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Cheap Rackmount Enclosures/Systems?
gasp asks: "At work, our computer rooms use high-end rackmount systems. At home, I use the '8 year-old folding table piled high with computers held together by daisy-chained power-strip rat-nest' system. I find plenty of ATX and AT style midtower cases for about $30, but I haven't found any simple rackmount cases for less than about $200. Does somebody make the equivalent of a midtower-size case turned sideways with a couple of 19" rackmount brackets? It sure would be nice to find an affordable solution for home." Man, with four and soon to be five boxes sitting in my living room, I sure could use something like this!
Drill your case, bolt on, then bolt into the rack. Add a simple rack mounted 8 way extension lead, wire up and forget about it. Sure it's not elegant but it is cheap. If the case is a little short, buy some cheap thick metal to widen it with.
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone.
You can generally pick one up from eBay for about $100 or so.
If you don't really need a server style rack,
an inelegant soloution would be to place the towers inside a utility cabinet, or like I'm planning to do, a wooden armoire. Some of them fetch ridiclous prices, but many hardware places as well as the odd Pier 1 type place usually have okay versions in pine for about $200. That may still seem high, but for that price, you'll be housing all your decks in one shot, as opposed to $/each.
Enlight makes a mini-tower that can be used in a rack for about $140. It is deeper than a standard mini tower so your drives are seperated from your mobo. Not bad looking, but the Yeong Yang is far cooler.
This reminds me that I have a similar problem to solve. We need to find good rack-mounted, slim servers (1" high or so) to use as 'internet appliances' - firewall, TCP redirectors, cache servers, and so on. It may run any kind of *ix - Linux, BSD, Solaris, it doesnt matter. Just to make things harder, I need to find it for sale in Brazil...
I know that companies like Penguin computing have this kind of gear. Sun have it also - they have a pretty nice Netra series of servers, including a 1" high Ultra 440 Mhz. However, it seems that all this gear is targeted for the high end of the market - expensive, high performance servers. I would be very pleased to find a mid-performance inexpensive box - even a Celeron makes for a pretty good proxy box, you see.
I think that there could be some kind of standard for this class of computer, just like we have standard ATX towers. The power supply needed to be modular also -- an optional -48 Vdc would be nice for telcos, including colocated equipment.
For now I would like to knwo more about this, including some recommendations...
The hi-tech music industry has pretty much standardised on the 19" rackmount format for synthesisers, samplers etc. so your best bet might be to look in the specialist music press for rackmount PC boxes. I'm not in the US so I can't give you the relevant title, but in the UK it would probably be "sound-on-sound". You'll also find this field to be a good source of the racks themselves, and even 19" rack-sized flightcases (should you need a bit of portability).
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Enlight makes at least one rackmount 'file server' case. Model #EN-8950. It is likely the -8960 will have a rackmount kit also, but the 8960 is $750 whereas the 8950 can be had for $160.
I haven't checked what the prices are for the rackmount kits for these cases though.
In the immortal words of Socrates, who said; 'I drank what?'
Also, if you put things in racks isn't it hard to take the cover off and tinker? I find my self constantly changing IDE cables, swapping out cards, setting jumpers, moving hard drives, etc. Or am I just weird? :)
Later...
KangarooBox - We make IT simple!
I've done some searching and it's not easy finding good cheap rackmount cases. I've bought good cases from http://www.sliger.com/ but I don't think they sell direct any more. I've recently ordered a 1U rackmount case from http://gtweb.net/ and I'm eagerly waiting for the delivery! They were the cheapest I was able to find.
I myself, tired of all my machines lying around, took it upon myself one day to go to the local metal shop. I bought some of those L-bar things (those l-shaped bars with all the holes in them so you can bolt just about anywhere on them) and some sheet metal to cover it with. I bolted them together and covered it with sheet metal to make it look all pretty. From there I threw out my old cases and made my own rack-mount cases, complete with hotswappability via the removal of a bolt or two from internal mountings. Those L-bars come in handy too, cause then I can just slide the new cases in and bolt them at the front. Of course, the back of the rack is still open so i could easily hook up the wires. All topped with a converted deskfan on the top to pull air through and keep things cool. This works well and came at just the fraction of the cost of a "real" rack and cases. I wonder how many other handygeeks out there have done something like this. :-)
Seems to me, that if someone started a small internet startup on this one, throwing AT and ATX powersupplies into a simple metal box, they might make a fortune... but alas...
If you talk to local machine shops, the smaller ones can sometimes make you custom cases for little more than the cost of the sheet metal. Try looking them up in the phone book, you will have to spec out your own power supply / fan etc, but they can make the holes for you to add stuff to later.
Once you have the case, get yourself some Krylon spraypaint and have at it (you can even do designer cases then!)
If all else fails, someone else mentioned buying some L brackets and drilling some holes, an unsightly but effective solution.
AF-Design, web development.
I'm sure there's a little thing you won't like about those, but some other users might find it interesting.
Marathon Computer (www.marathoncomputer.com) makes racks for a lot of Apple and Apple-clones computers, including the latest G4.
Oh...in case you were wondering, they also have (not shipping yet) the 'iRack': racks for (guess what) the iMac.
I'd have thought that the cheapest option would be to do it yourself - you might not get something quite as neat or good as a professionally-built system, but you might be able to make it fit your needs better.
One of the things I'm looking into at the moment is working out how to make my computer much quieter. The first thing I intend to do is to vary the speed of the fans to react to the current internal temperature of the system. However, I'm wary of doing anything to the fan in the power supply as the computer will be on all day, and I'm worried about the risk of fire if I start tampering with it. I was thinking about the possibility of using an external power supply (or supplies), as they don't normally have fans...
thoughts, links, anyone?
cheers,
Tim
IKEA do a matal TV stand that will take 4 tower cases and has a shelf on top for a monitor or printer. Best of all it has casters on the legs so you can spin it wound to get at the wires...
I saw a 6-foot tall enclosure on sale in
a local fleamarket (Blackberry Fair, if anyone
from Dublin is reading) for 50 quid, and I was
very tempted.
Unfortunately getting it home would have been
difficult, as I don't drive. But it wasn't
the first such that I'd seen, is the point.
