Cases

[frombadtraverse]

I would love to move my computers to rackmount cases (with all present hardware) but they are just soo expensive. I have a couple of old road cases I could put them in and it would be so much more organized. I went for the tower cases at $50, so why are the rackmount cases so expensive; I could build a new computer for a rackmount case.

Has anyone seen any deals?

[Mad dog]

I think it's because they are much better engineerd than most cases. The PSUs are probably really good quailty that never fail. Getting decent airflow is also hard in one of those things so the fans are probably quite complex and powerfull.

Most importantly, they are small, and small = expensive.

[Techvillage]

MD has hit the nail on the head - if you guys were to check out a rack mount case, then you would see that the build quality in it is much higher than your average free standing case. Often the contents of the rack mounted cases run into 10 of thousands of pounds, and obviously you are going to protect your investment by not putting it into a crap case. These cases have to hold redundant power supply, redundant fans, hotswap raid arrays, everything reuired to keep that server up and running 24/7 without having to bring that baby down.

The other major factor of cost is mass production, rack mounted cases are just not mass produced in the sheer numbers free standing cases are.

The cost of cases from 1u to 4u are pretty much the same, 1u are very in vogue at the moment, for high density installations, but they pose heating and internal space problems all of their own.

Then on top of the case you have the rack stand to buy (unless you can rig to together a home made one)., and these are a lot of money, even the cheapest.

Prices are falling and you now have models out for the prosumer market, that are cheaper (relatively) and will fall a lot further as production is fueled by demand.

[Techvillage]

Silly me, yapping away and I didn't reply FBT's question :- ebay .

You quite often see cases coming up, also have a word with DA for suppliers doing deals/good prices on your side of the pond, coz I think he was down your rack mount path a few months ago.

My knowledge is gained from experience of Enterprise server rooms, and I dipped my toe in the "prosumer" market for my own use, last year- I didn't buy because they were stellar even then , but I have been keeping and eye on the market, and they are getting into the "shit that's expensive - aw fug it, I'm going to buy one" area now.

[DragonAce]

hmmmm..

words of wisdom Tech!!!

imo, the overclocker might want to stay with stand-ups..
i've yet to get this Iwill to stop re-booting (temps prob.)
i'm running it 1400 (stock) and it's still kicking out.. :(
the airflow just seems to be a big problem..
hot air rises, but in a 4U case that amounts to half the case height..

will try reversing the hsf and then adding a blow hole right above to get out all that nasty air..
and a couple of extra fans for the hell of it near the rear of the case (intake is at the front)..as of yet i've not run this one with the lid on it..:cryol:

[frombadtraverse]

I guess you guys are right, but I go up to the server room at work, and those rackmount IBM and Compaq servers look so cool in the racks. And I have rack cases in storage. I don't work in IT but we have disk farms (three with 8 times 18 Gig HD's each) for our audio DAW's which I have to reformat frequently; in the same room. Plus, I'm an ancient dude who remembers the old rackmount radio gear that awed me when I was young.

[DragonAce]

fbt..
the one big difference between the "room at work" and your home office..."ERECT NIPPLES!!!":D

if you'd be able to keep the home office nice and cool, then i'd say go for it!!!
but if like myself, you're confined in altering atmospheric conditions then i'd think long and hard about "tricking" things out..

i'm just waiting for the winter temps to hit..maybe it'll increase stability with lower system temps (this office i can close off from the rest of the residence..)

[Techvillage]

Originally posted by frombadtraverse
I don't work in IT but we have disk farms (three with 8 times 18 Gig HD's each) for our audio DAW's which I have to reformat frequently; in the same room. Plus, I'm an ancient dude who remembers the old rackmount radio gear that awed me when I was young.

Hi FBT, are you in the audio post-production biz with your DAW's?