It has been a long time since I have posted about The Big WHS. At the last update in May 2010, the machine occupied 8U using two 4U enclosures, and was topping 60TB of raw storage capacity. Since then there have been quite a few developments that I thought I would write about.

Norco is a server case manufacturer that is very popular with home build enthusiasts as they provide inexpensive means to house large quantities of disks in 2U, 3U, and 4U configurations. Like the DIY JBOD/ SAS Expander project posts from a few months ago (using Norco cases nonetheless Iteration 1 and Iteration 2 – A Better Solution) , Norco is releasing new products in the next week aimed at the JBOD/ SAS expander chassis markets.

Norco has a reputation for providing inexpensive server rackmount cases that are oftentimes good enough for many home and small business applications. Being server cases, popular models like the RPC-4220 and RPC-4020 are built to be installed in server rooms where airflow takes precedence over noise. Traditional 90mm fans were found in the center partitions of those models. While the typical quality Delta units moved a lot of air, the fan speed required with the smaller fans also yielded a lot of noise, which is not desirable for a lot of users. Cavediver (who can be found on the ServeTheHome.com forums and [H]ardforums fabricated a fan bracket for the popular Norco cases that [...]