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Rack Mounted PCs for the Home User?
andrewa writes "Do any folks out there have recommendations on available gear for building a small, but extendable, rack-mounted system? As a developer of software for use in contact centers I want to put together a small development system that consists of at least three PCs to create a simulated environment to test my applications in.
Why rack mounted? Well, I want to save space and only have the bare minimum systems (no need for multiple CD-ROMS, monitors, no sound-cards, just lots of memory and HD space).
I also will add to this in the future, so don't want to limit myself to just a few pcs on the system. I've scouted around a bit, but didn't see too much. I'm in the UK at the moment, but will be moving to the U.S. in about 6 months, so power requirements (although I guess most equipment has switchable voltages) is a consideration."
Ha!!!
Get a bookcase, flip the tower computers on the side.
Rack mounted indeed!
Get one big system and a VMware license... saves lots of space and hardware costs... plus - when you aren't running the other systems... you have one kick ass box.
BlackNova Traders
I agree that having your own rack would be cool, and I would build one if I had the money, but I can't help but wonder what the benefit is over some mini-ATX boxes aside from the bragging rights. Shuttle's XPC line might do the trick and actually take up less space...
Seriously, laptops are great as far as size is concerned and as a bonus come with battery backup! Rackmount cases really aren't that small (atleast not the 1U type), just thin and long. A few small factor form PCs would probably work better unless you're really sure you want rackmount. Rackmounts are better left in the server room I say.
Something tells me this guy isn't looking to spend $28,000. I can't believe you got modded up for such stupidity. +5 Pro-Apple.
Anything that relates to racks - rack cases, racks themselves - gets a 500% markup.
It was a little bit of a surprise to me when I visited rackspace.com a year or so ago, but they have a very high density scheme with no racks to speak of. Instead, they get steel-wire shelves like these, put cheap x86 boxes -- they actually assembler their own from commodity parts, which certainly makes sense if you're setting up thousands of boxes as they do -- in minitowers on them, and cable them with conventional cables tied with plastic cable ties.
Works great, relatively cheap, and you can do something else with the "rack" later if you want.
Rack mounted PCs are not built for home use. Their cooling fans are deafening, so if you don't live alone you'll either have to sacrifice a room to them and keep the door shut (which then might lead to cooling issues), or risk driving your housemates insane. You' be better off buying a few small form-factor systems, like Shuttles or a small ATX case with only the drive bays and slots that you plan to use.
You could also go the virtual machine route and buy one extremely tricked-out machine and a copy of Virtual PC. Microsoft appears to be using it for multi-machine setups when they send out training and demo CDs now, so having several real PCs to do testing and training is no longer necessary.
We geeks are not the most loved of social groups. A lot of this has to do with our condescending attitude towards less intelligent non-geeks, personal hygiene, and general social antipathy. Also evident in geek behavior is a strong misogynistic stream that infuses our vocabulary and humor with words and phrases that degrade women as a social group.
On an individual basis, you'll find that most geeks are not this way and in fact have female friends whom they see as neither a sexual object nor as a lower form of life. Most geeks are also socially adept, physically active, as well as capable of striking up a conversation with members of the opposite sex (or same sex for those who may be homosexual).
However the stereotype remains. I believe that this stereotype is reinforced by comments of this sort that takes a very simple request for "rack mounted computers" and turns it into a joke about female breasts. Not only is the joke unfunny, it is offensive to those of us who work hard in the offline world to build an image of the typical geek as a hard worker, community-minded citizen, and generally good person.
The parent comment took no thinking on the poster's part and was apparently the first thing he thought of when he saw the question. This kind of geek whose thinking has become as anti-women as this is exactly the kind of anti-geek-community person that brings the rest of us down. I ask the moderators to take the long view and think about what kind of image of geekdom they wish to present to the world when they moderate the parent comment.
Thanks for reading this far. I've had to get this off my chest for a long time.
I have been pwned because my
Aside from the "kewl" factor, rack mount systems for the job described will be very expensive, underpowered, incredibly noisy, and of limited expandability. This is mostly because if you're talking about saving space you pretty much have to be talking about 1U systems, which sacrifice a lot for their form factor (thinness).
What's a better plan?
I'd recommend Shuttle mini-PCs or similar (a few makes are available now). Hugely cheaper then rackmount, much quieter, better expansion (two or three internal hard drives if you don't use floopy or CDROM), and honestly SMALLER then 1U systems. Remember as thin as 1U systems are they are 19" wide (before you add the rack which adds a few more) and are typically very deap (20+ inches often). They are also much heavier then Shuttle systems. Furthermore, so long as you stay away from the mini-ITX based brands (Via, yuck!) they have every wiz-bang feature you could ask from a full size PC (duel channel DDR400, hyperthreading, USB 2.0, Gigabit lan, firewire, etc, etc) built in (see the Shuttle X in particular).
You'll have a much easier time moving three of these small boxes around (get a small carry-on suitcase) then a 4U rack case, and your ears will thank you.
My
I have a P3-700 box that currently has three Linux, a Win2k, a WinXP and a Win2003 partition running under VMWare.