Spend a couple of Saturdays in RL(tm) and you
stand a good chance of finding what you're
looking for.
K.
-
-- Proud descendant of semi-nomadic cattle-herders.
Good question.
Most of the reason the cheapest rackmount case out
there is the Antec 4U IPC rack (ipc 3480 with
pp303x 300watt power supply, $239 at McGlen Micro,
here is the target market: servers.
People who are buying a server and putting it
in colo don't mind spending a couple hundred extra
dollars to get a high-quality case; they usually
go in high-vibration, high RF environments and
thus need to be substantially more durable than
desktop/tower cases. Additionally, they
generally have dust/cooling requirements which
are substantial -- adding 6 fans to a system
raises the price. Rackmount cases are all-metal,
just like the best desktop cases, rather than
plastic; plastic would disintegrate rapidly in
a datacenter.
The ATX/rackmount form factor is rather complex
to engineer, compared to a desktop or tower case;
it has to support a lot of weight. There are
some tower case with rails conversion kits, like
for the macintosh minitowers, but those are
rather specialty. They also tend to come with
higher-end power supplies, something which also
adds to the cost, and locking doors over drive
bays.
Also, the number of units of rackmount case sold
is much lower than desktop and minitower, raising
the price.
If you want cheap racking, I'd suggest using rack
shelves and putting minitowers in, or using
wire shelves and regular minitowers. Most of
the beowulf systems out there use shelves and
minitowers, rather than racks, for cost reasons.
Unless you're going in a facility with existing
19" racking, there's no reason to do racks.
Stainless steel wire shelving looks almost as
sexy as 19" racks, and can actually fit more
machines per unit volume than 4U rackmount boxes.
The shelving itself is cheaper, too.
Additionally, if you're putting a machine in colo,
the prices are usually such that spending $500
on one of the 2U cases rather than a cheap 4U
case will pay off in the long run. It's for
this reason that Yahoo originally designed their
2U high custom case -- they have thousands of
machines in colo, and when you pay $50-150/U/month, saving 2U per machine adds up
quick! People are even going to 1U now; there's
allegedly a Compaq DS10 in 1U rather than 3U on
the way, which I plan to buy in quantity for colo
use.
It's about freedom, fundamentally, not just in the sense of not having other people tell you what to do, but in the sense of being free in yourself and not having hangups. Why do you want to put your computers into a nice little tidy metal box, for God's sake?
The mentality that puts computers into racks is the mentality that keeps source code proprietary. To claim to be into free software like Linux, and then to stuff your computers into racks is just pure hypocrisy. Nice, messy, intricate source code, kept in an environment which has to be tidied up like a Nazi medical laboratory? Hypocrisy worthy of Judas Iscariot. I'm exaggerating but I mean what I say.
Not quite what you are searching for, perhaps, but useful nevertheless...
There exist rackmounts for hifi equipment like cd players. A small desktop or minitower case (not too heavy) should fit there. You can find one at http://www.conrad.de (enter the number 301400-62 in the "Produkt-Suche" field and click on "go").
The price is about $25. Similar equipment should be available in the US, too.
http://203.41.157.5/jaycar/FMPro http://www.jaycar.com.au/ An Australian electronics shop they sell everything.
Do a search before asking questions on /. There are billions of places on the net that sell rackmount hardware inexepensively. It would take about five minutes of looking on Yahoo/AltaVista/Deja.
Here are some that I know off the top of my head:
http://www.rackmount.com
http://www.brite-ideas.com/cabinets.html - good deal
http://www.isp-equipment.com/
http://www.jinco.com
-Chris
They do make shelves to fit 19 and 24 inch rails. Many computer cases will fit between the rails of a 19 inch rack.I have 3 mounted this way along with my hub, 17 inch monitor and switchbox.
I am in the lucky position of having my entire computer room fully racked (well, almost, there are three odd boxes, but other than that, lots of a machines in racks). I have to say, it would be next to impossible to have achieved this without creating my own private firetrap. It was possible to cut many of the cables to length (as all items are securely fixed) and cable tray anything else. My problem now is switching the outputs and inputs to a central source. The cheapest Keyboard/Video/Monitor switch I can find is somewhere in the region of UKP 800 for 12 machines. (That's about $1350). To me this seems outragous. Any ideas for that?
Rackmounts are going to be expensive, no matter what. Outside of the corporate computer industry, rackmounts are most commonly used by live sound & lighting production companies to mount amplifiers, effects, etc in sturdy cases to protect them. I know, I used to do it. So, the best place to find affordable rack-mount equipment is from the places that cater to the production industry, such as Middle Atlantic Products (among others).
One such solution is to buy a rack frame (by the way, a standard rack is 19" wide. and racks are measured in Units, 1U being approximately 1 3/4" tall, the average component size is 3U, like tape decks, amplifiers, etc.), get some flat rack pans, and simply place your ATX cases on the pans, you can fit 3 towers side-by side.
With the frame, rails and pans, depending on the height you need, this will end up costing you (sans puters) about 100-200 bucks.
If you're cheap like me, you'll go to Sam's/Office Depot and buy a set of adjustable steel shelves and put all your crap on them, organize to your heart's content. I think they go for the outrageous price of $20, no additional equipment needed. I have 3 towers, 2 cable modems, a hi-fi system, printer, and other assorted crap (omniview) sitting on the shelves, flanked by two smallish computer desks. It's neat, organized, and impresses the hell out of your non-nerdish friends (although they will probably leave with the feeling that you are a mega-geek with way too much free time) without spending a small fortune on enterprise-class gear. I mean, we ARE talking about home stuff here.
doc
This is a sig. It is like every other sig in the world, except that it is mine, and it is different.
That is just not true. One's views on software licensing has nothing thing to do with the fact that they want their hardware mounted neat and secure. Geez, man. Just because your room's a mess don't try to put a guilt trip on the guy for wanting to clean his up.
In any event, I'm afraid you're gonna be hard pressed to find a "cheap" rack mount solution. One possibility would be to use "utility shelves". These are simply rack mounted shelves that you can then set two tower cases on. Depending on the height, they generally run anywhere from $40 to $60 each. Three shelves and a 6' open rack would run you about $300 to $350.
