Server rack

[conf]

Is there a special problem I should be aware of using a rack - pc.
There s a plenty of them in the Ebay result list and Im not sure if
I could ùse them without anything else around. Viewing the according pictures
reveales all that you need to run as a single box only with different appearence.
I simply want to run it like a normal PC, is this possible ?

[litehouse43]

The form factor is good, depends on the hardware inside usually. I have a 45U cabinet in my apartment with all my computers. I run client hardware in the boxes though. Server hardware is less efficient for crunching typically. You'd want to purchase 4U cabinets if you'd need graphics cards and 2U if your running on chip graphics. It's definitely a space saver.

[zombie67]

The density will require electrical upgrades, if you load up a rack.

[conf]

Sorry no idea what you mean with density.
The racks I saw had one or two power supplies inside and
I thought I can connect them to the normal electricity net. Graphics is nothing of interst for me in this case.
I simply see several racks with two 5650 xeons or even better, meaning 24 cores and they are much cheaper than standalones.

[cineon_lut]

Sorry no idea what you mean with density.
The racks I saw had one or two power supplies inside and
I thought I can connect them to the normal electricity net. Graphics is nothing of interst for me in this case.
I simply see several racks with two 5650 xeons or even better, meaning 24 cores and they are much cheaper than standalones.

Computers in a rack mount chassis (1U, 2U, or 4U height) are generally more noisy than their desktop counterparts, due to smaller and more numerous high RPM fans. So if noise is not a concern, then you can get some good bargains. However you may also be paying extra for the rugged nature of a server chassis. For instance, the better cooling, sometimes redundant power supplies, etc can increase cost over something like a server tower (Dell T5500).

[zombie67]

Sorry no idea what you mean with density.

Sorry. I am talking about a rack (for example) with 20 1u servers, each with dual xeons. No way you can run that on a normal household electrical circuit. You would need to spread them across many different rooms, with different circuits. That defeats the goal of racking them (density).

[Bryan]

I had 3 stand alone 2U machines with dual Xeons (I don't have them anymore). They ran great, were totally reliable, and very inexpensive considering the computing power versus cost of new boxes. The only problem, and it was a major problem, was the noise. Each machine had 3 80mm fans than turned at VERY high RPM. They were extremely noisy. I finally took them out of the cases and used quiet 120mm fans blowing directly on the processors and memory and they ran great without any noise :D

[zombie67]

Yep. This is a huge issue for rack-mount server manufacturers, air flow/cooling vs noise. This is a HUGE reason low power CPUs are important to server farms, particularly TELCOs.

[conf]

Noise in a room with 7 Graphic Cards seems to be my last problem.
.. and Im talking about a single rack with one or two 56xx with 6/12 cores.
Lets see if I find something cheap on Ebay.

[Slicker]

I think our American definition of a rack differs from yours. Can you post a link about a rack you are considering?

[John P. Myers]

Noise in a room with 7 Graphic Cards seems to be my last problem.
.. and Im talking about a single rack with one or two 56xx with 6/12 cores.
Lets see if I find something cheap on Ebay.

A 2U rack chassis (which is what i think you mean) with 2 Xeons wouldn't be that loud. In DrPop's case, he has a 2U rack chassis with 8 Xeons. Much higher density. I guarantee you'd never hear your GPUs over the amount of noise a high density rack chassis puts out.

[conf]

Something like this

1660

Looking for Xeon 5660, Power supply and Graphics onboard. Most of them have a few hard drives and a lot of fans.
Is there any reason why this should not run like a single PC ?

[John P. Myers]

It should run similar to a normal PC. However if you use Windows, you cannot use any Basic, Starter or Home editions. Your only options are Professional and Ultimate. The other versions will not support 2 CPUs.