2008/05/19        12 Bay Dual SATA Port Multiplier Enclosure DS-1220

The Norco DS-1220 features 12 hot swap SATA hard drive bays enclosed in a black heavy duty rack mountable 1.2mm steel case. This SATA PM storage subsystem has four eSATA ports on the rear of the enclosure which support all 12 hard drive bays. A quiet internal power supply model DS-360 is provided inside the Norco DS-1220. Three powerful 70mm exhaust fans are mounted on the rear of the enclosure to keep the hard drives cool. The DS-1220 supports both SATA I and SATA II hard drives and it even includes a PCI-X four port host adapter that can connect this storage system to a computer with an empty PCI slot. Each SATA hard drive tray has a green drive presence LED and an activity light. Each drive bay has its own locking mechanism which can be unlocked by placing a small screwdriver into the release hole of each tray. The enclosure measures 19.75" deep, 5.9" high and 19" wide. The Norco DS-1220 weighs 33 pounds empty and approximately 53 pounds with twelve SATA hard drives installed. The enclosure is compatible with Macintosh, Windows or Linux computers.

Interface
The Norco DS-1220 utilizes a circuit board on the rear of the drive tray. To mount a SATA hard drive into the drive tray users will need to slide the SATA hard drive data and power connections onto the rear circuit board. Placing the hard drive into the tray opening and pulling back on it will snap the connectors into place. Next, use two screws on each side of the tray to secure the hard drive. Hard drive screws are provided with the Norco DS-1220. The screws need to be tightened sufficiently so that the head of the screw is flush or below the side blue plastic molding. This is required to allow the tray to properly slide into the enclosure. In general, I find hot swap drive trays that use screws on the bottom for attaching hard drives, are a little easier to use. However, these drive trays are easy to install hard drives into as well.

The Storage Subsystem
The Norco DS-1220 combines two five bay SATA PM enclosures using bays 1-5 and 6-10 with a dual direct connect enclosure using bays 11 and 12. I have not seen a storage enclosure before that combines both SATA hard drive mounting methods. AMUG classifies the Norco DS-1220, as a hybrid storage subsystem. From tests performed in AMUG labs, we found that creating a striped RAID set using both SATA PM and direct connect methods together usually provides lower performance than staying with just SATA PM or only using direct connect enclosures. However, the Norco DS-1220 offers some interesting hard drive mounting options that may not be immediately apparent.

A ten drive SATA PM enclosure using ten identical model hard drives can provide a high performance striped RAID set with over 400MB per second read and write speeds. A great use for this type of high performance striped RAID set is for working with large digital video or audio files. The striped RAID set provides high performance for editing and playback, but users still need a method for backing up important files. This is where the two hot swap direct connect drive bays located in bays 11 and 12 come into use. Once a user reaches a stopping point or a final edit they can use bays 11 and 12 with large hard drives for backup. Can you imagine using Seagate 750GB SATA hard drives in these two bays to backup the days work? This is a nice way to use a fast striped RAID set for editing and still have one or two SATA hard drive bays available for backup or bringing in new content. The ability of the Norco DS-1220 to support a ten drive striped RAID set and still have two drive bays available is an awesome feature

Pros
★12-bay hot swap SATA enclosure under $800.
★Includes SATA PCI-X host adapter.
★Includes two 5-bay SATA PM configurations.
★Includes two direct connect bays.
★FIS-based Port Multiplier-aware hardware.
★User-upgradeable firmware.
★Fan and temperature alarms.
★Rack Mountable.
★Fans can be modified.
★Easy access enclosure for modifications.
★LED activity lights.
★Easily mounts single drives or a RAID configuration.
★Works with Sonnet Tempo E4P with PCIe PowerMac G5 models.
★Well designed, good looking, heavy duty quality hard

Hard Drive Temperatures in Fahrenheit

	Stock	Fans	Fan Mate 2	& Alarm	FM2 Turned	Down
Location	After 90 min	Hour idle	After 90 min	Hour idle	After 90 min	Hour idle
Top Bay	98.6	96.8	100.4	98.6	105.8	104
Bay 2	100.4	98.6	102.2	100.4	109.4	107.6
Bay 3	102.2	100.4	104	102.2	111.2	109.4
Bay 3	102.2	100.4	104	102.2	111.2	107.6
Bay 5	100.4	98.6	102.2	100.4	109.4	105.8
Bay 6	100.4	98.6	102.2	100.4	107.6	104
Bay 7	100.4	98.6	102.2	100.4	109.4	105.8
Bay 8	100.4	98.6	102.2	98.6	107.6	104
Bay 9	100.4	98.6	102.2	98.6	107.6	104
Bay 10	98.6	96.8	102.2	98.6	107.6	104
Bay 11	104	102.2	104	102.2	109.4	107.6
Bay 12	104	102.2	105.8	104	111.2	107.6

Bays 1-5 are Maxline 300GB SATA I hard drives model 7L300S0. Bay 6-10 are Maxline 300GB SATA II hard drives model 7V300F0. Bays 11-12 are Seagate 320GB 7200.10 model ST3320620AS.