This link has some Rackmount Cases in the $240-$1200 range. I own two of the $310 model and am very pleased with the performance. http://store.yahoo.com/jinco/19raccas.html
MilesTek has quite a bit of cheap rackmount equipment - racks, shelves, cable routers, patch panels, power strips, etc.
the web site isn't great, but the print catalog is excellent.
no PC cases listed, but a 20U 19" rack ($106), with some rack shelves ($25 - $45), a keyboard / mouse shelf ($70), and a power strip ($45) could handle a couple of minitower cases.
How to Build Your Own 1U Rack Mount Server and Save a Bundle
CS 440 1U Rack Mount Chasis $268
Intel CA810 Motherboard $119
Intel Celeron 466 MHZ processor $85
Single Port Adapter $20
64 MB DIMM $80
13 MB Hard Drive $125
CD Rom and Floppy add $75 (Optional) -0-
Total $697
It also has links of where to buy all the stuff. Interesting article too.
I read a review of a midtower that can be made into a desktop unit by changing the drive bay cage and cover plate(see link to story below). It is $110.00 online from the manufacturer. Review at arstechnica.
Byte me, Doughboy!!!
Why spend all the money on a rackmount case, when you can just go to the hardware store, buy some cheap supplies, and make some rails?
If you have access to a machine shop, you can even make metal rails. If not, a few sturdy pieces of wood screwed into the mounting holes inside the rack should make nice rails. Then just get another piece of sturdy wood the size of the rack (19" by 22" or whatever) and you've got a shelf.
To see an example of our cluster's custom built rack stuff, check here, and here. (Note these are ~650k images)
Granted, it won't be extremely efficient on rack space, but it's not THAT in-efficient. If we needed to, we could fit another row in there; space for 16 computers.
The hubs are mounted on such a poor man's chassis, cheaply done:
Two parallel vertical plywood boards 19 inches apart (you could use 2x4s, actually), with one of those bolted "meccano"-like angled sheet metal strip with holes.
Voilà. Cheap rack.
--
" It's a ligne Maginot-in-the-sky "
AFAIK The Blue/White G3 and G4 PowerMacs can be rackmounted by just removing the 4 handles at the corners and bolting them via the holes remaining to a rack..........
Troc
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
I can't help you with cases (I've been looking for one too) but, in the unlikely event that you live in the Seattle area, check out Boeing Surplus in Renton. I've seefull height racks (7'?) with doors in the neighborhood of $50. The ones I've seen were well worn, but still quite solid. Often they've included casters. Their stock changes constantly, & they won't quote stock over the phone, but if you can get down there, you'll usually find SOMETHING interesting.
I was looking into this myself for a while, and found quite a bit of stuff priced decently on ebay. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything selling in my area and obviously shipping on this kind of thing would be outrageous. But maybe you'll be able to find someone in your area, in which case that's probably the way to go.
Here is a diagram I just made of how I constructed my own rack-mounting enclosure from cheap and readily available components: the most expensive components were the telescopic drawer rails. The drawer rails are mounted to the enclosure and then the runners are simply screwed to the side of the machine chassis; if you then leave the lids off the machines, you can easily pull a machine out for maintenance.
WARNING: you must either counterbalance or attach this assembly or it will tip - over when you pull out a chassis!
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
I have bought 2 units off them for work: a 42U for £345 and a 32U for £245. Both came with all the fixin's, lockable doors and side panels, elecricity distribution panel, etc. They have been in place about a year now, and no probs
Please note, I have no personal connection, yada yada yada, only a satisfied customer, blah blah blah
A 1U unit might be more expensive now, but after a year in a colocation, it will cost you more to host the same processing power in a 4U factor. Space is money. Spend a bit more now and economize on the rack space you can afford.
What I want is a shoebox shaped box with a small mobo with 1 CD, no floppy, 1 hd, 1 PCI slot, integrated graphics, networking and sound. Should be possible eh?
Flex ATX was supposed to be able to do this but I haven't seen any mobos or cases yet. What gives????
Yup, thats it... and two pieces of inexpensive pressboard ...
... etc. The bottom shelf is plenty tall for those big towers. It really works well, and if you keep your eyes peeled I bet you can snag one cheap at a garage sale this spring.
:)
The stand used to hold a 75gal freshwater aquarium. It now holds 6 systems, ups
BTW corrugated black plastic tubing is great for cleaning up that plate of spaghetti you call wiring. But make sure you plan it well, its kind of a pain to rearrange it once you have it all tidied(sp?) up.
total cost around $50 (usd).
oh yeah, anyone know a good electrician? I beginning to think that one outlet in my office isnt enough...
"there's a big difference between kneeling down, and bending over" - FZ
I have a similar problem and I'm going to be getting $15 shelves made for a 19 inch rack. Then you can put your machines in the rack, just don't move it with the machines inside.
You think YOU have problems? I have 15 computers (mostly pre penitum) and 1 10 foot folding table from 1980 and 1 7 foot folding table from 1980. This is in a room thats about 7x7 with a walkway thats adds about 6 feet to it (10 foot table takes up from far left to 2 feet from door). I also have 3 chairs in there (for guests) and an inhouse network w/adsl. I think I'd be a prime candidate for the rackmount excuse. :)
I can't believe the crap hardware manufacturers get away with. Prices for custom motherboards are way to expensive. Private R&D only goes so far and the increased cost are grossly inflated... Just look at Kevin Mitnick and the amount of money company's "lost" because he had some data sitting on his hard drive (that he copied from their system, not destroying the previous data). Microsoft proved that R&D is a perfect excuse to up the price on the next product (upgrade. yes, win98 IS an upgrade, ask any dumb end user or tech... break them into a thousand pieces.)
No more coffee for me.This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
A while ago, I was pointed towards the Siamese Systems web site, when I asked a similar question. I didn't buy from them, but I was impressed by their ideas. The basic idea is to put all your motherboards into one (large) box. Their box can take up to 3 or 8 motherboards (depending on the model), all connected with an internal network, and all able to share the drives, keyboard, monitor, etc. The page also includes a price comparison with a bunch of rack-mounted cases, which comes out quite favorably. Just a thought... :-)
RFI shielding is the first thing that comes to mind. The second thing is controlled cooling air flow.
