Rorke to Display Upgraded, High-Speed Disk Arrays for HD Applications at IBC 2001 MaxArray™ Line Now Features Seagate's 15,000 rpm
Cheetah X15 Drives

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) 2001, RAI Congress Centre, Stand # 2.229, Sept. 18, 2001 - Rorke Data, Inc., a subsidiary of San Jose-based Bell Microproducts, Inc. (NASDAQ: BELM), announced today that the company's high-speed line of disk storage arrays, MaxArray, was recently upgraded with Seagate's 15,000 rpm Cheetah X15 drives, and will be exhibited in the company's IBC 2001 booth, located in Hall 2, Stand 229. A number of other IBC booths, including Pinnacle (#1.210 & 1.211) and Apple (#9.430), will also display the upgraded line.

Specifically designed for high-bandwidth applications such as digital video, Rorke's MaxArray line of Fibre-Channel, Ultra160 and LVD disk storage arrays offer speeds from 80 MB/sec in the LVD version to 160 MB/sec in the Ultra160 version, and 100MB/sec (single loop) and 200MB/sec (dual loop) in the MaxArray F-C versions. The MaxArray models are available in configurations that range from 18GB to 400GB, and are offered in a four-bay desktop tower, an eight-bay desktop tower, and a wide range of rack mount designs, all utilizing SCA backplane technology. MaxArray enclosures have been engineered to incorporate the full range of recent Seagate drive technologies, including the 73 GB low-profile drive, 36 GB Cheetah X15 (15,000 rpm), and the 180 GB Barracuda drive. Seagate's latest drives offer best-in-class performance and field-proven reliability, both critical elements when choosing A/V-optimized storage systems.

Rorke Europe spokesperson Quinton Maloney, Business Development Manager, announced the MaxArray upgrade. "The number of applications incorporating MaxArray is quite large now," said Maloney, "and has grown exponentially each year, due to its flexibility. We've seen a huge recent jump in the number of new digital video editing, DAWs, graphics and animation applications, and our constant adaptation to, and integration of, new technologies - including Fibre-Channel, Ultra160, and LVD, plus the new Cheetah drives - has kept MaxArray a leading product."

Joe Rorke, Rorke's VP Marketing, said new Seagate technology has been a key factor in allowing Rorke to meet the needs of the newest HD applications. "Our relationship with Seagate has spanned a range of A/V-related issues, from enclosure and backplane designs to OEM-specific micro-code upgrades and drive settings. We've worked with them for 15 years, in great part due to their dedication to this market's special needs for high bandwidth and high capacity, in addition to providing products with a field-proven reliability that is second to none. Addressing the HD market is the next step in our complementary development of new products for digital audio and video applications."

About the Cheetah X15-36LP
Seagate's Cheetah X15-36LP is the world's fastest disc drive, operating at 15K rpm and delivering high transaction processing performance for servers and professional workstations. With its low 3.6 msec seek times, latencies of 2.0 msec, and the ability to deliver up to 69 Mbytes/sec formatted transfer rates, the Cheetah X15-36LP sets new enterprise performance standards. The Cheetah X15-36LP also features the lowest operational power and acoustics of any 15K drive available. The Cheetah X15-36LP is offered in leading Ultra160 SCSI, Ultra320 SCSI and 2-Gbit Fibre Channel interfaces and is backed by a 5-year warranty.

About Seagate
Seagate is the world's leading provider of storage technology for Internet, business and consumer applications. The Company's products include disc drives for the Enterprise, PCs and Consumer Electronics, as well as Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions. Seagate's market leadership is based on delivering award-winning products, customer support and reliability to meet the world's growing demand for information storage. Seagate can be found around the globe and at www.seagate.com.

About Rorke Data
Rorke Data is a full digital storage solutions provider with expertise in Fibre-Channel RAID, SAN, DVD, tape and optical libraries, Unix, NT and Mac environments, high bandwidth networks, digital asset and document management, and engineering and maintenance services. Founded in 1985, Rorke Data, together with its European subsidiary, Rorke Data Europe, located in Emmen, The Netherlands, is composed of six divisions:
Medical Archive Applications, Audio/Video, Prepress, Imaging, Document Management, Engineering and Installation Services. More information about Rorke Data can be found at www.rorke.com. Rorke Data is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bell Microproducts, Inc. (Nasdaq: BELM).

About Bell Microproducts
Bell Microproducts is an international value added provider of a wide range of high technology products, solutions, and services to the industrial and commercial marketplace. The company's offering includes semiconductors, computer platforms, peripherals, and storage products of various types including desktop, high-end computer and storage subsystems, Fibre-Channel connectivity products, RAID, NAS and SAN storage systems and back-up products. Bell Microproducts is an industry-recognized specialist in storage products and is one of the world's largest storage-centric value-added distributors.

The company's products are available at any level of integration from components, to subsystem assemblies, to fully integrated, tested and certified system solutions. The company adds value with a broad range of services including testing, software loading, kitting, mass storage system integration, and computer system integration. Trained and certified technical personnel complete each of these processes at Bell Microproducts' ISO 9002 facilities. Bell Microproducts markets and distributes more than 125 brand name product lines, as well as its own BellStor storage and TradeMark computer brands, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contract electronic manufacturing services (EMS) customers, value-added resellers (VARs) and system integrators in the Americas and Europe. More information can be found in SEC filings, or by visiting the Bell Microproducts website at www.bellmicro.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current views of future events and financial performance, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or facts to differ materially from such statements for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to: the ability to successfully integrate the operations of recent acquisitions, industry conditions, changes in product supply, pricing, and customer demand, competition, other vagaries in the computer and electronic components markets, changes in relationships with key suppliers, foreign currency fluctuations and the other risks described from time to time in the Company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K). Investors should take such risks into account when making investment decisions. Shareholders and other readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements.

For more information, contact: Rorke Data, Inc., 7626 Golden Triangle Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55344; +1 (800) 328-8147 or +1 (952) 829-0300; fax: +1 (952) 829-0988; website: www.rorke.com.

MaxArray is a registered trademark of Rorke Data, Inc. Seagate, Seagate Technology and Cheetah are registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.