UK X-Case (XCase) Data Storage Products Thread (some Norco similarities)

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EMM386

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As the waters were getting muddied in the Norco thread it was suggested a seperate X-Case one be created so here it is.

Thread for the discussion of X-Case (http://www.xcase.co.uk) data storage products including but not limited to :-

RM 424 Standard (RM424) - 4U 24 Hotswap Bay

RM 424 Short (RM424S) - 4U 24 Hotswap Bay

RM 424 Pro (RM424Pro) - 4U 24 Hotswap Bay

The Standard and Short are almost identical to the Norco 4224 Product discussed at length in this thread.
HardForum Norco Thread

The Pro is a slightly different beast and one of the main reasons this thread was created,
 
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I emailed XCase a whole load of questions about the RM424 Pro. I'll post them up when I've got the reply.

EMM386 said:
Good Morning Jamo, or whoever answers this

I’ve been doing a lot of research on the internet for building a server or JBOD with a large number of disks for my home network and settled on a Norco style case.

As I live in the UK I stumbled upon your website and have watched a large number of your YouTube videos which are very informative and fab. I thoroughly appreciate the effort taken to film and upload them and indeed this is what drew me to your company rather than www.ri-vier.nl

I really want a RM 424 or 424 Pro.

I’ve watched the videos for both a number of times and have a few questions re the 424 Pro.

The standard 424 has 6 individual backplanes powering 4 drives with a SFF8087 and dual molexes for redundancy. The 424 Pro has 2 backplanes powering 12 drives with 3 SFF8087s. In the video I can only see 3 molexes per backplane meaning the Pro wouldn’t have the same power redundancy as standard. Is this the case or can I just not make out the additional molex connections in the video?

The new backplanes support SGPIO which is a great addition. But can I ask are they made by a well known company such as SuperMicro or Chenbro or are they still custom built for this case?

Would the individual 6 backplanes of the standard not give greater airflow in the vertical gaps between the backplanes than the continuous 2U backplanes used in the Pro? I do realise there are gaps in the new backplane board.

Also do you or can you sell the backplanes separate from the case and if so at what cost? i.e. if I buy a 424 pro could I buy an additional backplane so I can swap it out easily in the event of failure?

I like the new thick 120mm hotswap fans. However is the single fan hotswap module a unit that accepts a standard fan or is it one complete unit?. I.e. if one of my thick fans fails can I replace the fan inside the hotswap module with a standard one or do I need to come back to you guys to buy a complete sealed thick unit?

Do you sell the hotswap module separately or indeed the whole hotswap assembly with the 3 hotswap fans and PCB and again what would the cost be?

The description and video says it’s made of a higher quality. Is this just the backplanes and fans or is the actual metal case itself made of thicker mm steel?

Finally I can only see short 20inch rails on your site. Do you sell rails for the 424 and 424 Pro and again if so what cost?

Thank you for taking the time to read my email and in advance for any hep you can be.

Please note although I’m asking now this is unlikely to result in a sale until the New Year as the boss (wife) won’t authorise it during the Xmas period :’-(

Kind Regards
Click to expand...
 
Got the reply from Ian of X-Case today regarding the RM 424 Pro

Kinda unsure what to do now given the answers :-S

The Pro does seem like a really nice piece of gear. There are now one or two reviews on the interweb and they all praise the build quality and how quiet it is. I like the sound of the better build quality of case and backplanes and the meaty fans look awesome.

But looking at the prices as they are today there's about a £200 price difference.

The standard is £359 and includes rails (and delivery if ordered from eBay)

The pro is £539 but if you need rails (which I'd want) it's an additional £25 and the pro isn't currently listed on eBay so postage on the X-Case website is about £10-12.

Despite assurances I really would like to have a replacement backplane and fan on site. After all what happens in the hopefully unlikely event of X-Case ceasing trading.

And I'm planning to turn it into a JBOD which will probably be fairly ghetto anyway requiring a bit of drilling into the case, which I'd be more reluctant to do if it was nicer and I'd paid more.



Ian (X-Case):
Answers below.

If I say we have been building systems for years but until the Pro range came along we did most of our builds in Chenbro, now I would not use Chenbro as ours is better.