Then again, I have to agree that mass produced sheet metal boxes suck. Now you've got me thinking about putting my 6 or 7 computers all on a single piece of plywood, motherboards on thier side like a server. Enclose that whole thing in a large sheet metal box (for RFI) and tuck it all in a nice wood cabinet. Kind of like a 1920's or 30's radio receiver. Now that could be done to look classy, keep all the equipment in one place, and be very tidy. I can do the woodworking myself and have a friend do the sheet metal.....hmmmm, should still be under $200 per computer and look one hell of a lot nicer.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Just spent $1000+ for a rack mount "kit" for an SGI 2100 server. Kit contains two pieces of sheet metal that probably cost SGI $100 or so.....
Sigh...
Get a couple of pieces of heavy (1/8" thick) aluminum 3/4" angle at the hardware store, as long as you want your rack to be tall, a 10-32 tap, the correct size drill bit for the tap (the store should be able to tell you), and a drill and tap wrench. Draw a marking line 1/4" from the edge of one side of one of the angle pieces. Starting 1/4" from the top (which end that is is up to you ;-) drill holes in the spacing pattern 5/8" - 5/8" - 1/2" and repeat all the way to the bottom. Tap all the holes (C-9 is a good cutting fluid for aluminum, BTW). Make the other piece a mirror image (except for thread direction, of course -- duh!) of the one you've made.
;-) Cheers.
Get a couple of 1U blank plates from the music store or the computer shop and attach the two rails together top and bottom (this will give you the right rail spacing -- use your rackmount case to make sure you leave enough space between!) and build a plywood case or metal frame around them.
Guess what? You have a homemade 19" rack.
73 de N5VB (ex-KD5BIV) AR SK
Being a bit of a Quake nut with a penchant for traveling to distant LAN parties, I've created what I think to be the ultimate in portable LAN party systems. Portability, ease of setup, power, and of course good looks all being of primary importance. To start with, you need a portable rack. SKB cases makes just such a thing, shock mounted for your computing pleasure. If you get one, I also suggest picking up the caster set, cause once you load all your stuff into it, it's gonna be heavy. Check outh tml for the racks. Next, you can find ATX rack cases for about $150 new on pricewatch. One PII 400 running win 98 and one dual PPro 200 running Mandrake 7 fill the bottom 8 RUs of a 12 RU rack. The 98 machine for Quake (of course), and the linux box for running game servers, file sharing, etc. A rackmount KVM you can find for $100-$200, depending on the features. Some of the more expensive ones fit into one RU, which I'd recommend as it leaves you more room for other stuff.
.pdf. Their prices are good and their service is great, and they have all sorts of nifty rack mount stuff (cases, power conditioners, and more...)
http://www.skbcases.com/cases/racks/shockmount.
You might want network electronics in the rack - I chose an 8 port 10/100 switch that again fits into one rack unit. Cable management is nice to have (and looks good too), and it's cheap! Pick up a one unit cable management tray from Mid Atlantic for 20-30 bones. Finally, the system just won't look good enough without the Fhurman power conditioning and light module. The power conditioning you can get with any power strip, but it won't be rack mounted, and it won't have those two pop-out dimmable lights to illuminate your rack. For $20 more, get the unit that also displays the incoming line voltage - more blinking lights are good! With all this, I'm out of rack room, which is a shame as I'd like to get something mounted in there for sound....
I found most of these pieces at Full Compass (http://www.fullcompass.com) a pro audio mail order outfit in Wisconsin. I only mention this because my customer experience with them has been great, and they have their full catalog online in
I did recently an lookup about rack chassis
;-))))
in Web and here are the results:
http://www.gtweb.net/rackmount.html
http://www.sliger.com/
http://www.famous-computer.com/
http://www.inco.de/
http://www.pcwmicro.com/Rackmt/compare.h tm
http://www.rackmount.com/
http://www.aberdeeninc.com/abcatg/r ackmount.htm
http://www.technoland.com/chassis.htm
http://www.ittools.com/Products/ap ollo_cases.htm
http://users.cwnet.com/fotra/CHASSIS/
http://www.vatyx.com/rackmount/rackmo unt.html
http://www.uslogic.com/igc/igcrackraid. html
http://www.dcsis.com/rack.htm
I don't know prices - go find yourself. Some of
those are pretty expensive, but there is cheap
ones also.
I prefer my local dealer's (in Finland) chassis, since those are pretty good and nearby me.
Pages are only in Finnish, sorry about that.
http://www.damicon.fi/rakki/index.html
And sorry about possible Slashdot-effect-meltdown to every site in this list
Black holes are where God divided by zero.
...since I own two 1.6m Hewlett-Packard racks. I got the racks for free (well, I got mine for the price of using my truck to move the other four), but I've never come up with a decent solution for rackmounting machines in them-- always too expensive. However, from what I have been able to do, I found a few things you need to think about:
1) Cooling. If you come across a cheap rack and it's enclosed, it ought to have some sort of power supply and fan. And if it does, make sure it handles the kind of power you've got-- I've run across a couple that expect 220v power. This is a solvable problem, more of an annoyance.
2) Sides. Sides look nice, but get in the way. I'm currently using one of my racks as a stereo cabinet (funny, all my stereo gear is, oh, about 19" wide...) This looks cool, and has plenty of space-- in fact, it has enough space that I can climb in underneath the equipment and connect cables from the other side. I would not have to fight that fight if a) the rack was sideless, or b) I had longer speaker wires. I really ought to solve that latter problem-- once again, in most cases, this is also merely an annoyance.
3) Space. I suspect this is not a problem for most of us-- the rack would probably take fewer square feet than the current solution we've got for our entirely-too-many machines.
4) Is the rack really going to help? I've found at the office that for normal hardware (workstation-sized machines), a good set of shelves works better than a rack could ever hope to. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest is that you can get into the machine without having to unplug everything and un-rack the machine. If you're like me, and find yourself swapping components around willy-nilly, this is a huge plus.
