NORCO DS-1220 Reviews & Tests

Consumer review (newegg.com)

Not bad for the money

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.

Lots of drive bays, the bundled controller card has a SiL chipset, RAID 0 performance is very fast, low cost.

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...

Jul, 2008

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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Not bad for the money

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...

Lots of drive bays, the bundled controller card has a SiL chipset, RAID 0 performance is very fast, low cost

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...

Jul, 2008

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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Fantastic Bargain, with caveats...

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...

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...

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.

Jun, 2008

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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Don't buy, period.

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...

Cheap. Lots of drive bays.

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.

May, 2008

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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Dont buy if you need technical support!

Like the other reviews have stated, the connectors are kind of hit or miss on the back. Overall it worked fine for a while, but once things go bad with this device, they go REALLY BAD. Beware.

It's got a lot of drive bays.

I ran this device for about 7 months and for the most part it worked great. Then one day I unplugged it and plugged it back in and now it only sees 5 of my 10 drives. I called Norco and their "tech support" is only one guy who doesnt seem to understand...

May, 2008

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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Working well so far

I tried benchmarking the raid5 as soon as I partitioned it and gave it a drive letter, and it got horrible scores, so I messed with it for a few days before realizing that it brings up the live filesystem, but then it continues to do a format or...

Raid 5 with 7 empty spots left. PCI-X card for good throughput. Works in Windows Server 2008 64-bit edition. Hot swap works perfectly. Benchmarks about 2x a normal drive using HDTach.

Driver installation and setup was not as clear as it could have been, but it works. Initializing Raid5 on five 750gb drives (3tb) took 26 hours, but it did bring up the drive and do the initialization in the background. The notch in the PCI-X card...

Mar, 2008

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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Excellent Storage Solution

Recommend using the Norco 4629 PCI Express 8X card with this array.

Cost effective solution, good performance, quick setup. Excellent hardward for a software RAID implementation. Norco staff is friendly. VISTA and Windows Server 2008 Compatible

PCI-X card included -- PCI-X IS NOT PCI Express

Mar, 2008

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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Which Controller?

I have a controller and can use a 2x sata to 2x esata pci bracket for the direct connections. I'd just like to know which controller comes with this unit from newegg currently and if it solves the bad reviews.

The first batch of Norco-4618 SATA host adapters utilized the Silicon Image SiI 3124-1CB364 controller chip which performs slower with striped RAID sets. However, all of the new Norco-4618 SATA host adapters utilize the SiI 3124-2CB364 controller which...

Which controller comes with the newegg model now? And is it better than the one that is getting the poor reviews here

Jan, 2008

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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Awesome Buy

People who are saying the drives are difficult to remove, and install are foolish.

Excellent Buy.

the provided pci-x controller card is substandard, but when used with HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 PCI-e SATA II Controller Card, the speed will blow you away.

Jan, 2008

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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Awesome Buy

People who are saying the drives are difficult to remove, and install are foolish. If you follow the provided instructions you will see that it is remarkably easy.

Excellent Buy ; By far the most affordable mass storage solution. You don't get what you paid for, you get way more. Similar systems cost twice as much

the provided pci-x controller card is substandard, but when used with HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 PCI-e SATA II Controller Card, the speed will blow you away

Jan, 2008

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