EMM386 said:
Good Morning Jamo, or whoever answers this

I’ve been doing a lot of research on the internet for building a server or JBOD with a large number of disks for my home network and settled on a Norco style case.

As I live in the UK I stumbled upon your website and have watched a large number of your YouTube videos which are very informative and fab. I thoroughly appreciate the effort taken to film and upload them and indeed this is what drew me to your company rather than www.ri-vier.nl

I really want a RM 424 or 424 Pro.
Click to expand...
Ian (X-Case):
Good
EMM386 said:
I’ve watched the videos for both a number of times and have a few questions re the 424 Pro.
Click to expand...
Ian (X-Case):
Fine
EMM386 said:
The standard 424 has 6 individual backplanes powering 4 drives with a SFF8087 and dual molexes for redundancy. The 424 Pro has 2 backplanes powering 12 drives with 3 SFF8087s. In the video I can only see 3 molexes per backplane meaning the Pro wouldn’t have the same power redundancy as standard. Is this the case or can I just not make out the additional molex connections in the video?
Click to expand...
Ian (X-Case):
Each back plane has 3 molex although they would still work with 1 / 2
EMM386 said:
The new backplanes support SGPIO which is a great addition. But can I ask are they made by a well known company such as SuperMicro or Chenbro or are they still custom built for this case?
Click to expand...
Ian (X-Case):
Backplane is better than Chenbro/Supermicro. Intel Tested.
EMM386 said:
Would the individual 6 backplanes of the standard not give greater airflow in the vertical gaps between the backplanes than the continuous 2U backplanes used in the Pro? I do realise there are gaps in the new backplane board
Click to expand...
Ian (X-Case):
No problems with airflow at all - drives run cooler than standard 424
EMM386 said:
Also do you or can you sell the backplanes separate from the case and if so at what cost? i.e. if I buy a 424 pro could I buy an additional backplane so I can swap it out easily in the event of failure?
Click to expand...
Ian (X-Case):
We keep plenty of spares although so far I am still awaiting to replace one
EMM386 said:
I like the new thick 120mm hotswap fans. However is the single fan hotswap module a unit that accepts a standard fan or is it one complete unit?. I.e. if one of my thick fans fails can I replace the fan inside the hotswap module with a standard one or do I need to come back to you guys to buy a complete sealed thick unit?
Click to expand...
Ian (X-Case):
Again we keep plenty of spares we would not charge for a replacement
EMM386 said:
Do you sell the hotswap module separately or indeed the whole hotswap assembly with the 3 hotswap fans and PCB and again what would the cost be?

The description and video says it’s made of a higher quality. Is this just the backplanes and fans or is the actual metal case itself made of thicker mm steel?
Click to expand...
It's chalk and cheese - far better everything. Case,fans,backplane,metal
EMM386 said:
Finally I can only see short 20inch rails on your site. Do you sell rails for the 424 and 424 Pro and again if so what cost?
Click to expand...
Ian (X-Case):
Rail kit is available under the item on the standard its free
EMM386 said:
Thank you for taking the time to read my email and in advance for any help you can be.

Please note although I’m asking now this is unlikely to result in a sale until the New Year as the boss (wife) won’t authorise it during the Xmas period :’-(

Kind Regards
Click to expand...
 
Read your stuff with interest on the Norco thread. I would be interested if XCase have any facts to verify that their backplane is better than SuperMicro / Chenbro. I'm not sure that the premium is worth it. One of the pet hates on the Norco side is that you have to buy a power supply and its the same for this one or so it seems.
 
The 424 Standard is a Norco 4224 with he optional 120mm fan wall installed. Now the 424 Pro is a totaly unrelated case and have nothing to do with Norco as far as I can see it looks more closely related to a Chenbro derived case
 
Do you have the links to RM424pro reviews you talked about in the norco thread ?
I'd like to have more objective info and reviews about the claimed better build quality.

