pushes. Today one of those dozens of pushes resulted in the button actually breaking. I had to short the solder leads on the circuit board to start the server.
So I decided I'm tired of messing with it. I appreciate what Norco is doing, and if they were just slightly more refined and higher quality, I think they'd have a fantastic product. I realize the Supermicro is going to cost me at least 2x as much, but my time is more valuable to me at the moment. I'm willing to spend the money if it means things will "just work" and not give me grief every step of the way.
Thanks!
Matt
The 936A has four fewer bays than the 4220, but that is fine for my needs for this particular server. I can't see anything about it that looks problematic. My only complaint is that comes with a power supply; I'd like to reuse my Corsair AX750, but I'm pretty sure the PSU mount on the SM chassis is proprietary (or at least not ATX).
Anyway, if anyone has any experience with this chassis, I'd be interested to hear it. Note that the 836A-R1200B looks almost the same, except the hard drives are oriented horizontally instead of vertically, and the PSU is more powerful. Prices for the 936 look cheaper, so that's where I'm leaning.
What follows is a rant about my Norco 4220...
This weekend was the last straw for me with Norco. I posted about my frustration racking these cases. I thought I might just go to the source, so I bought a set of RL-26 rails from IPCDirect. Looking at the picture on Norco website, I realized that the RL-26 rails are different from the rails I have. In all fairness, these rails did fit. However, they are not ball-bearing rails, and they don't have a second "arm". So the case only slides out about 2/3 of the way. I'd have to take it out of the rails completely to do any real work.
I thought maybe I could live with that, since I really don't work on the server that much, and at least now it's not sticking out of the rack. But the power button on my 4220 has been flaky for a while now. It's one of those buttons that randomly works, after dozens of pushes. Today one of those dozens of pushes resulted in the button actually breaking. I had to short the solder leads on the circuit board to start the server.
So I decided I'm tired of messing with it. I appreciate what Norco is doing, and if they were just slightly more refined and higher quality, I think they'd have a fantastic product. I realize the Supermicro is going to cost me at least 2x as much, but my time is more valuable to me at the moment. I'm willing to spend the money if it means things will "just work" and not give me grief every step of the way.
Thanks!
Matt