Rorke Selects Seagate for 2Gbit Fibre-Channel
& U320 SCSI Disc Technology

Rorke to Unveil A New Range of High Performance
Disc Storage Products at NAB 2002

Las Vegas, Nev., NAB 2002, South Hall LVCC, Booth #L15112, April 7 - 11, 2002 - Rorke Data, Inc., a subsidiary of San Jose-based Bell Microproducts, Inc. (NASDAQ: BELM), announced that the company has plans to incorporate Seagate Technology's 2Gbit Fibre-Channel and U320 SCSI disc technology into Rorke's well-regarded Galaxy 60 RAID, MaxArray, and AVR series of storage products. The introduction will also feature the release of the digital video industry's first desktop rackmount product to feature both 2Gbit Fibre-Channel and Ultra SCSI in the same enclosure.

The upgraded and new storage products will be unveiled at Rorke's NAB 2002 booth #L15112, and at a number of other NAB booths, including Apple Computer, Pinnacle Systems, Matrox , mSoft, Grass Valley Group, Lightworks, MetaFilm and Panasonic Broadcast.

"Integrating Seagate's Ultra 320 and 2Gbit Fibre-Channel implementations is a significant milestone for Rorke and, especially, for our customers, who require faster and faster sustained transfer rates in order to make their High Definition workflows a reality," said Joe Rorke, VP/Marketing, Rorke Data. "Seagate's implementation of 2Gbit Fibre-Channel and U320 into their Cheetah X15-36LP disc drive comes ahead of the rest of the industry, and makes clear their commitment to always being the first to provide key leading technologies."

"Rorke relies heavily on Seagate to deliver a broad range of data storage products to the post and broadcast markets," noted Bob Herzan, VP Sales/ AV Division, Rorke Data. "Our storage products are supporting diverse DV and HD applications, and Seagate is at the core of most of our offerings - especially our 2Gbit Fibre-Channel RAID and SAN products - but also our high-speed Ultra SCSI disk arrays and custom-ordered AVR series of rackmount storage."

"As data size and complexity continues to grow, leading-edge audio/video businesses that require fast access to data are finding our Cheetah X15-36LP disc drive is an ideal choice," said Bill Schilling, Seagate senior product marketing manager, Enterprise Storage Group, "NAB 2002 is the perfect venue for Rorke and Seagate to introduce these new 2Gbit Fibre-Channel and Ultra320 SCSI implementations, as a wide range of potential customers will be able to see them operating in unique environments."

Seagate's Cheetah X15-36LP is recognized as the world's fastest disc drive, operating at 15K rpm and delivering seek times as low as 3.6 ms as well as latencies of 2.0 ms. The Cheetah X15-36LP is well suited for data-intensive Enterprise storage environments and delivers up to 69 Mbytes/sec formatted transfer rate. The unit is offered in Ultra160 SCSI, Ultra320 SCSI and 2-Gbit Fibre-Channel interfaces.

Designed for high-end digital video, broadcast, & streaming applications where disc speed and network bandwidth are critical to workflow , Rorke's Galaxy 60 storage array is a professional-level
2 Gbit Fibre-Channel solution that offers scalability and OEM compatibility. Engineered in a slim, 3U enclosure, the Galaxy 60 offers 9TB of useable storage in arbitrated loop mode. The unit's 2 Gigabit open-backplane design is compatible with both 1 & 2 Gigabit drives, HBAs, and switch technologies, delivering 200MB/sec to 800MB/sec, depending on system needs.

Rorke's MaxArray™ supports disks ranging from 9GB to 73GB per Ultra-3 SCSI or Fibre-Channel interface hard drive. The enclosures can reach capacities of up to 584GB in a single enclosure, which can allow up to nine hours of uncompressed video. Offering data rates that range from 80-400MB/sec, the MaxArray system equates to up to 12 streams of uncompressed video.

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 150 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.

Seagate, Seagate Technology, and Cheetah are registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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