Heck of a lot nicer than having to worry about the noise, heat and space requirements for the 6 physical systems I would require.
May be worth considering.. Disk space can be managed reasonably well, and as I am only actively using one (or perhaps two) systems at any one moment in time, each box claws it's way out of swap into real-memory pretty quickly and provides pretty reasonable interactive performance.
Red.
On the other hand, they're easy enough to salvage. I have 2 nice full height racks with power at the bottom and 1 without, all rescued from the dumpster (well, they hadn't quite gone in yet, but were about to) from a company closing its east coast branch. Other friends have built them (although mostly for audio)
Don't worry - its just stigmata. Pass me a napkin and don't you dare tell my mother.
You sound like the perfect candidate for a small-form-factor arrangement, either a couple of Via Epia systems in very small boxes, or low end Shuttle cubes.
This gives a nice compromise: Much lower cost (racks are expensive), LESS volume in practice (Racks are DEEP, its hard to find a deep storage closet, but small form factor systems may be taller but aren't as deap), and easily available.
True, reliability isn't as good, but you aren't talking about ultra-reliable systems anyway, and you said you didn't need high performance.
Test your net with Netalyzr
24Us of rack space. I recommend anything by Middle Atlantic. Solid construction, good quality. My 24U cost approx $600 (they don't seem to get much cheaper, new that is).
Bit of advice, though... You might seriously reconsider building a rack. I've only filled up a little over half the available space, and now that the novelty of 'having a rack' has worn off, I'm thinking about selling it and all the racked PCs that I don't use.
In other words, don't go through with it unless you have a strong need for it now and in the future. The rack equipment is expensive, as is the rack mountable cases.
If you want two systems in 2U of rack space, the lowest cost way to go is a 2UX2 case. You can use standard processors and cooling fans. Standard ATX power supply, etc... No CD-ROM, but you can use USB for media.
I have good luck with a mixture of Virtual PC for Macs and VMWare for Linux.
These are great, but having multiple systems comes in handy. It's always nice to know that that thing you're going to blow up will only affect one machine and your really important stuff is gonna keep hummin' along on the side.
For the stuff I really don't know enough about yet, I like to have a seperate box to play.
TW
You might want to consider virtual machines as an alternative. See www.vmware.com.
If you read his post carefully you will notice that he didn't say "buy an Xserve mini cluster". He said "follow Apple's example", and then he showed several things that Apple did right with their Workgroup Cluster.
Many of those things can be achieved by using cheaper hardware and not getting all the goodies that you don't need (e.g., the truckload of software), so you can follow Apple's example without spending $28,000.
Regardless of what people are saying here - do not just show up with one large machine. If you are demoing a product to sell to people to put into their environment, you'll likely run into "will it work behind a firewall?" (that is if they have any clue about security). Can't do that with yjust virtual machines.
I buy stuff from
http://www.rackmountnet.com/
they've got a nice 12" deep mATX form factor 1U case that I put my firewall in.
It really doesn't sound like you need to spring for a rackmount system. It will cost you more in the end if you go that route. Still, if you want to, I would not build your own system. You'll drop a couple hundred at least on a rackmount case and $50 to $100 on a PSU for it. The mobo will be at least $300 since it's a rack mount mobo and thus a server mobo. Add in the 1U CPUs and fans and possibly short DIMMs and you'll find you could have spent less money buying a complete system. I recommend you look into the SuperMicro line. They have dozens to choose from. I have a 6013P-T and love it. I bought might from Wendy @ Acmemicro also known as 8anet.com.
Don't forget to ground each case independently.
Man o mister, ground loops suck to debug.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Mod parent ... oh, he is already at 5.
... ;-), it was VERY noisy, we had problems to communicate. Whenever we switched it off, it was a huge relief.
More seriously, I worked at a place where we had to test a new rack for our server farm.
It was one (1) Dell rack and running in our office for two weeks or so
While it was somewhat cool to have a rack in your office
These things are build to run in a separated room, 24/7 under maximum load. So cooling is the first priority, while noise reduction is a non-issue.
You definitly DONT want to be with multiple racks in the same room for long if you can avoid it.
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof for my post which this sig is too small to contain.
Racks are nice and professional looking, but if I was doing the same thing, I'd go for some shelves from IKEA and regular mini tower PCs. Se http://www.nsc.liu.se/systems/cluster-overview/ind ex.html for some professional opinions on these matters from a supercomputer organisation.
I'd suggest not buying any computer racks. They are pretty damn pricey, $400+ maybe less if you find them in used computer stores, and they are usually wayyyy too big, like 6 feet high and stuff. What I found works the best is recording equipment rackmounts they can be found from $80+. The one I have was $120 and it's rock solid. I already have 3 cases in it and a rackmount switch.
Hopefully no flames break out. I only mentioned Linux and X forwarding as an example of an alternative to using a KVM in a multi-system, single-monitor environment. (I'm a Linux developer, so that's what I'm most familiar with.) Hopefully others will see both our posts for what they are -- general info that might be of use to people, not "my OS is bigger/better/badder than your OS" tripe. :-)
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.