Having gone through all this, I've found that at least for my home-use purposes, a rack is the wrong answer. I use one for stereo equipment. The height allows for much extra storage-- I've got the cosmetic front panels for it, so I have a pair of copy-paper boxes full of stuff below the shelves with the equipment hiden behind the panels. They can be easily removed should I need to climb inside the rack to swap cables around. The other that has a front door is being used as a sports equipment cabinet-- it's tall enough for a hockey stick!-- and the computers live on desks and shelves instead of in racks. I don't seem to swap out components so much from my stereo gear than I do from my computers...
-F
Well, cheab rackmount chassis is just not to be found :(
For DIYers: look at ATX specifications: http://www.teleport.com/~ffsupprt. That should help a lot.
I'm sure that a trip to your local home improvement store will yield a whole bunch of shelving units that you can use.
** Martin
A friend of mine ran into the same problem recently. His solution was a heavy duty stainless steel number. It's 6' tall, about 5' long, and 3' deep. Or there abouts. It has four shelves. It's not a solid shelving unit, it's one of those ones with criss crossing bars. I've seen them used before, but I can't remember where he got it, so I can't point anyone to it. But it only cost a couple hundred. He's got four servers, a kvm, monitor, laser printer, deskjet, and tons of files on the thing. It's a great space saver. Anyway, the problem is it isn't grounded. He's a one man show working out of an apartment complex, so he can't really play with the electrical wiring. I don't think the owners would go for that. Is there an easy & safe way that it can be grounded? With all that stuff on there, it gives off a pretty good shock pretty often. He already lost one P90 mobo because of it, too. I'm sure a lot of people have come across this problem while using alternative racks.
Oops. That's sposed to read office complex for you legal sticklers (can't run a business from most apt complex), and just to make it clear, he is using APC back-ups & smart-ups for the machines. It's only the rack itself that isn't grounded.
Cheapest source of cases in the UK I have found is Scan Computers. They are selling for £150 apiece.
If you want fully built systems, Transtec do nice 19" systems for approx 1200 each.
Thinking alters Thinking.
I would love to be able to have a motherboard "Hub" with redudndant BF power supplies and some fans. drives could be stacked in removable cases. You could attach (or incorporate)a KVM switch easily enough. Just use mother boards with all the good onboard chit. Even with PCI/ISA card considerations you could put 6 or 7 motherboards in a space about twice the size of my mid-ATX case or a 19 inch rack. Networking companies have had this type of thing for a long time. Just think of the clusters you could build.... I sure hate all the individual cases though. Anyone ever seen something like this?
http://www.siliconrax.com http://www.pixelusa.com or just buy a rack shelf and turn your computer on its side: http://www.markertek.com
Is this part of Slashdot's repetoire of evil powers?
At anyrate, my roommate n' I have just set up a rack we snagged that our University was throwing away. Check it out, here.
Slightly off topic, but I doubt my askslashdot question is going to get published because I just noticed the other day that a similar question was asked a while back. -- so here goes:
Screw this shit, I've had it/I ain't no mister cool./I'm a pig, I'm a dog/Excuse me if I drool./stm
I noticed that a number of people seemed interested in going down to the local sheet metal shop and getting a custom case made up. I have read the ATX specs for some previous case design work, and have had a hand in producing a custom ATX case that is mounted inside of another system. In hindsight, I should have pushed for making the case be a standard rackmount dimensions, but I didn't. Is there any interest in producing a public domain set of rackmount ATX plans (and part lists, similar to the LinuxToday article that was previously quoted) that someone could take directly to a metal shop and have a few built? I have seen a number of "Open Hardware" ideas mentioned, but I haven't actually seen too many products of a discussion.
I would be happy to work with my current case supplier to have a test run produced, as I wouldn't mind having a couple of cases built for myself. Our current custom case is the size of a full tower system, and is made of very sturdy metal. It is coated steel that could be painted, or left as-is (a shiny golden color). It costs us about $150 in quantities of 20, before shipping and with no power supply. It certainly isn't significantly cheaper than buying it from an existing rackmount vendor, but it does give the opportunity for customization.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Jim Walters
Hey; Here's something I kinda thre together to handle cables: 1. Put your cables together, then measure the diameter with a tape measure. 2. Go to your local hardware store, and purchase rubber tubing of a similar diameter (you want something pliant here). 3. Cut the tubing so that you wind up with a helix shape (basically, cut diagonally down the length, around the tube. 4. Wrap the tubing around the wires. Some plastics work well with this, if they're thin enough to ben with your hands. Hope this helps.
I found some AT cases for $50.00 on line (I think through http://www.classifieds2000.com). They required significant modification (cutting holes, remounting power supply, a little bit of rewiring) but nothing too difficult. I could even convert them to ATX if I got an appropriate power supply.
I took a very sweet 6' rack home from work when we actually baught steel shelves for our server room. I'm not about to buy $200 cases for all my boxes (well there aren't that many) but I would like to get them in there because if I don't use it, it takes up alot of room.
With some 1" Angle iron, a drill, a hack-saw and maby a roto tool (for those sexy rounded corners), customizing your rack to hold your boxes in whatever configuration you want is a snap.
If you didn't get your rack for free, I think you would be better advised to purchase a set of steel shelves... A rack that can hold four or five cases is going to be pretty big, but very expensive.
"The Probability of Mischief varies inversly with respect to the proximity of an authority figure."
forget racks, say hello to ikea! their ivar shelving is GREAT for tons of computer stuff. buy whatever height racks you want, buy however many shelves you need, get a cross-brace to keep it stable. you can even get multiple racks, and build an entire wall shelving unit. they also have a pull-out keyboard/desk shelf, so you can put your monitor/kbd there. in the future, you can add to the system, no problem! also, everything is made of wood, so you can easily nail power strips to the shelves.
i especially like this shelving b/c i can stain/paint it to look nice. yes, i hate to admit it, but i don't like my computer room looking like crap.
this is what i've done in my home, and it works/looks great.
go here. Racks are dumb for end users, unless you have lots of machines with extended lifetimes (ie: your crappy p2 doesn't deserve to be in a rack, but an SGI, SUN does, or >$5k PC server does). Even if you have a bunch of computers, if they are all desktop class, 4U will be wasted in a year when desktops go to 2U vcr style size.
