I'm glad to be proven wrong here, if anyone have any solid proof of this.
And one thing that I'm not certain of is how things are lined up for meassure.
So for all that I know, I'm wrong thinking that 450mm opening is not the number to base the calculation upon.
It may be that I should use the 465mm (center hole to hole width).
Not sure about the measurements, but I am sure that the "new" RL-26 rails work just find with the RPC-4220 chassis in a standard rack. (In my case, the standard rack is the StarTech 4POSTRACK25. Also note the caveat that the case only slides out about 2/3 the way with the new RL-26.)
You mention questionable design regarding the Norco, I kind of like the design overall.
But I understand that the "non-standard" width and that kind of design is a big drawback.
The quality I can't say anything about, but after reading a lot of forum threads this weekend I think I know what you mean.
Yeah, that's just my opinion.
I guess I do like the design of the Norco cases, just not terribly impressed with their execution. My power button punched through, and I seem to remember some other complaints about flaky buttons. I definitely recall some people complaining about the "backplane circuit board SAS expander" modules in the 4220/4224 being flaky, and needing to be replaced by Norco. I consider these quality issues. But then again, it's obvious that they are targeting the the budget/home server market. But they really should sell a nice set of matched "rapid rails", even at a higher price. (Again, just my opinion.)
Dual PSU included, "rapid rails" for square holes also included, mini-sas 6Gb/s backplane included, many/all cables included,
SES-2 management included. And a statement that this will work with an EIARS-310C standard rack (the same as their own rack system follow).
Looking at the price, I can have it for ca USD 900 plus USD 200 in shipping plus USD 275 for the Norwegian VAT.
I still consider it reasonable, considering I don't need to buy the psu/cables/rails and so on extra.
My 836 chassis did not come with any SAS or SATA cables. Only power and front panel cables.
Side note: the Norco 4220/4224 (and maybe others) come with a bracket that allows you to use redundant PSUs.
Sorry for hijacking this thread a second here, but since you got a Supermicro chassis you might be able to answer this as well.
The SC826E16 (se link abowe) has 3 SFF 8087 connectors on its backplane.
BPN-SAS2-826EL1 (singel LSI SAS2X28 expander chip).
Is this 6Gb per channel, shared between 4 drives?
Or am I able to utilize the 6Gb to every drive?
Are you sure about that? I didn't follow the link, but my understanding of Supermicro's chassis part numbers is as follows: the "E16" to me suggests that it has a single 6 Gbps SAS expander chip, which implies a single mini-SAS connection. If this chassis holds 12 hot swap drives, then I would expect the "A" version to have three mini-SAS ports. The "A" version of SM chassis is most like the Norco 422x cases, that basically have SAS-to-SATA break-out cables in circuit board form. Supermicro's "TQ" versions have individual SATA ports (one for each drive), like Norco's older 402x cases. SM also has the "E26" versions, which have dual-redundant SAS expanders. Also note that they have one manual for all versions of their cases, and different sections in the manual cover the different backplanes based on whatever model you got. I
almost overlooked this and ordered the wrong chassis for work!
I'm not too informed on SAS expanders. For work, I bought the 846E1 (only 3 Gbps, predecessor to the E16)... but this is for a backup server, so I never cared about performance. I just wanted something simple (and what's simpler than using one cable to connect 24 drives?).
Let us know what you end up getting, and take pictures!