Observations and Mods on the New Norco 4220 Case

[BigXor]

I purchased a new Norco 4220 case to replace my years old case because Norco claims that it is now 6gb/s compatible.

I was testing a few slots with a Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD just to verify.

Well... not all the slots actually can keep up with the 520MB/s Read/Write speeds of the SSD. Actually the AS-SSD benchmark went from a score of 1080 to 1201 just by not using the backplane.

Some of the slots will only transfer about half that speed. Plenty for any spinner.

This aggravated me to no end but a good case is out of my price range.

I decided to put the SSD's inside the case. The following images are the mods I did to install the SSD's and have them look good and have cooling available while out of the way.

I used a dual bracket 3.5"x 2.5" adapter and mounted them close to the place where a slim DVD can be installed, glued the brackets down in place with Hot Melt glue.

I have my case upended on my bench to conserve space so I would never use the DVD slot. I just happened to have a 5.25" bay slim DVD adapter from an old build that had a vent insert that fit the case slot perfectly for cooling ( the case includes a solid cover). A little glue on the back to keep it nicely in place and I can now use all my drive trays for spinners and not have to to worry about OS speed issues.

I would not recommend buying a Norco case if you plan to build a server with SSD's. Too unreliable.

*just a note about using Hot Melt to mount stuff. Its super easy to remove. If I wanted to remove the mounting bracket holding the SSD's for some reason, just take a Q-Tip dripping with isopropyl alcohol and let it run down around the glue. It will practically fall off with very little effort.

See ya around the forum.

 

[BigXor]

Just got around to testing the Norco SS-500 5-in-3 enclosures I use in my tower case.

The backplane's in these also can't handle SSD's. I tested using a Plextor 128GB I had laying around and using the performance test in Samsung Magician (tests R/W sequential and random iops), the test would not complete in several slots on two enclosures. I tested all 8 controller cables plugged straight to the SSD and the tests completed successfully on all 8 cables (no enclosure connected).

I then performed the same tests using Samsung Magician on a WD1000EZEX 1GB hard drive on 8 enclosure slots I have connected to the controller. They completed consistently.

 

[lmk]

@BigXor "The backplane's in these also can't handle SSD's..."

That information is greatly appreciated.

 

[BigXor]

Just for info: These SS-500's were purchased only about 3 months ago. So they are the latest backplanes offered. Also the 4220 mentioned in the first post is relatively new. I updated everything because I was getting thousands of CRC communication errors clocking up on the hard drives S.M.A.R.T. on the old 4224 case I had at the time.

The modern Norco's are much better, but for hard drives only. I believe they (now) need to focus on shielding.

If I had deep pockets I would change everything to a quality brand.

 

[Patrick]

Sadly I have 2x Norco 24-bay chassis that are just sitting idle right now. Maybe one day I will swap them out but my needs for storage (at home) have tapered off from crazy growth to something that can be managed as drives get larger.

 

[BigXor]

I see no problems with the newer Norco and hard drives. The WD1000EZEX is the fastest SATA drive I've used (200MB/s).

Norco seems to have focused on sequential throughput but can't handle the high speed random 4k of SSD's. The SSD's passed the sequential tests, failed the random iops tests.