For the person that has four soon to be five computers in his living room, put them in a closet. Or at least start to buy NLX, mATX motherboards so you can get the smaller cases now.
That's not to mention that racks themselve are pricey. What's the goal... coolness or organization..
The low end of the case market has always bugged me, I usually cut my hands to shreds when installing the motherboard, last 2 cases have been from a UK vendor, all bits fitted perfectly ! But while your at it.... get rid of the power rat's nest by adding a +12V output panel from the PSU... gets rid of the transformers for the scanner, modem, camera and speakers !
For anyone who is in the Chicago area, I have a 6.5 foot Schroff Enclosure for sale. It is in perfect condition, has a glass door with a lock, internal dual fan, wheels, the whole deal. This is a $1500 enclosure meant for factory conditions so email me if you have a reasonable offer. I am a reasonable person and would like to see it find a nice home.
-Adam Hull
adamhull@yahoo.com
Be careful when buying a 1U chassis. The biggest challenge when designing a 1U computer is cooling the darn thing. It's possible, but requires some very good design and analysis work. Take a close look at how many fans are being used and the airflow path through the system. Also, think about what will happen if one or more of the fans fail (which is likely at some point in the computer's life, especially with those small 40mm fans).
Does anyone know of a website with an independant review of 1U chassis, including data like operating temperature?
I too have been working on the same type of setup for quite awhile and have had about the same results. Forewarning, if your anything like me, the $200 you planned on spending will easily turn into $1000.
First off, the rackmount chassis. Although you made no mention about cabinets, I think it's on topic and others might be interested as well. My only advice: check Ebay. I spent months looking for EIA rails to mount in a custom desk/lan station I was building but I couldn't find them cheaper than $100 for a pair. I was so close to buying them when I found a rackmount chassis on Ebay for $150. It wasn't the prettiest but it was exactly what I wanted. $300 later and countless hours, I was sick from getting paint in my system but I had a beautiful painted rackmount cabinet. However, I'm still looking for doors :( .
The cases I'm currently still working on. For right now, I have some telescoping rails that I bought with the cabinet with some melamine screwed in between as a shelf. I religously check ebay for used rackmount cases. Do a search for rack and rackmount. The stuff seems pretty popular because it usually get's bid up pretty high.
I pretty much gave up on looking for a case to buy. They're just too damned expensive. $300 times 5 computers adds up real quick. Within the last couple of days I've been talking to a buddy who works in a metal fabrication shop. He seems to think it wouldn't be too expensive to build a _simple_ case. If you decide to go this route, consider looking at some old computer shops for some ATX cases. You can rivet in an ATX back panel to a flat piece of sheet metal perfectly. The cost alone to get that fabricated I'm sure would be at least $50. You can also get power supplies in old cases, just make sure they don't have the fan sticking out 'cause you need all the room you can get. I was lucky enough to be able to bastardize all the old computers at work here, so I got most of the complex pieces for free. I'm hoping my case will be a couple of simple folds, some riveting and I'm done.
Too make a very long story short, BE PREPARED. It's a hell of a lot of fun to build, but it gets _extremely_ expensive, _extremely_ quick. There are a lot of things you have to buy. Cabinet, cases, power supplies, new motherboards, ps/2 extension cables, moniter extension cables depending on where you moniters are, old ATX cases for parts, fans or air conditioning units to remove the heat from the rack, everything. A good place to find misc rackmount parts is Bud Industries
Have fun and good luck!!
Enlight ATX mid tower cases are almost exactly 17" tall, which means that they will fit sideways in a 19" rack if you add the appropriate mounting ears/rails. These cases run around $65-80, made entirely from metal, and have good cooling.
Try the Netra t1s. little under 4k. Nice box, very peppy. Has a sparc 400, up to 256m ram (I think) and is generally pretty cool.
-- Don't overthrow the government, just think about it.
Some good posts already about the much cheaper
price of music racks on the web. There is a
good on-line site to browse this stuff at:
http://www.sweetwater.com/equip-dir/cases/
I actually like some of the portable plastic molded
cases which are rock solid and great if you ship your
computers a lot. The main issue Ive come across however
with most rackmount cases is there depth, which can be
huge (like 3 feet!).
ION
I have gotten a rack and the shelves from high tech companys dumpsters go through the phonebook and hit the dumpsters some night you would be suprised what you would find
Rackmounts are a 'luxury' item in the computer world, so there is no price pressure to make them affordable. A good alternative is to purchase desktop cases and stack them. In-Win (www.in-win.com) makes a really good case the IW-H500 ATX DeskTop Case. If you look around you will probably find one for about $60. The will comfortably stack 4 high, kind of wobbly at 5, but its a lot cheaper. We use these in our NOC for cheap Linux/FreeBSD systems. They fit perfectly into a standard 19" rack.
They're not PCs, but the Sun Ultra 5/10 systems are tower cases that rackmount sideways, exactly as you specified.
Ultra 5s start around $2000,
and the Ultra 10s start around $3000.
The affordable solution is to take the minitower boxes and put them on a wire rack (aka baker's rack). I got mine from one of those large CostCo places; it's chrome, has 5 shelves and only cost about $60. Just be sure to get the one that's got the deep (18 inch) shelves. You'll find you can get machines packed in pretty tight if you do some planning. For instance, I have one shelf of just pizza boxes, another for minitowers, etc.
Of course, these are the machines I *run*. If I need to mess around with one, I still need to pull it out of the rack and bring it to the bench. But you'll end up doing that with a real rackmount too.
Make your own! A buddy of mine bought some mid AT cases(the sides come off), turned 'em horizontally, and attached four 3-inch metal L brackets to them with epoxy and 1/4-24 stub bolts. Two brackets were placed flush with the front of the case on the 'upper edge'. The other two went on the upper edge of the back, but protruding an inch. The 'cage' was nothing more than four 7 1/2 foot lengths of perforated stock. The back of the rack was spaced off the wall with chunks of 2x4, and secured with machine screws and heavy-duty wall anchors. The front was double bracketed to the floor and ceiling, and secured by standard sheetrock fastners and lag bolts into the floor joists. Bolt the cases onto the perf stock. I'd suggest using 1/4-20 carraige bolts secured to the frame with SAE lock washers, then slid through the case 'L's and held with some push-button Fas-Nuts or wing nuts.
