On Wed, 21 Oct 2015 21:23:48 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

Per Char Jackson:
There's a decently informative video at the Norco site, the middle video at
the bottom of the page. As the guy shows, the 4224's backplane uses SFF-8087
SAS connectors for data connections, (and dual Molex for redundant power).
You can get the data cables with SAS connectors on each end, or you can get
them with a SAS connector on one end and 4 SATA connectors on the other end,
in a spider or breakout configuration. So the backplane situation is cut and
dried - it has SFF-8087 SAS connectors, 6 of them since each one can handle
4 drives. The other end will be determined by the controller or motherboard
that you choose. Here's a link to the page with the video(s).
http://www.norcotek.com/product-category/storage-enclosure/hot-swap-storage-case/

Norco has a lot to choose from, with cases sporting a wide range of hot swap
bays: 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, and 24.

It's starting to soak in.... Get the right cables and anything goes
mobo-wise.

Right.

Had not considered the noise issue.... but that's a non-issue for me. In
fact, it could be spun as an advantage: insurance that I will not forget
to turn it off when the backup is done.

Even the smaller RPC-450B with it's measly 15 drive bays had noisy fans, so
I replaced them with a set that are almost whisper quiet. Amazingly quiet. I
think they were Noctua, but I'd have to go look at my Newegg order history
to refresh my memory.

At the risk of turning into a tarbaby on you....

Is there any reason that Norco case could not be run standing on it's
side instead of in the proper rack-mount orientation. i.e. same air
flow just everything tilted 90 degrees...

It's been my observation that modern hard drives don't seem to have any
problem with orientation whatsoever.

In my RPC-450B, 10 of the drives are in a horizontal orientation and the
other 5 are standing up on their side. (The 16th is loose on the bottom of
the case.) That wasn't me deciding to mount them that way, that's just the
way the bays are laid out. Absolutely no issues have been encountered. I
think in the old days, hard drive head assemblies were perhaps heavier or
didn't track as precisely, so flipping a drive onto its side might make the
heads go off track slightly, but I have not seen any indication of that in
20 years or more. YMMV

Where I'm going is that this thing will live in a closet that does not
have a rack.

In the most rudimentary implementation I would add some feet on one side
so it will stand upright on that side and attach a suitcase handle
directly to the metal on the other side. I guess if I wanted to get
cute, I could build a plywood case... but the basic requirement is that
the thing can be stored in a rack-less closet and be picked up and moved
easily.

I'm right with you on all of that, except for those last two words. Fully
populated with 24 drives, that thing is going to weigh around 80 pounds. Add
plywood and it only gets worse. You'll want to consider putting it on
wheels. :-)