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Return Policies
This item is covered by Newegg.com's Standard Return Policy.
- Return for refund within: 30 days
- Return for replacement within: 30 days
- Restocking Fee: Yes
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| Product Rating: |
 
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| Total Reviews: |
31 |
Not bad for the money
- Pros: Lots of drive bays, the bundled controller card has a SiL chipset, RAID 0 performance is very fast, low cost.
- Cons: Slow customer support response time, documentation really poor, single power supply, release handle can easily break if you don't use their "tool" (a small screwdriver that you poke in the release hole), backplane subject to power spikes and surges if you install more than one drive in at a time without waiting for a second or two and a JAVA app console.
- Other Thoughts: I purchased two of these units, one is actually the older DS-1200 and the other is the DS-1220. They're basically identical with the difference being in the two LED's on the chassis; the older model has the LED's in a vertical layout.
The issues I've had has been the backplane in that drives that were in slots 6 through 10 kept going out. Each time I had to send the entire unit back to NORCO Tek to have them serviced and even when it's under warranty it took them nearly 3 weeks.
My first chassis fell out of warranty in mid 2007 which a flat service fee of $125 USD was charged to me to replace yet again a bad backplane. Basically that is how I got the DS-1220 - they just shipped me out that unit rather than repairing my older one. That still took 2 weeks before I got the replacement; this problem has happened to me five times in the last two years.
When it's setup as RAID 0 it's lighting fast!
Fantastic Bargain, with caveats...
- Pros: Outstanding throughput (via eSATA and 133 MHz PCI-X card) and RAID5 advantages... I have installed these arrays at more than 10 clients' sites, and they are all working perfectly (OpenBSD, Windows Server 2003, linux, Macintosh). You cannot build a five drive 4.5 terabyte hot swappable RAID5 array cheaper than this, period. All of the units have been very reliable, very fast, very consistent.
- Cons: 1. You *must* have a profound understanding of your operating system, drivers, I/O, bus limitations and JBOD and RAID options. Otherwise, this unit is not going to be a solution for you.
2. The unit is a non-standard size, and even with the rubber feet removed, will still occupy one more (1U) rack space than it should.
3. The unit is extremely loud due to its fans and their speed (by design), so if you like quiet little data centers, you may want to reconsider.
- Other Thoughts: At this price point, nothing can touch the Norco DS-1220. Period. Sure, the grade of the plastic for the lock handles is marginals, and the metal guides for drive tray insertion are a little dodgy, but at this PRICE... there is no alternative. Look to spend about $6000 or more (minimum) for comparable functionality.
Don't buy, period.
- Pros: Cheap. Lots of drive bays.
- Cons: Unreliable, pain to work with, poor product support (drivers and BIOS), incompatible with everything, etc. It looks like a good deal, but save your money.
And, in case you're wondering, setting up a 10 or 12 disc RAID5 array with this is extremely difficult, which is what I'd bought it for originally. The card it comes with only supports up to 5 discs in a RAID set, and isn't actually a hardware RAID controller. NORCO recommends using your OS to set up RAID on their product (probably because virtually no RAID card on the market is compatible with it.)
It was a real pain to set up - the instructions are poorly translated from Chinese, and they largely dump driver and BIOS support off onto the poor company that makes the chipset for this unit, which means the drivers leave a lot to be desired, and the updates and platform support are very poor.
And to top it all off, 4 months in, the unit has flaked out and corrupted a 7 TB RAID5 array. Drives all work, but the MFT is scramb
- Other Thoughts: I bought this unit because I thought that large array RAID5 had finally come to the desktop for an affordable price, but I was wrong. Instead of having RAID5 add reliability to my data, it's been scrambled by a shoddy product. Something in this product causes my RAID set to be in a constantly degraded state, rebuild, work for a bit, then fail out again... which ultimately seems to have resulted in large scale MFT corruption that I cannot repair. :(
So much for Parity RAID acting as a failsafe against data loss. Back to JBOD for me, at least until someone can come up with an affordable RAID5 solution that actually works. Unfortunately, this isn't it.
| Model |
| Brand |
NORCO |
| Model |
DS-1220 |
| General Spec |
| Drive |
SATA 150 & 300 |
| External I/O |
4 x eSATA |
| RAID Levels |
Support RAID 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD, RAID5 (Windows only) |
| Expansion |
| 3.5" Drive Bays |
12 |
| System Management |
| OS Supported |
MAC OS, Linux, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 |
| General Spec |
| Temperature |
Operating 41°F to 104°F (5°C to 40°C) Shipping -31°F to 167°F (-35°C to 75°C) |
| Dimensions |
19.0" x 18.5" x 6.9" |
| Weight |
33 lbs. |
| Features |
3U rack height.
Very cost effective storage subsystem.
4 port eSATA host interface (Silicon Image SiI3124 + SiI3726 Multipliers).
Excellent cooling system ensures the drives reliability;
Hot-swappable disk drive tray with special designed power-off and lock mechanism;
Monitor and alarm annunciator for temperature and fans
PCI-X/PCI card, eSATA cables, power supply, HDD mobile rack, backplane, all mounting screws for HDDs included |
| Packaging |
| Package Contents |
DS-1220
HD Card
LED Bracket
4 x SATA Cable
Power Cord
Software Disc
Other Cable
Screwdriver
Screws |
|
Reviewed By: Rob K. on 7/23/2008
Tech Level: high - Ownership: more than 1 year