.sig: Now legally binding!
Ever since upgrading to Win98, I find that tower cases make great aquariums. I don't even take the motherboard and processor out now. The fish seem to like swimming around the cooling fan and the PCI cards. You almost have to rackmount them, because, in the original configuation, all the water runs out. I lay em flat, about every 15U or so, 3 to a rack.
By which, of course, I mean: run a wire from the shelving unit to the screw that holds the faceplate on the electrical outlet. That screw should be grounded, and will dissipate the static buildup that you're experiencing.
Three feet of insulated wire and some electrical tape is all you need. Actually, that's my motto and solution to nearly every problem...
A couple months ago I had the same dilemna. I looked all over the internet and found no cases under ~ $225. Then I decided to see what I could get through my employer (OEM). I found a deal at a local place called Winotek. They had one case that came with a power supply. It wasn't that good of a deal. Then I found that if I bought the Rackmount case and a seperate power supply, it would only cost $165 which is a much better deal.
My 2 cents.
--Evan
It seems to me the Linux didnt succeed everywhere
I am trying to get an 1U (Celeron, 128MB, 1 PCI, Floppy, IDE) evaluation systems in Europe.
I am talking of 130-200 Systems within the next 1-2 Months but the linux hype doesnt seem to catch up.indybox straight away refused to send an evaluation system.
Penguincomputing didnt respond after phoning twice and sending an email.
Anyone ?
flo@rfc822.org
If you happen to live the the Puget Sound area then check out Boeing surplus in Renton. I found a mint condition cabinet with 3 shelves and huge power strip for $100. They always have 3 or 4 (nonmint) lying around.
Beware: cabinets are heavy. I had to carry (drag) mine up half a staircase and even with all the side panels off I nearly killed myself.
I've been thinking about moving my DVD PC to something that'd look good stacked in with stereo components. Has anyone seen anything reasonably well shielded that wouldn't look out of place next to a VCR?
I really think it's more pleasant to sit next to a huge box that gives out about 70dB of high noise than sit next to an open rack system. It also keeps the dust off of the computers.
Instead of fixed shelves, I had to use sliding shelves since the back of the case is inaccessible. A queen size eggcrate foam mattress pad gave up its life to provide soundproofing material. The exterior of the case is mostly oak, brass and glass. It looks very nice.
Inside is all steel, everything is bolted to 1" square profile punched beams. These don't work with rackmount stuff at 1.75", so I have a couple of little steel plates to adapt my rackmount stuff. The beams are 20.5" apart for this purpose.
On the whole it cost about $750 including the fans and lights. It is very nice to work next to.
The places to go are government auctions/liquidations especially educational institutes/hospitals. They hang on to old stuff forever. Besides old minicomputers, I've purchased old broadcast electronic equipment just for the racks.
I second (third, fourth, ...) the posts advising the use of metal shelving.
;-)
Rather than the thin, metal-only units, however, I suggest you look for the "heavy duty" models which have a frame and plywood or particle board shelves. These are heavier and more study for holding loads than the all-metal kinds. The one
I use cost about $60 at the local Home Depot.
While they aren't pretty, they go together easily with no tools (a hammer helps to tap things into place), and you can place the shelves at any level you want. At home, I have the bottom of the shelf loaded with "ballast" (heavy old junk I rarely need), so I could mount the PCs higher for easier access.
Just remember to leave enough wiggle room behind the rack before you load it up!
Good Luck
The FAT Guy
Couple of places you want to look...
I tend to pick up some great steel single post racks (AKA "relay racks") from TV stations as they tend to be used for shipping racks when they get new equipment. Find the local TV transmitter location and befriend an engineer. I have been picking them up for free.
If you are interested in "enclosed" or "standard" racks, then check out old radio or TV broadcast sites that are upgrading their facilities. I have gotten some classic RCA racks (with the "meatball" logo") that way.
Second lowest cost option is flea markets. In SF we have some great HAM and general electronics flea markets such as the Foothill Flea Market at Foothill Jr. College in Los Altos. Livermore has the "Livermore Swap meet" where computer and HAM stuff abound. At both events you will find racks.
Before you purchase a rack you need to inspect that the screw holes are not stripped. This will ussally happen more often with aluminum racks (ie. Chatsworth) and less often with steel. If it has been repainted then it is likely that the holes will need to be cleaned out as paint will make it a problem to thread screws in. Also there once was a standard for screws (10-32) but that seems to have gone by the wayside. Don't just assume that all racks will accept 10-32 screws.
There's a few things to consider when you look at the $200 (and up) cost. ObDisclaimer: My company makes SBCs and chassis.
1) Many of them are built in the US. The down side is the cost (of labor, etc), but the up side is that the chassis is desinged and built here. We had one industrial customer come to us and say "well, that's great, but can you make it 16" instead of 17"?". So we look at the customer, go back to our engineering group, and pump one out in a couple days.
Compare this to the headache I went through trying to find a power supply that fit my needs. Call the US rep. US rep calls taiwan. Taiwan sits on it till I bug the rep again. Rep confuses message from taiwan. We threaten having a UL inspection of their manufacturing facility. They say "Oh yeah, *that* power supply has a problem with it."
2) Many of these are nice thick metal through and through. Take a look at your typical PC and see how much metal is in it. The metal is there for FCC/CE stuff. In a rack-mount, the metal is there to hold the thing togetherand make sure it stays on the rack. Thicker metal. $$$$
3) Quantity quantity quantity. Do you know how much engineering goes into making one of those things? You need to amortize the cost over only a few thousand chassis instead of a hundred thousand that you'd get from a typical PC case.
-- Ever notice that fast-burning fuse looks exactly the same as slow-burning fuse? I didn't... (Edgar Montrose)
We sell a line of these, with a quite nice feature set. I will post to slashdot with pictures in the hope it gets published. If they can post pics of stupid penguin cases maybe these too..
