Building a 19" rack PC - where to buy cases (and other advice sought!)

[alex419]

As it says - I'd be best off with a 4u 19" rack PC case for a pro studio machine.  Any advice?  I can't find any so far :/  And, in general, studio computer advice - components and such, even the rack cases would be *awesome*

[eia310e]

Our company designs and manufactures a wide line of 19" products here in Thailand.  Here is a link to our on line store :  PRODUCT DETAILS | ChevalStore.com

The PF-19 might be what you need.

 

You can also order on lazada or shoppee.

Any questions, feel free to contact me.

[recom273]

The poster above has some nice kit

 

I have bought a 3U case from http://www.thaiclever.co.th/ but most are too deep. The cases he sells are just imports from Alibaba, the next server I built was a 4U 48cm deep, which I bought directly from China, and saved a few thousand, despite paying import duty.

[fdsa]

Does anyone know where to find a deep (70+cm) but small (<18U) rack cabinet? All models I found on Lazada/Shopee/few other websites are either not deep enough (60cm), or too high (18U+).

I'd love to buy a small 9U or 12U box, maximum 15U.

[luudee]

 

I have recently build the baby in the picture.  Ended up ordering the case from

Alibaba. Was around $460 USD with shipping and some extra cables for the back plane.

Delivery was very fast, and quality quite impressive as well.

 

rudi

[recom273]

On 10/2/2021 at 2:11 AM, fdsa said:

Does anyone know where to find a deep (70+cm) but small (<18U) rack cabinet? All models I found on Lazada/Shopee/few other websites are either not deep enough (60cm), or too high (18U+).

I'd love to buy a small 9U or 12U box, maximum 15U.

No, its right pain isn't it .. the mail order apps only have short ones. I just shoehorned a 55 deep server into a 22U.

 

I also had big problems buying a 22U x 60cm, it seems no lazada carriers would handle the thing, the seller sent it via another couple of carriers who dented and smashed the frame every time.

 

If you google rack cabs or server cabs, there are quite a few places in Bangkok, I should imagine you will get something, maybe an open rack frame which you need to bolt to the floor - I found they were way more expensive than lazada sellers, especially buying one at a time. 

 

I have a short glass fronted cabinet for sale (60cm), so cheap, I can't even give the thing away. If you can use the rails, then shoot me a PM.

[KannikaP]

On 10/2/2021 at 2:11 AM, fdsa said:

Does anyone know where to find a deep (70+cm) but small (<18U) rack cabinet? All models I found on Lazada/Shopee/few other websites are either not deep enough (60cm), or too high (18U+).

I'd love to buy a small 9U or 12U box, maximum 15U.

I have got a 10u plastic musical equipment case which is doing nothing. It is 42cm (16.5 inches from front to back, excluding the covers. Not much money required if it goes to a good home.

 

[fdsa]

13 hours ago, recom273 said:

I have a short glass fronted cabinet for sale (60cm), so cheap, I can't even give the thing away. If you can use the rails, then shoot me a PM.

60cm is unsuitable for me as one of my servers is 60cm long and I'd like to have the cabinet's front door closed to lower the noise, that's why I am looking for 80cm deep rack. And I don't want a cabinet that weights 50kgs for the very same reason you've mentioned, that's why I want small one <=15U that would weight about 30kg.

Or did you mean 60cm height, not depth?

 

 

12 hours ago, KannikaP said:

I have got a 10u plastic musical equipment case which is doing nothing. It is 42cm (16.5 inches from front to back, excluding the covers. Not much money required if it goes to a good home.

Thanks for the offer but open rack is unsuitable as I want a closed cabinet to lower the noise from servers' fans.

 

 

 

[recom273]

4 hours ago, fdsa said:

60cm is unsuitable for me as one of my servers is 60cm long and I'd like to have the cabinet's front door closed to lower the noise, that's why I am looking for 80cm deep rack. And I don't want a cabinet that weights 50kgs for the very same reason you've mentioned, that's why I want small one <=15U that would weight about 30kg.

Or did you mean 60cm height, not depth?

 

 

Thanks for the offer but open rack is unsuitable as I want a closed cabinet to lower the noise from servers' fans.

 

 

 

No, its 60cm in depth - I know you can't use the cab - just wondering if you wanted the rails to knock up some custom.

 

I also have a 80cm 3U Server case that I bought, then discovered that it was easier and cheaper to buy a 55cm case than source a cab.

[tgw]

7 hours ago, fdsa said:

60cm is unsuitable for me as one of my servers is 60cm long and I'd like to have the cabinet's front door closed to lower the noise, that's why I am looking for 80cm deep rack. And I don't want a cabinet that weights 50kgs for the very same reason you've mentioned, that's why I want small one <=15U that would weight about 30kg.

Or did you mean 60cm height, not depth?

 

Thanks for the offer but open rack is unsuitable as I want a closed cabinet to lower the noise from servers' fans.

I planned something similar in the past.

The fans are loud because of heat, especially here in Thailand. A couple of 1U or 2U rackservers will never be quiet enough to be put into a room with people, because of the noise small fans make.

With a closed cabinet, the next problem is heat - so aircon is needed. I know there are cabinets with integrated aircon, but what about redundancy? Also, will there be service available in Thailand?

My best resolution for my needs was to put the servers into a small soundproof room with 2 dedicated standard wall-mounted aircons.

 

 

[fdsa]

1 hour ago, tgw said:

The fans are loud because of heat, especially here in Thailand.

Nope - the fans are loud because stupid German ordnung locked the minimal fans speed to 20400 rpm "because safety and stability!" even if system has no load at all, and all possible and impossible settings are set to "powersave"  (a note to future self: never use Fujitsu in a home lab)

Compared to good old Dell where you have a manual control over the fans speed using ipmitool, Fujitsu's IPMI does not even support setting temperature thresholds which is quite standard in the industry.

 

1 hour ago, tgw said:

A couple of 1U or 2U rackservers will never be quiet enough to be put into a room with people, because of the noise small fans make.

I have Dells that are as quiet as a purring kitten...

 

1 hour ago, tgw said:

My best resolution for my needs was to put the servers into a small soundproof room with 2 dedicated standard wall-mounted aircons.

if only I had an extra soundproof room ????

 

[tgw]

6 hours ago, fdsa said:

Nope - the fans are loud because stupid German ordnung locked the minimal fans speed to 20400 rpm "because safety and stability!" even if system has no load at all, and all possible and impossible settings are set to "powersave"  (a note to future self: never use Fujitsu in a home lab)

Compared to good old Dell where you have a manual control over the fans speed using ipmitool, Fujitsu's IPMI does not even support setting temperature thresholds which is quite standard in the industry.

 

I have Dells that are as quiet as a purring kitten...

 

if only I had an extra soundproof room ????

 

I had a couple of Dell PowerEdge blades, they didn't have any kind of fan control.

[fdsa]

1 hour ago, tgw said:

I had a couple of Dell PowerEdge blades, they didn't have any kind of fan control.

check this: https://www.spxlabs.com/blog/2019/3/16/silence-your-dell-poweredge-server