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Rackmount questions

Y

Yippee38

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I've got a really old linux system that I've been using as a HTPC backend/media server. Occassionally, I'll run a Steam game server for my wife and myself on it. I've run stuff like ARK: Survival Evolved, or Conan Exiles on it. It finally died, and needs to be replaced. I don't want the PC sitting in my family room and making extra noise. I also need to organize my network gear (cable modem, router/WAP, and some raspberry pis). So I've decided on going with a small network rack. There are lots of options, and I have lots of questions.....

1. How do you estimate size rack to buy? To me, it kinda seems like a gun safe type of situation, where if you buy what you need, tomorrow, you'll probably need more room. If so, how much bigger would than what I need today should I estimate? A couple of U, or more?
2. Any recommendations on rackmount UPSs? None of this is super critical, but it would be nice to be able to keep my cable modem and router/WAP running for a while if the power is lost.
3. Any rackmount case recommendations? I will be running a full-sized AMD video card in it, so I know it will have to be a 4U case. But some cases seem to be really deep for a full, data-center network rack. I don't want that. Just a desktop PC in a rack, though I do like full-ATX motherboards for expansion.
4. Are fully enclosed racks bad for cooling? This is going to be in my utility room, so sound isn't much of an issue (I'm sure it won't be louder than my furnace/air conditioner, which will be right next to it), but dust will be a problem at times.
5. Any other considerations I'm not thinking about? This all seems very interdependant. I mean, it seems like what I pick for one thing, might change my other needs, whether that's rack space, or power, or cooling, or who knows.

Thanks for the input in advance.
 
just go full 42u, then youll have plenty of room.
APC.
nope.
depends on whats in them.
power to run everything? not exceeding 15/20 amp circuit limits.
 
Yippee38 said:
So I've decided on going with a small network rack.
Click to expand...

What's wrong with full tower PC? I have a homeserver in NZXT full tower (in my signature), It looks alright and doesn't bother me. 8 HDDs, 1 NVMe, placeholder for GPU (will be buying something for LLMs probably later this year), all fits nicely with plenty of free space. Maintenance is easy. Your way of going to network rack, to me, means costs. And probably unnecessary complication.
 
pioruns said:
What's wrong with full tower PC? I have a homeserver in NZXT full tower (in my signature), It looks alright and doesn't bother me. 8 HDDs, 1 NVMe, placeholder for GPU (will be buying something for LLMs probably later this year), all fits nicely with plenty of free space. Maintenance is easy. Your way of going to network rack, to me, means costs. And probably unnecessary complication.
Click to expand...
Because we've got 3PCs running most of the time in our family room. Plus, my wife is running her laptop a lot of the time. We don't need a 4th PC in the family room. It gets noisy, and hot. On top of that, my network gear looks like this right now:
2025-02-04-17-11-09-216.jpg
 
What a mess. Sort it out, before you do anything else. I don't know how can you find anything in there.
 
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My suggestion would be a small shelf unit. If you got something cheap and the correct width you could just screw cheap rack rails to the shelf.
I would recommend avoiding a rack mount PC, put the PC on a shelf, rack mount a switch, a power bar, and a patch panel.
I built a small rack, and the thought of mounting a PC there is kinda terrifying.
 
Exactly, small shelf for networking equipment, with full tower PC (or two) anywhere nearby. That's how I did my setup. Homeserver is nearby under the desk, with UPS, nice and tidy.

1738742080930.png
 
Yippee38 said:
Because we've got 3PCs running most of the time in our family room. Plus, my wife is running her laptop a lot of the time. We don't need a 4th PC in the family room. It gets noisy, and hot. On top of that, my network gear looks like this right now:
View attachment 708443
Click to expand...

Lol, your setup looks like mine.
I plan on doing a couple of small shelf setups like pioruns since I have similar setup upstairs as well.
IMG_7754.JPEG


I do have this little rack I picked up a number of years ago, not sure the size, 12U maybe.
IMG_7755.JPEG
 
Yippee38 said:
Because we've got 3PCs running most of the time in our family room. Plus, my wife is running her laptop a lot of the time. We don't need a 4th PC in the family room. It gets noisy, and hot. On top of that, my network gear looks like this right now:
View attachment 708443
Click to expand...
PXL_20250125_135132597.jpg
This is why I was so excited to get a 42u rack for free.
PXL_20250125_135108257.MP.jpg
 
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