Bottom line:
$95
Comes with:
Rackmount case (ATX) with 300W power, ball-bearing temperature controlled fan, 8 drive bays, secondary ball bearing chassis fan, full hardware kit.
I posted a pic of a couple in use at:
http://www.harddata.com/images/rackcase.jpg
Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
Everyone is building 810 chipset based 1U linux boxes, but where is the video and sound support?? If anyone knows where to find linux 810 support, especially for the onboard sound, please let me know..
RyanThe company I work for runs a cluster system using standard minitower ATX cases on rack shelves in 19" racks. Each rack can hold 9.5 computers plus a 24 port switch, but most of the racks have only 8 machines. We could fit more machines on eack rack if we used rack mount cases, but then the machines would be too close together and we'd get some heating problems. We also couldn't put a 9" vga monitor and keyboard on one of the shelves halfway up each rack. The price for each case was about $65. The shelves cost about $30 each (in large quantities). Total rack cost per machine: $95.
In addition to being cheaper than standard rack mount cases, rack shelves are also much stronger. You have to attach the computers to their shelves, but that's really easy (bunjee cords will work, but I prefer velcro). After a small earthquake a while back, we found that all the machines on shelves were still in place and running. Several of the rack mount machines, on the other hand, had broken their 'ears' off and were jumbled on the floor where they had fallen. That's what you get when you buy cheap rack mount cases which still cost more than the shelved equivalent.
Because the machines are on shelves instead of bolted to the rack, it's easy to take an individual node out of the rack to service it. Unbolting and removing a rack mount case from the rack, especially a heavy one overhead, is really hard to do without banging it into its neighbors and their cables. The monitors and keyboards on the extra shelves in each rack are also really convenient. Even if 'proper' rack mount cases were cheaper, I still don't think we'd use them. The shelves are so much easier to use.
Another advantage of using standard cases in shelves is we never have to buy office computers for our other employees. When we need more computers for the marketing department, we just buy some faster node machines for the cluster, and recycle the old node machines into office machines. That way the engineering department always has the fastest machines instead of wasting them on useless marketing tasks (which is exactly how things should be).
What about the powering up issues with an ATX case? Once the power is restored after an outage, an AT cased system will power up if left ON, while an ATX system will NOT. What are people doing to get their ATX systems to powerup unattended after a power outage? (I've been told that wake on LAN is not yet working for linux :-(
EN-8950 review.
A former student of my mom's stacked up boxen inside of a fridge with no door on it. Originally they were all facing out so all the blinking lights would be showing and look pretty but of course that way theres nowhere for the air to go and it would get too hot.
Does anyone know what an industrial passive backplane case is?
I can get them real cheap, a local seller has them on the web site (for $5, new!) and it says they are suitable for wall or rack mounting.
Any ideas?
Nexel makes nifty racks. Wire construction, either in chrome or black. It takes no tools, in about 5 minutes you can set it up. All on wheels, if you need to install another system just pull it out and you can easily get to everything. I have 2 of them at home. They're 48" deep, 72" wide, and about 7 feet tall. But they come in lots of different sizes. I have 11 mid-tower cases and 5 desktop cases, plus 2 monitors, printers, UPSs, scanner, various external drives, hubs, a half dozen sun 411 and 911 cases holding my sparc stuff, a TV, tons of stereo eqipment and 2 VCRs.
The wire construction helps keep the heat under control, but makes it easy to lose pens and small food items. Setting a drink on one will get you tossed from my computer room.
The real question is what do you do with the wires?! I think that if I'm not careful, I'll accidentally weave a rug of cables on the back of the units.
The current Slashdot moderation system is made by gay communists!
The sound is an integrated Creative SoundBlaster ES1373B digial controller along with Crystal CS4297 analog codec (SB 64V PCI). Shouldnt it work if you just compile in 16/32/64/Awe support? The video is the Intel 82810, just use the SVGA server but I dont know why you would be running X on a server...
Linksys 4 station switches are great. They do both at and ps/2 type connectors on the same switch (necessary for older equipment), can be cascaded for multiple machines, are electronic and only cost $104 at buy.com (http://www.buy.com/comp/product.as p?SKU=10022032 You can also use the cheaper Belkins cables to connect everything (http://www.buy.com/comp/product.as p?SKU=10029779 The downside to the fancier Linksys 8 station device is that you have to buy their more expensive special cables. When using this switch I have found that you have to be viewing a booting machine through hardware mouse detection (if the system does it) and sometimes (NT/2000) through mouse driver loading in the operating system. After that everthing works flawlessly for my two AT/Serial attached devices, one PS/2 attached device and laptop with PS/2 splitter for kb and mouse. Do not get this device confused with LinkSys' newer compact PS/2 only switches for $70 on buy.com.
For home use i just buy 19" 3U racks from a local electronics shop. These sell for about $100AU, and they are quite suitable. All you need to do is drill the holes in the right places, and put in about an hours work, and you have a nice custom rack case.
Unfortunately for larger sized motherboards, like dual PII's, you really need 4U case so that you can make room for the power supply. I havent been able to find 4U cases in shops around here, but i have been toying with using a 3U and a 1U.
:wq ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This reminds me of a concept I had recently...
Imagine a rack made up of lots and lots of notebook docking bays... and set them up to try booting as diskless workstations before falling back on the HDD. You could have them working as a Beowulf cluster, or load-shared servers, or something like that. Then when you need to go on the road you just yank out a node, reboot it, and voila. When you're done, pop it back in, reboot it, and it re-integrates with the system...
Not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but still a cool idea. Just a concept.
- Adam Schumacher
cybershoe@mindless.com
I think that it is commonly overlooked, but important to realize that some CDRoms dont seem to like being on their side. Go ahead and take yuour favorite mid tower case and slam it down on it's side and put a CD in. It's challenging :)
:)
The solution of course is to get some form of a caddy based CDRom drive, which as far as my past experience goes, is somewhat more expensive than your standard $50 grade cdrom.
Keep in mind that rack mounts are designed with this inline--they're designed like your traditional desktop case (whatever happened to them?!) so the CDRom will sit in its natural position. Little things like this start popping up when you try and save a buck or two. Make sure that harddrive isn't upside down either, it'll wear out quick