1 00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:07,440 So today we're going to be unboxing something a little bit different. I 2 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:13,360 don't think we've done anything like this. Okay, so this is a computer case. 3 00:00:11,120 --> 00:00:19,400 This is probably the largest computer case we've unboxed on the show before. 4 00:00:15,759 --> 00:00:21,920 It comes in a stylish brown box which 5 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:29,199 includes no information about the product inside whatsoever except for a 6 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:31,199 part number. So, 10 points if you know 7 00:00:29,199 --> 00:00:36,480 what this is already, although I really doubt it because it's a brand new 8 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:39,000 product from Norcco Tech. Now, Norcco 9 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:45,200 Tech is a little bit different from Norcco that makes bicycles. 10 00:00:42,399 --> 00:00:50,960 Now, Norcco is not really focused on uh you know what kind of high-end video 11 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:54,640 card fits in their case or you know how 12 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:57,199 many uh you know stylish plastic bezel 13 00:00:54,640 --> 00:01:03,680 designs they have or what kind of aluminum chassis they're using. Norcco 14 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:08,080 is all about functionality on the cheap. 15 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:09,760 So, this is a 4U ATX case that is 16 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:13,080 designed. You know, I'm just going to have to bring this down to the ground 17 00:01:11,119 --> 00:01:20,720 because there's no way I can uh it's so heavy. It's a 4U ATX standard 18 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:27,840 case that is designed to load up with as many hard drives as you could pretty 19 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:29,600 much need as a home user. So, let's just 20 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:35,360 uh keep working on getting this box open. You can see it is double boxed to 21 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:38,479 protect it during transit. And here is 22 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:40,960 the case itself. So, this thing weighs 23 00:01:38,479 --> 00:01:47,200 like about as much as I do. So, I'm going to have to find some way to unbox 24 00:01:43,799 --> 00:01:47,200 it. And 25 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:55,600 uh this may be my most difficult unboxing yet. So, we're going to go 26 00:01:52,799 --> 00:02:06,399 ahead and tilt it this way and then tilt it this way. And finally, there it is. 27 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:09,520 The RPC 4224. 28 00:02:06,399 --> 00:02:11,599 So, four, it is a 4U case. I don't 29 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:17,680 remember what the first two stands for, but the 24 means it holds 24 hard 30 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:21,959 drives. So, let's go ahead and put this down over 31 00:02:19,239 --> 00:02:27,120 here. Okay, like I said, steel construction. 32 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:31,840 It's not going to fall apart. They actually have a wide variety of uh rack 33 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:36,959 mountable chassis that are designed for just building little file servers. And 34 00:02:34,239 --> 00:02:42,400 what makes them great for home users is the fact 35 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:45,680 that unlike enterprise level chassis or 36 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:49,840 um or barebones, they're cheap. This 37 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:51,519 case only costs in the midunds versus 38 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:56,480 what you might pay for something from a super micro or from another rack 39 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:01,519 mountable chassis brand which might be as much as $1,000 just for the chassis 40 00:02:58,959 --> 00:03:06,400 itself. So, like I said, 24 hot swappable, uh, 3 and 1/2 in, also 2 and 41 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:12,239 1/2 in compatible. You can see it has 2 and 1/2 in mounting holes, hard drive 42 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:13,920 bays. Okay. And these all run off a very 43 00:03:12,239 --> 00:03:18,720 large back plane. Now, I might have to run inside and get a uh screwdriver. So, 44 00:03:16,879 --> 00:03:22,319 just pause that video. Okay. So, we got the case open. That was step number one. 45 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:26,800 So, I want the cameraman to come have a look at the inside of the case, which is 46 00:03:24,640 --> 00:03:33,680 where we will find all of the things that make this otherwise very plain 47 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:36,159 steel box uh worth a lot of money and uh 48 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:39,920 what make this one a particularly good value compared to the other stuff out on 49 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:49,360 the market. So, first I want you to have a look at the inside here. The interface 50 00:03:43,599 --> 00:03:54,239 that actually runs that 24 drive 51 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:56,239 um hot swappable like massive storage 52 00:03:54,239 --> 00:04:00,640 compartment here. So, this this whole part of the case is dedicated to this 53 00:03:58,239 --> 00:04:04,640 back plane. Okay. So, you can see here there are actually uh two redundant 54 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:08,400 power inputs. I'm not talking about the fans yet, cameraman. There are two 55 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:12,640 redundant power inputs. So if you're using a redundant power supply, it means 56 00:04:10,159 --> 00:04:16,239 you take one Molex from each redundant power supply and plug it into each of 57 00:04:14,159 --> 00:04:21,840 these two Molex here. So you can see there's a total of six. Okay? So that's 58 00:04:18,959 --> 00:04:26,320 6 * 4 is 24. All right? So that means 12. Six on each power supply. And then 