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Rack Mount BTX Case

CoolTyler5 writes "The TechZone has posted some information on the world's first ever rackmount MicroBTX chassis. The new patent pending chassis, made by General Technics, allows for more powerful processors and storage capability with a smaller, quieter and cooler MicroBTX form factor. The manufacturer also claims it's nearly silent and at 16 inches deep, will fit into most short depth rack cabinets." Of course, the issue that we have at our data center is not really the physical space. Sure, we'd love more space but the power draw per square meter is at the county-maximum. It's great that we can cram more machines into a smaller foot print, but powering all of them is the issue.

5 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. It's relevant to me... by Simon+Brooke · · Score: 4, Informative

    This may not be relevant to those of you who work in large data centres, but for those of us in smaller shops with a few servers in a small rack, being able to fit a more powerful server into less space is useful.

    --
    I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
    1. Re:It's relevant to me... by fimbulvetr · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ibm's blade center takes dual opteron cards. 14 blades (28(x2 for dual core) Procs) in a 7u space.

      http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/bladecenter/

      IIRC, (What the salesman told me), you've paid for the chassis at around the 5th blade purchase if you're going up against some x336s. Of course, you need a architecture where you can live without local disks on each machine.

  2. Re:Advertising by mysqlrocks · · Score: 2, Informative

    Get AdBlock for firefox. Problem solved. Now there's one less obvious indicator of the dodginess of a website.

    I can pretty easily sort out the junk. I don't mind advertising in general, so no need for AdBlock. What I don't like our ads that try to trick people or sites that have we too much advertising. I know instantly that it's a fake dialog box, but it's a pretty shady advertising technique non-the-less. Publishers have control over what ads go on their sites, so it indicates that it's a pretty shade web site.

  3. Not very interesting... by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. Firstly, how does a blatant advertisement like this get posted in the first place?

    2. It's only 16" deep, but it's THREE RU tall. Where's this "space savings" they're talking about? 1/2RU, 1RU, and blade servers are where it's at for saving space.

    Happy Boxing Day!

    1. Re:Not very interesting... by urlgrey · · Score: 2, Informative
      but it's THREE RU tall. Where's this "space savings" they're talking about?
      I thought my eyes were deceiving me. 3u. Huh?

      In a standard 42 cabinet, that's just 14 machines--assuming you have no switches, patch panels, power strips, UPSes or the like eating into your usable space.

      Hmmm... even the quiet-factor doesn't matter much--I don't know of too many desks that sit *in* a server room/colo.

      Normally, I'm very appreciative of datacenter goodies... am I just missing something with this?

      --
      Running 'Nix is like owning a Lightsaber. It's "a more elegant weapon for a more civilized time."