Looking for a nice SHORT rackmount chassis

Hi all,

The last two days I've been looking for a nice short rackmount chassis, but I've not been able to find one that suits my needs. I've bought a nice wall-mount cabinet, the deepest model I could find. Still it's only got about 50 cm (19.5") of usable space. Subtract another three cm's from that for the wiring on the back and you end up with a chassis that can be no deeper than 47 cm or 18.5".

I want to use this chassis to build a nice home server. I'm using a micro-ATX motherboard, so I have no need for a chassis that can also house regular ATX boards. What I DO need:
- space for at least 5 to 6 HD's. (most short cases only offer 3)
- preferably hot-swappable (haven't found one yet, all the hot-swappable ones are at least 55cm/22")
- preferably not too heavy since the cabinet is wall mounted (why don't they make these things in aluminum?)
- Height doesn't really matter, but I've been looking for at least 2U since those will house a regular ATX PSU.

This one is nice, but it only offers 4 HD's (ok, 5 if you include the the 5.25 bay which I can convert), and they are not hot-swappable.
This one is nice as well, but still not hot swappable, which I can live with I suppose, but what's worse is I can't see which brand it is and the question remains if I'll be able to get my hands on one of those in Europe.

Anybody else got a suggestion?

Thanks so much!

I went through this a few years ago. It's nearly impossible to get short rack case.

The Norco looks like it probably matches it's spec, but look at the picts of that Circotech. It's longer than it is wide. I ran into this too, I ordered a couple of cases based on the published dimensions, and they came too long for my cabinet. Don't trust the published dims.

I finally bought an '80s vintage rack case that was new, but short, and modded it to fit the new innards. I used it for years, but when the mb died, I just went to using a Dell workstation (can still get these in desktop config) and built a shelf in the cabinet to hold it. It's actually more convenient than the rack mount. The problem with the rack is all the connections are still made in the rear. Rack cases should be like the old pdp11, controls and connections all on the front, nothing but a power cord in the back.

http://www.rackmountpro.com/product.aspx?prodid=3535&catid=207 ?

Not sure I'd dare wall-mount it, though; aren't those wall-mounted cabinets really meant for patch panels and maybe lightweight switches?

I still think there's a market out there for homely (in the UK not US sense of the word, or maybe "home-appropriate") 19in rack cabinets. Ikea Corras isn't bad, but something with doors too (but good ventilation) would surely sell. I remember once raising a laugh with the comment, "What you really want, is a Queen Anne 19in rack cabinet", but in fact I'm pretty sure people would buy one.

Peter

You might want to consider looking for a separate computer case and hard drive chassis. In order to accommodate 5 drives, it's going to have to be tall, and it looks like manufacturers assume if it's going to be tall, then there's no reason to optimize for depth.

My rack is a 100 year old armoire....

Yeah. What Peter said. Generally the wallmount racks are for devices that aren't particularly heavy like network gear. If you're mounting a server in there then you may have issues.

Not helpful for you since you already have a rack but LackRack is a nice solution for a cheap home rack...

Haha. Looks like the coffee table version would support 4-post mounting.

Tell me about it! Why no manufacturer has ever bothered to design these things is beyond me. Clearly there's a market for it!


That's probably good advice, but only adds to the difficulty! What to trust if not the specs?

WHOA! That's the case that I've been searching for all that time! Only two problems... 1) the price is a bit steep. 2) Can I get my hands on this thing in Europe?


Yes, it's heavy. But I'm not all that worried about it. The case is bolted into the wall with four 10cm bolts. And I can always add extra supports underneath the case if I want to be really sure.

Yes, I've also thought about that. Unfortunately, that didn't really help with my search...thanks for you input though!

This is also a nice chassis, it supports up to 6 internal 3.5" drives and is only 15" deep. This company also makes an aluminum version. But you'd think they's mention the weight of the thing then. They don't.

And again, with a company name like that, I fear there will be no way to get one across the ocean...

How often do you need a not very deep rackmount case that is tall to fit many hotswap drives??

That istarusa looks good, but scaling the image, it is about 19" or 20" deep. Maybe the image is not the actual case...

There are rack mount slide out trays available you can just plop a desktop case into...

Yes, this may be a good candidate. You can actually add handles to it to make it rackmount compatible. About this only thing missing is hot swappable bays (but that's not a necessity). Being aluminum built, it only weighs 6.8 kgs as well, so that's another plus. Even with the motherboard and six hard drives installed, I doubt it would weigh more than 10kg. That's about 50% less than most rackmount chassis weigh without anything installed in them!

You might also consider getting a chassis without a hotswap backplane, but regular 5.25" slots and then use a few of these internal hotswap chassis, or something similar.

Good idea, thanks Bitt!

I've just come to another conclusion. One other reason to want to use rackmount was to maybe install a QNAP rack mounted NAS in the future. I've now notices all their rackmountable NAS'es are also 22". Bummer.

I might just take a different path here... hmmm... maybe I should use a regular tower model PC case. I guess if I really wanted to, I could put one on those on the ground, close to the wall mount case. That would immediately solve the weight problem as well... It's not what I had hoped for, but I have to be realistic here and everything is pointing in that direction...

I did give up on rack mount in the end. It was the only sensible thing to do...

Why not just use a portion of the 100 year old armoire, as your case. Mount everything directly. Frame an enclosure around that.

100 yo case mod. Yeah.

Now THIS is something very usuable: small (250x200x350mm / mini-ITX) and light (4.1 kg), yet it houses SIX 3.5" drives! VERY nice!

That is nice. And it'd be a lot quieter than any rackmount case intended for a server room.

Peter

Wow, agreed -- that's one nicely spec'd case. If I wanted another 24/7 server, that would be high on the list.

I wonder what the pricing is on those?
(item not found at NCIX when I looked there for it)

Scan and QuietPC both have it in the UK for £150. Which is a lot, even compared to the pricey but tempting Silverstone cases. But the Silverstone ones don't have 6 drive bays...

Peter

Not to worry, it seems there's even something better available: The Lian-Li PC-Q08B. This case is even better in all regards:
- even smaller: (W) 227mm x (H) 272mm x (D) 345mm VS 330x265x430mm
- lighter: 2.7kg VS 4.1kg
- easier to install (all 6 drives are easier to access)
- more silent because of better airflow
- does allow optical drive which the fractal design does not
- cheaper! €100 VS €150

The only thing 'worse' about the Lian Li is that it comes without a PSU. Which I don't mind because I've got enough of those lying around here and I like to choose my own PSU anyway. This is going to be the one for me!

That is nice.

Now we just need for them to come out with a smaller model, designed for modern 2.5" drives, instead of 3.5" drives from the 1990s.

Then we'd have a really quiet and cool setup.

Yes, agreed, 2.5" would surely have its merits. But for me it's storage capacity that's important. And to have as much of that as you can, one still needs to go 3.5".