59 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:30,400 over a little bit further, you can see there are 60 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:35,840 SFF887 connectors. So there's a total of six of those, each of which runs four 61 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:40,720 drives on each one of these PCBs here. You can actually remove these. Although 62 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:43,919 it's not really necessary to do so, and I can't really think of a reason to do 63 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:50,240 it, but I'm going to do it anyway because that's what unboxing is all 64 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:52,320 about. Like, you know, just taking stuff 65 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:58,800 apart for the Oh, there it is. Okay. So, you can see here we've got activity 66 00:04:55,160 --> 00:05:02,240 LEDs. We've got the actual SATA or SAS. 67 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:04,400 You can run either SATA 2 or SAS drives 68 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:08,000 off of this back plane. So we you can see we got the four interfaces here. 69 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:13,360 There's the connector I was talking about. Here's the power inputs. So this 70 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:17,199 distributes data to all four drives and this distributes power to all four 71 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:21,280 drives redundantly. So even if one of your power supplies fails in a case like 72 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:25,840 this, if you're using a redundant power supply, the other one will continue to 73 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:30,400 power the drives. The case does not or the u the system does not even need to 74 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:35,800 be shut down. So now if I can figure out how to get this back in there, that 75 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:38,400 would be 76 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:44,479 tremendous. And my battery ran out. Okay, now let's talk fans. So this case 77 00:05:41,039 --> 00:05:45,919 includes six what appear to be 80 mm 78 00:05:44,479 --> 00:05:50,160 fans, although the ones at the back might be No, I think these are all 80 79 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:55,160 mm. So these ones here, the four that are mounted on kind of a a mid plate, 80 00:05:53,039 --> 00:06:01,360 those are all a single set of blade fans. 81 00:05:58,280 --> 00:06:03,360 Now, they're normal fans, okay? As 82 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:08,600 opposed to the counterrotating fans at the back. I'll get more into those uh 83 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:13,199 when we talk about them. But these eight 84 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:14,720 eight four 80 mm fans draw air through 85 00:06:13,199 --> 00:06:21,680 the front of the case. So, if you look at the front of the case, we have ventilation holes over every single hard 86 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:27,360 drive. So they pull air through there and then all the way through the entire 87 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:31,840 interface back here and then push it into the case. So these are all about 88 00:06:30,479 --> 00:06:36,400 static pressure. These are going to be high RPM fans. They actually all run off 89 00:06:34,639 --> 00:06:41,199 a single Molex connector though, which is very convenient. They've already gone 90 00:06:38,639 --> 00:06:46,720 and wired all of the fan. Don't move around so much. They've gone and wired 91 00:06:43,759 --> 00:06:49,520 all of the fans into a little PCB down at the bottom of the case. So, I'm going 92 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,800 to tilt this so you can have a look down there. See? Just like that. So, the 93 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:57,039 power goes in there and then gets distributed to all four fans. So, these 94 00:06:54,800 --> 00:07:01,919 are going to be quite loud for you cases. In fact, any rack mountable case 95 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:05,199 is generally not designed with silence in mind. So, that's something you have 96 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:09,199 to bear in mind. If you wanted to build yourself a file server based on a case 97 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:13,199 like this, you would either want to replace the fans with something quieter. 98 00:07:11,199 --> 00:07:17,919 Mind you, remember there's loud fans in here for a reason. There's a lot of heat 99 00:07:15,759 --> 00:07:20,880 being generated if you actually have 24 hard drives running in here. So, you 100 00:07:19,759 --> 00:07:24,880 want to make sure you're removing it effectively. Or alternately, you can go 101 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:28,479 ahead and throw it in like some closet somewhere where you don't have to listen 102 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:31,759 to it. All right, let's move into the actual motherboard compartment. You can 103 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:36,240 see this is an EATX motherboard compartment. That means you can put in 104 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:40,960 up to an EATX motherboard. Although the beauty of Norcco's cases is you can just 105 00:07:38,639 --> 00:07:44,639 use a standard ATX power supply, a standard ATX board if you want to build 106 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:48,639 yourself a simple home server, and boom, you're done. 107 00:07:46,039 --> 00:07:52,639 So, you've got seven PCI expansion slots, and I want to have a closer look 108 00:07:50,319 --> 00:07:55,599 at these counterrotating fans. You can't really see it too well from the Oh, 109 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:59,680 maybe you can. Maybe you can. Okay, so there's actually two full sets of 110 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:04,160 blades. The reason for that is because at the back of the case, you've only got 111 00:08:01,599 --> 00:08:08,639 three fans. So, one power supply fan, two 80 mm fans here that actually