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Need Help Building a 2U Low Profile System...

J

Jaxel

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
119
So I am building a 2U computer for my mobile rack and I need help. My mobile rack has a limit where I can only fit an 18" in depth rack or lower, which pretty much means I can use 15" cases only, since 17-18" cases dont seem to exist. As well, there is no room for a server door, so I can't use any cases with those either.

So this is the case I am going with... I wish it was 17", but 15" will have to do:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219042
or: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811165510

In the case I am putting this power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817147045

I also want a 3 in 2 hot-swap hard drive backplane:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816215240
(its also included in the second cage I listed.

As you can see, the PSU and the backplane would go against each other in both cases. My question would be, would both of these items fit in the cases, and if they do, how much room would there be for cable management between them?

Next question, as you can see, this is a low profile case and thus can only take low profile video cards. What is the BEST gaming video card I can buy low profile? I was very confused looking at low profile cards on newegg because some higher numbered cards were less expensive than the lower numbered cards.

In a video card, I am looking for these specific things:
  • AMD/ATI Radeon Card
  • Must have 2 DVI/HDMI ports... don't care about DP.
  • Can take as many slots as needed
 
With some back of the napkin math it looks like you're going to have about 1" between the HDD backplane and the PSU (6.3" PSU + 7.63" cage). Should be able to bend the wires around out of that (even with the modular plugs), but I doubt it's going to be any good for storing wires.
 
1/2" an inch might be cutting it close. Typical modular power plugs are about 8-10mm in height, that only gives you a fraction of an inch to bend those wires around.

As for the vid card question, I don't know when this will be released, but it's probably the top end for low profile cards ;)
 
Hmm... so I guess a better question... do I NEED a 750 watt power supply?

Core i7-2600k
16gb of RAM
5 hard drives
1 video card
2 capture cards

I kind of wanted to have a modular power supply... and this one was the only one I could find without a top fan.
 
It's low profile (a standard, and the same size as the cards you linked), and it doesn't look too long, so it should fit. Now, without having one here in front of me I can't give you 100% certainty :p

Out of the two you linked, I would definitely take the 6670 over the 6570 out of those too... DDR3 on a video card makes me cry. :(
 
Jaxel said:
Hmm... so I guess a better question... do I NEED a 750 watt power supply?

Core i7-2600k
16gb of RAM
5 hard drives
1 video card
2 capture cards

I kind of wanted to have a modular power supply... and this one was the only one I could find without a top fan.
Click to expand...

Unless you're going to massively overclock that i7, you can probably get away with a 300-400w psu (definitely check that the +5v rail is beefy enough for 5 simultaneous hdd spinups, so probably around 10A). For a complete assessment, you'd obviously have to look at particular model #'s (for the psu, hdd's, vid card, and capture cards)
 
All right, you're very helpful and answered a few of my questions... In my full computer, I have a 6950, how would a 7750 compare to that?

Do you have any PSUs you would recommend? How do these look?

This PSU is labelled as Micro SFX/ATX... What does that mean? Will it fit a standard ATX slot? The screws don't look like they match up.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817338038

This one is labelled as a Micro PS3... again, don't know what that means. Screws look like they match up to a standard ATX PSU slot.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817338099
 
The SFX psu would require an adapter to fit the ATX mounting position (you can get these, and they're rather cheap, say $5-10; many times they also come with the psu). I have no idea what a ps3 power supply is, but that looks like it is ATX standard size. Both of those psus will give you more room to do wire management.

As far as cases -- choose what fits the a) rackspace, b) components you want, and c) the budget ;) (Hopefully some rack folks will chime in shortly)
 
Well they both are the same price, fit the same rackspace, have the same components...

My question is cooling, and fitting high heat spreader RAM.
 
A PS3 PSU is a form factor that has the same WXH as a standard PS2 power supply but a shorter depth. It is also considered a SFF psu
 
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