Norco Rackmount Components RPC-431

Contrary to some reviews, this case is trivial to disassemble the front of. There are 5 screws on top of the front panel, and 5 on the bottom. Just remove them and the whole thing comes right off. I replaced the 2 junk fans that came in the case with 3 Noctua Redux fans (120mm). I mounted them by simply using only 2 screws per fan through the big front holes, and putting a big washer on each screw so it wouldn't go through the hole.The drive temps are good with WD red drives installed, but some of my other 7200RPM drives got a bit hotter and would probably benefit from a baffle to direct more fan air over the drives. However with 9 WD Red drives inside they never hit 40°C except under heavy load like resilvering a drive.You'll see in the pictures that I used some cables from an ATX PSU to reach all the SATA power plugs, the SFX cables didn't reach anything beyond the first column of drives.Super happy with this case and I wish I hadn't bought a 3U and tried to make my own drive mounts first.

I don't know what other people's problems are with this case. For fitting 9 3.5" drives in a fairly easy-to-service and reasonably short case, it's certainly your most cost-effective option. The case is solid, too, and having USB3 on the front (with the option to turn them into USB2 if you have to) is great. There is a spot to mount one 2.5" drive underneath the foldout rack (or two if you want to mount them with two screws on the side, but you'll need to watch for clearance if you're using a large motherboard).You can also mount a 3.5" drive to it, which means you could use a 3.5"->2.5" adapter bracket to further your SSD/boot disk options. If you wanted to get creative, you could probably fit another 4-5 drives in here, depending on how secure you want them to be and what size they are.To those worried about previous reviews saying you can't remove the fans without a lot of effort or mangling the case, they're dead wrong. You can remove the entire front panel by taking off the rack ears (6 screws) and 8 small screws (4 on top, 4 on bottom). Sure, They aren't quick release like a Supermicro chassis, but you're paying not a huge premium for something you might have to do twice in a decade, either. It took me about 10 minutes to swap in two 120mm Noctua PWM fans (the stock ones are only 3-pin fans with a 4-pin header).If I had one complaint to make, it's that you have to undo 4 of those same small screws to take off the top cover, and those screws are on the side. It's impossible to get at them with the server in a rack unless you have sliding rails (which this chassis doesn't come with) or empty racks beside yours. So... those screws will likely just stay off. The cover does stay on without them. Norco, if you're listening, put captive thumbscrews on the back. You have plenty of room.

Do not buy if you have long add-on (PCI) cards! Go with RPC-432 instead.This case is nice in that it has USB3.0 in front, no front flap to deal with, it is sturdy and has decent craftsmanship. The 120mm fans support PWM (3 wire).The cons are the snap-off PCI slot covers and the fact that a full-sized motherboard will likely sit under the drive back rack.It is difficult to tell from the description but the drive bay rack swivels 90-100 degrees for access. This requires removing 3 screws on each side. As another reviewer pointed out, the hinge is not meant to be removed. The mechanism is all riveted into place.If you wanted to change the front fans, you might not need to remove the drive bay rack. You may be able to remove the panel that the fans are mounted on.

I got this case to house a FreeNAS setup. I was intending to mount it in a hallway closet and wanted something short depth. This works ok for that purpose. There are some problems with this case. I really wish the drive cages simply unscrewed and lifted out. The novelty of the "swing-up" cages is quickly diminished. Especially when you find that your video card has ripped the port off of two of your SATA drives. So, I would recommend only use this if you have low-profile cards, or do not plan to fit all nine 3.5" drives to the unit.Also, you physically cannot change the front 120mm front fans without prying the drive cage out of the case. The problem is that it is not *supposed* to come out. I had to use a steel prybar and the biggest screwdrive I own to get it out of the way.I would love to see NORCO take this form factor and rework it a bit. Get rid of the swing away cage and replace it with a top-load SATA array with some decent backplanes. Get rid of the mesh front panel and use standard 120mm mount points which can be fitted with cleanable filters.

I bought 2 of these for my home network server rack they fit perfectly. The panels are a little flimsy, but they weren't intended to be outside of a rack enclosure. You CAN change the front fans. It just takes a little dis-assembly. I replaced mine with corsair fans which are quieter. I would recommend buying sata power splitters if you are considering this case.

well designed and manufactured at a bargain price.