have 112 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:13,599 to move out all of the air that those four at the front drew in. So, that's 113 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:16,800 why we're using a very advanced design where it's going to be high RPM. It's 114 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:20,319 got two sets of blades which are spinning in opposite directions, counter 115 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:23,599 rotation, because if you actually spin the blades in the same direction, you 116 00:08:21,759 --> 00:08:27,840 don't get any additional benefit. So, those are going to be very high static 117 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:32,800 pressure, very high air flow fans, and extremely loud. I think we've talked a 118 00:08:30,639 --> 00:08:36,080 lot about the features of the case in general. Let's talk about why you'd 119 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:40,000 actually buy one. If you have a ton of storage space and you don't you're not 120 00:08:37,599 --> 00:08:46,560 content with just a simple NAS, then you can buy one of these. You don't have to 121 00:08:43,159 --> 00:08:48,959 run all 24 drives. They've actually got 122 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:54,040 two U cases, three U cases, and other four U cases that take fewer drives. And 123 00:08:51,760 --> 00:09:00,160 not all of the cases they have have the SFF887 connector. So many of them uh 124 00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:02,399 including the I believe it's the 4020 125 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:07,279 although I may be wrong. That one I believe uses simple SATA 2 connectors. 126 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:11,760 So you could run SAS drives, SATA 2 drives. You could just take a standard 127 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:15,360 desktop motherboard, fill it up with PCI uh four port SATA cards and then run 128 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:19,360 them to drives. And I mean, if you're not running a high-end RAID array, if 129 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:23,200 you're just running like a Windows home server or something like that, that kind 130 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:28,880 of setup could be perfect versus spending a ton of money on like a more 131 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:32,000 expensive rack mountable case or trying to find a desktop case that's really 132 00:09:30,560 --> 00:09:36,640 going to hold an appropriate number of drives cuz I believe the 4020 holds 20 133 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:41,360 drives. Now, if you are doing something high-end, you can take this case and you 134 00:09:38,959 --> 00:09:46,080 can turn it into something really file server worthy with just a RAID card. So, 135 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:52,240 this is about a $1,500 RAID card. This is an ARA RX1680 EX 24. So, if you 136 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:57,519 wanted to use this particular case to its full potential, meaning you're 137 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:59,680 running 24 drives in RAID six or 138 00:09:57,519 --> 00:10:06,480 hopefully not RAID 5, if you got 24 drives, or if you're running uh several 139 00:10:02,399 --> 00:10:08,000 arrays in varying levels of RAID, this 140 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:11,519 is exactly the kind of thing you'd want to use. So, you go ahead, you put like a 141 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:16,079 nice reliable motherboard in there, or maybe you buy a cheap uh cheap tie or 142 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:21,360 super micro board. You go ahead and throw a card like this in there, and 143 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:24,720 there are your six 8087 connectors. You 144 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:26,720 can actually run up to 24 drives off a 145 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:31,279 card like this. So, for two grand, you can have the case and the card. All you 146 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:34,560 need to do is throw in some valuepriced hardware for all I care. I mean, if it's 147 00:10:33,279 --> 00:10:42,640 just going to be a file server, you don't have to be too worried about that. and you can run basically any hard drive 148 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:45,200 setup that you could pretty much want in 149 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:50,959 a case like this. So, I think that covers everything I wanted to say about 150 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:52,399 the 4224 from Norcco. And thank you for 151 00:10:50,959 --> 00:10:56,720 checking out my video blog. I will actually be doing a build in this case 152 00:10:54,399 --> 00:11:00,000 just to show it and uh for the fun of it, I guess we might see what kind of 153 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:04,959 numbers we can pull out of 24 hard drives and RAID six or whatever it is we 154 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:08,399 decide we want to do. So, thank you for checking out my video blog, and I hope 155 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:13,079 you've learned something useful about Norcco and their uh I mean, it sounds 156 00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:18,160 expensive, but believe me, these are inexpensive rack mount cases. Oh, one 157 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:23,440 last thing I did want to explain for our viewers who aren't really up on all of 158 00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:27,279 the server terminology, what 4U means. 159 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:30,560 4U is 4* 1 U, which is the height of a 160 00:11:27,279 --> 00:11:32,959 rack. Okay, so a 1U rack mountable case, 161 00:11:30,560 --> 00:11:37,200 you're using lowprofile heat sinks, low power hardware. It's going to be about 162 00:11:34,399 --> 00:11:41,600 this thin. A 2 U is like this. A 3U is like this. And a 4 U is like this. So, 163 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:44,640 it just means how many rack spots that one case takes up.