Post Your Server!!! - Page 68

Chances are the 1200W is faulty, if the 580W is the one you added.

which Norco case do you have? I have the 4020 first gen, and even though some of the hdd leds are not fully functioning, the rest of them are pretty clear and easy to see..green for drive indicator and blue during activity.

those norco cases turn me on. Nom Nom Nom

I just got mine a few months ago. Both LEDs shine through a single light pipe. Even so, the activity LEDs are blue and some other color, and they are low-current, low brightness LEDs with a smoky white diffused lens. They have to fight the green LEDs through a single pipe. I'll be getting rid of it sooner than later for a Supermicro chassis and board. I don't like running 24/7 with consumer hardware.

which model case do you have?
I know what you mean about the light pipe pretty much how mine is as well.
I run a supermicro mobo and xeon processor, Ilike the supermicro cases but they just don't fit my budget. I have been running with my Norco for about 4yrs now. Other than the couple of failed LEDs and no SFF-8087 on the backplane (wasn't available at the time) it has servered me well. Runs 24/7. The only consumer grade product that you would really have to worry about are the hard drives. since they tend to have a higher failure rate than older smaller drives.
If you plan on getting rid of your Norco let me know what price and model you have

It's in my signature, I have the 3216. The differences between consumer and enterprise hard drives is the same story as other hardware; features. They aren't using NASA tech. There is nothing in them that makes them more reliable to run 24/7 over consumer drives. I'm fine with a consumer drive running 24/7. What I don't like for 24/7 use are CPUs and RAM. There's a reason why restarting a computer that's been on forever makes it run better when it reboots. Problems of not having ECC evince themselves when doing heavy work for long periods of time. In my instance, that is video encoding, and it's a pain in the ass to have to re-encode a file when it takes between 24 and 48 hours per movie just because one bit got flip-flopped and ruins an entire frame.

I think the Supermicro cases are an excellent deal. You have to shell out more at once, so they aren't for builds where you buy pieces here and there. They come with redundant PSUs, so there's a big chunk of change over what you get with the Norcos. They come with rack rails, Norcos don't, and their rails suck. All of the fans are 4-pin PWM and paired with a Supermicro board means you don't have a constantly-loud server. Their cooling is ducted and made to run passive heat sinks. Their backplanes actually have features to them, and aren't just some passive electronics. You get more bang for the buck if you can afford to shell out that much at once. I only went with the Norco because I needed it now, and I didn't even want to deal with trying to adapt the innards of a Supermicro case to deal with consumer hardware.
Edited by ramicio - 5/10/12 at 9:05am

Oh yes Ok I should have checked you have the 16bay case. Nice build as well. no NASA tech in the hard drives but you will get longer warranty and are built to spin 24/7. I run hitachi consumer drivers. In the end it is really a matter of what will suite your needs and what roles your server play.

I once thought about getting a supermicro case but then realized that the benifits were not worth the cost for me in a home environment. redundant PSU is great but if my psu was to really die on me, I wouldn't suffer from a day or two of downtime to replace it. it is not the backbone of my home business or anything. The cooling will make the sever much louder (which doesn't bother me as much as other) the fans really spin on those cases and do provide great cooling. The bakplanes are indeed way better with nice LEDs, but as far as functions? which functions are you looking for? Believe my i love their cases but cost per needs I just find them too expensive for what most of us would use them for in our homes.
If i had to go with an Enterprise grade chasis i would most likely pick this one up

I haven't taken pictures but the specs are as follows:

XP X64
~2001 Antec SOHO Full Tower
Phenom x4 9650
Asus M3N78-Pro
Rocketfish Best Buy Tower HSF
4x1gb DDR2 800
OS Drive 80gb WD800JD
Storage 2x1tb Seagate 7200rpm Raid 1

I use it for file sharing to my HTPC and Folding of course

I still disagree about the drives. There's an extreme burden of proof that noone's been able to show that the drives are physically even built differently.

As far as the backplane features, I'm referring to SGPIO and SES-2 type stuff. Indication of failed drives with LEDs, instead of needing to write up labels. Temperature sensing is good.

i know it is not easy to swollow about the drives, but i am sure they are different I can't see companies sticking to them if they weren't for real. also SGPIO and SES-2 type stuff will only work if SAS drives are present (forgive me if i am wrong) but i do believe that is the case...now we are back to enterprise drives. temp sensing should also be present through the raid controller