Question 1

Can this fit a normal desktop ATX motherboard?

Accepted Answer

yes it fits a normal full atx motherboard.   Parts of the board may sit below the drive bays, meaning they may have to be removed (which isn't difficult) to hook up certain things, or you may have to attach things like sata cables before screwing the board down.   Also you need to be careful about video card size as many may also be a tight fit because of the drive bays.

Question 2

Aside from the eight 3.5" drive trays is there anywhere else in this case to mount one or two 2.5" SSDs as boot/scratch drives?

Accepted Answer

There is not any more internal or external drive bays.  I used some expansion slot covers that I had that had holes in them to mount the SSD boot drive I used.  There is also a perforated area on the back of the case you might be able to mount some.  I have plenty of room under the drive bays in front that you could Velcro or double stick some to the bottom of the casein front of the motherboard.

Question 3

Are the drives hot swap?

Accepted Answer

They are in the sense that the trays can be removed.   The drives are screwed into the trays though... so you will need a screwdriver to swap them unless you have extra drives in trays standing by.    The backplane supports hotswap if your ports or raid card it is hooked up to support it.

Question 4

Would anyone know if an 8.62” length video card will fit?  Thank you!

Accepted Answer

I was able to fit an LSI SAS card that is 7" deep. I think you will be cutting it close. I dont believe the length of the card is a problem, it will be the height of the card you might have an issue with. The drive bays overlap the motherboard by about an inch.

Question 5

What is the tallest CPU cooler that can be used with this case? I know it depends on whether the motherboard has the CPU under the cage or not. Are there any motherboard standards that have full clearance from the hard drive rack?

Accepted Answer

I couldn’t find the cooler height specifications either but I can tell you that I have an ASUS Rampage V Extreme with a Noctua NH-D9L in mine. I hope this helps you some.

Question 6

I just got this case and somehow the front-panel USB connector cable got disconnected.   It's a straight connector with 9 pins and no obvious way to tell which way is "up". Does anyone know which is the proper orientation for that front-panel cable?  I don't want to burn out the mobo by getting the cable on backwards. There are absolutely no instructions or documentation of any kind included with the case or available from Norco's website, so I'm hoping someone can help me out.  The other two front panel connectors are oriented with the metal crimp points "up" toward the top of the case. Is the USB cable the same, or does it have those crimp points oriented down?  Said another way: on mine there is a blue wire on one end a red wire on the other end.  Should that red wire be closer to the center of the case (near the other fp connectors), or should it be on the outboard end of that whole assembly?  THANKS!!!

Accepted Answer

On mine, the red wire is closer to the center, the blue wire is toward the outside of the case

Question 7

What are the connectors on the drive back-planes?  What do I need to connect this to my sata controller?

Accepted Answer

You need a reverse breakout cable to connect from the back plane to the sata ports.  Search for this cable.

"NORCO C-SFF8087-4S Discrete to SFF-8087 (Reverse breakout) Cable"

Question 8

what are the dimensions of front gap? Could I fit a 480mm rad in there?

Accepted Answer

There is not enough height in there for standard size radiators. Plus I am using 2 rtx2070's and I had to not use this case because they hit the hdd backplane. Great case as a whole but if you are looking into mods i would use the RPC-431.

Question 9

Can someone validate whether a full length video/GPU card will fit without the drives bays being in the way?

Accepted Answer

I don't think so.  I think the drive backplane is to low and too close to the back of the case for that.

Question 10

Does anyone know that the included hardware is for? One is clearly a fan option, but I don't understand where it goes.

Accepted Answer

It has something to do with mounting redundant power supplies.

Questions & Answers