This case seems very interesting to me because of :
-better backplanes quality (intel tested ? Don't know what that really mean.)
-different fanwall design, using three 120*38mm (more static pressure) hotswap and temp controlled fans.
-2*2.5 internal drives in a slot, interesting for some boot/zil/L2arc (i wonder if they could sell this card separately, i'll ask them)
 
Do they have DAS cases? Only disks, with no motherboard. Just disks with SATA connections, so you can add them to a ZFS server?
 
They don't "seem" to do the half depth cool 24 bay JBODs that Norco do.

I have no affiliation to the company so I can't be 100%. Just like the look of their products.

They do do JBODs but they just take their rack storage enclosures and add a Chenbro SAS Expander and a redundant power supply.

http://www.xcase.co.uk/jbod-rackmount-server-s/266.htm

One of my other threads might be of some assistance. It has a lot of external links and my thoughts on my own DAS.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1748530

But I'm sure I remember posts of yours on other threads being particularly switched on so you probably knew it all anyway.
 
I wonder what the difference is between the Pro series and Chenbro models other than the 120mm fan support
 
How to fit an ATX PSU into the RM424pro ? It seems to be 2U PSU.
Is there some ATX PSU backplate adapter available somewhere ?

edit: in the video they say it's compatible with standard ATX PSU.

edit2: nevermind i found them.
 
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If its anything like the normal RM424 then they give you loads of adapters with the case to take the varying different PSU types
 
I think I have the RM424s (may have been an older version) but absolutely love the case!

Have a few of their 2U cases too, for the price I can't fault a single one of the products I have purchased. Besides the fact they don't have a manual for all the additional loose brackets which come included
 
anyone have a Pro case or seen any reviews/hands on impressions?
I'm thinking of ordering one
 
I bought a RM424pro.:D

I didn't mount the stuff inside so far (still waiting for mobo/RAM), so i can't tell you much.
It's my first 24*hdd rackmount case so i can't compare with anything.

Beside that it's a nice (and heavy, and expensive) case, i mounted my ATX PSU inside with the provided adapter, there is mounting holes on the side for two 2.5" hdd, the fans are three big 120*38mm with PWM support.

The racks are... Racks.
There's no open/close venting holes (in case you don't fill all the racks and want to maximize the air pressure on the populated racks only) but i personally don't care as i plan to fill them all.
No springs on the mounting, don't know if it's a problem but i'll use 5900RPM hdds so less vibration.

There's no USB front ports and the rear fans are two 60mm and not 80mm, but i will leave them without fans.
There's no manual included so i wonder how to set the jumper settings on the backplanes.

I'll post pics.
 
please post lots of pics, especially of the backplane and fan wall area
how would you describe the build quality? anything you don't like? how sturdy are the drive caddys?
 
Well done that man................or woman!

:)

Glad you're happy and looking forward to your pics and further thoughts/build progress
 
I have one as well, waiting to see how the government sequestration is going to affect me before i buy the PC components, but I liked the case enough to go ahead and get it. Probably be July or so before i actually build it.
 
Wow. Looks 10 times better made than the Norco's. Amazing, considering it comes out of the same factory and the same parent company. Wish this was available USA.
 
looks amazing going for like 200tb of storage? lol
 
Great pictures, made me reconsider buying this instead of another Supermicro when the time comes. Thanks very much!
 
Thanks, i didn't know how they'll display as i'm not very used to photo editing.
The PSU is a Seasonic P-660.
(click for fullsize pics, and there is a few more on the directory i didn't posted because of dupes)
 
Sorry to dig up an old thread like this, but I was wondering if this case has the mounting holes for SSI-EEB mainboards. It can take E-ATX, so the board size is OK, but I have not been able to find confirmation that SSI-EEB is supported.

I contacted x-case about this, but never received an answer.

Does anyone know?
 
I usually just give them a call, getting a reply from email is always a challenge!
 
x2 on the email challenge. I sent them an inquiry a few weeks ago and never heard back.

Does anyone know of a U.S. vendor selling x-case products?
 
How is the RM 424. I'm thinking of getting it, but I'm a little affraid about the backplanes. Can you take some close up pictures of the case?

MAtej
 
I've received one last week and no complaints. Will try to get some pics bought one of their 42u cabs too so will post that when I've built it up.

What are you worried about with the backplanes?
 
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