Rack cases. chassis, etc

[HGC]

Hi All,

To those who have built rack mount PCs, can you give me some recommendations and opinion on the chassis you've used?... compatible motherboards... port routing... PSUs... etc?

Thanks.

[badseed79]

Hey there HGC,

I use an ANTEC Take3 - which is a 3U Rack-mounted case.

Currently I'm using the included 450W Antec power supply, which is fine for my fairly heavy system: Q6600, NVIDIA 8800GTS, 3x 500GB Hard Drives, DVD-burner etc. But I do also have a 650W Thermaltake PSU sitting around as a spare 'just-in-case'.

It takes most current motherboards I believe, I'm using the ASUS P5K (standard).

My main issue was having to get a rack-case custom made with the required depth, but it's all worthwhile. I've had no issues with Protools (or playing live with Ableton Live & Reason)...much better than using a laptop!

badseed

[HGC]

Cool, thanks for the feedback badseed.

[netnoggin]

The Antec is really nice. I chose to experiment on the other end of the price spectrum, with good results: Chiefmax 4U

Very solid for the price ($60), although it is a bare case with no niceties such as a power supply. Drive bays out the wazoo though.

NN

[albee1952]

I use a Norwood or Norco rackmount server case from NewEgg($75) and it seems fine. Many fit any ATX motherboard. My only reservation regards rack cases in general. If I had it to do over again, I would probably opt for the Antec P180 tower as it would likely be much more quiet. The entire case is laminated panels with sound deadening to keep noise down. I still run my system right beside me with little noise issue but I would be happy to have it more quiet than it is.

[netnoggin]

Yes, I know what you mean. Mine was pretty quiet, but just not quiet enough. I finally made the leap and went water-cooled. That left a slow-turning power supp fan and I added a slow fan on the Northbridge chip's heatsink to compensate for the total lack of CPU fan. Now you can't hardly tell if the thing's on unless you get your head right down next to it.

The water cooler is a Reserator 1 ver 2 on a Pentium D 940, works fine. Idles at 36 degrees Cent, heavy load bumps it up to 40 sometimes. But the temps weren't the issue, it was all about getting rid of that noise.

NN

[sunburst79]

I like the iStar racks from Newegg. they are cheaper than the Antec and mine holds 4 5.25 bays, a floppy and a 120mm fan in the front. Couple it with 3 nexus Drive A Ways for the HD Drives a Zalman CPNS 9700, and some fans from Noctua and Nexus and a Corsair PSU and its its plenty quiet.

Go for a 4 Space rack most (all?) of the 3 space rack I have seen will NOT take a standard ATX PSU making upgrades impossible.

Other than the Antec Take 3 and Take four series If your case has a included PSU its likely to be very well ventilated but loud Server PSU.

Most Server cases are deeper than the standard Audio Racks, This one area where it would help to measure things.

The IStar stuff would have no problems surviving a train wreck.