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I think there is a market for a small version of a 19-inch rack, maybe 4 to 5 inches wide, that could sit on your desktop or shelf and house all your small electronics boxes. I don’t seem to be able to find anything suitable. In my case, it would hold: NUC Network switch DAC audio amplifier audio switch USB charger. A simple rack with moveable shelves and space for cable management would be great. But it would be far better if you had 3D print templates to make brackets to attach to the side of a box. If it really took off, manufacturers might even start making compatible equipment. I don’t have the resources (or skills) to try making this myself. I’d be happy to advise in return for a freebie.

I need help, I need to make something that's similar to VMware or Vmbox etc. but physical version. Like mounting 10 motherboards into custom rack, each with cpu. and every single one of them running separate OS. How would it be possible? what about PSU, would every motherboard need it's onw? etc. I'm thinking about doing this because as far as i know there isnt a way to have many OS running at the same time on one PC without using any VM software. Any ideas?

Hi Guys, I'm after some advice on 2U rack cases that can hold up to 12 3.5" drives (must be SATA backplanes and hot swappable to a certain extent - I know SATA is not but would like the ability to pull drives when needed without opening the chassis) So here is the down low, I have an older NAS which is also a VMWare ESXi server running many VMs. Whilst the VM part is no longer important with moving to a much bigger rack setup, I wanted to reuse that for extra storage for CCTV. Old setup; Silverstone Mini-ITX DS380 case 5x 2.5" (with 2.5 to 3.5 convertors) (4Tb each) Crucial MX500 (Data) 1 x 2.5" 500Gb Crucial MX500 (VMWare ESXi 8 OS only) Asrock Rack C2550D4I Motherboard / Intel Atom CPU combo - https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=C2550D4I#Specifications 64Gb Crucial DDR3 RAM New setup; 2 Dell Poweredge R730XD servers (2x Xeon E5-2670v3 CPUs - 12 cores each, 512Gb DDR4 RAM each) - each with ESXi running on Raid 1 iirc (Mirroring) using 2 separate 256Gb 2.5" drives 1 Dell Equalogic SAN 96Tb raw of SAS drives in RAID 5 So as you can tell no rush to transfer the old setup across But it would be nice to reuse that machine as it still works perfectly fine and would be a good fit for CCTV NVR style storage but I would prefer to transfer it in to the rack instead of the Mini-ITX case I am also in the process of rebuilding my home lab, any suggestions on if to continue with ESXi as I have done for many years, or would XCP-NG/Proxmox/Xencenter be a better option? Any suggestions? Love the channel, been catching up on bent CPU pins just tonight, unfortunately damaged an LGA2011-v3 socket earlier on that needs repairing, so will be attempting that tomorrow. Many Thanks M

Hi all- I am planning on making a NAS for my home. I have most of the parts already laying around that I want to use. These are the current parts I already have: CPU: Intel Core i5-9600 3.1 GHz 6-Core Processor CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory Storage: Crucial MX500 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive Storage: Crucial MX500 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive Storage: Western Digital Red Plus 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive Storage: Western Digital Red Plus 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive Storage: Western Digital Red Plus 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive Storage: Western Digital Red Plus 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive Storage: Western Digital Red Plus 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive Storage: Western Digital Red Plus 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive Operating System: TrueNAS Scale The parts I still need to pick out are a power supply, a motherboard, a rack-mount case (either 3 or 4u), and an HBA that is compatible with TrueNAS. Does anyone have any recommendations for these parts?

Hi All! I'm looking for some help looking over my plan and parts list as a sanity check (because this is driving me crazy)! Background I have a second floor office that can heat up a little from the sun. I then filled this room with 2 gaming computers, 2 "servers" (old computers), 2 mini computers, 9 monitors, networking equipment, 4 humans, and a dog. This causes the room to heat up a lot. The servers and gaming PCs aren't the quietest either. I then took the time to build sit-stand desks for the family and doled out specific spaces for each person. Only after building the desks and installing everything did I realize that my spacing calculation was off and to use secondary monitors, me and my wife needed our computers moved. We don't have enough leg room to mount under the desks. Que my dreams off purchasing and setting up a server rack for everything in a separate room (Thank you Linus for the seed planted in my head)! Reality set in and the computers have to stay in the room, I can't re-purchase all of my computers as rack mountable, I can't have any of the fun new routers, network controllers, switches, internet speeds, no UPSs (for the moment), and cost is a factor (Reality bites). It's also key to note that one gaming machine is Intel and the other is AMD and I'm looking to implement the same solution for both computers for "simplicity". I'm also trying to run the gaming monitors at 1440p @144hz at 8bit depth without HDR with RGB color space (but would like 4:4:4 to reach the monitors). Problem Statement Find a way to reduce the heat generation and noise in the room, in a space conscience and financially responsible way. Financially responsible in this context meaning not buying the cheapest junk, but instead purchasing the lowest price freely available for good products from brands that will support issues. (I know, I had to throw the hardball in!) Plan Rack: Purchase a server rack, install two shelves with each shelf holding two computers, and install a shelf to hold networking equipment. Purchase/ 3D print a vent shroud to attach to the top of the rack and funnel the hot air through rigid/flexible ducting to a window insert. Install fans and panels on the front of the rack to control air entering and not exiting the rack through the front. Video: Run active display port cables to where each gaming machine was and then use an MST hub to split the signal for extended desktop. Data: Run active USB 3 to where each gaming computer was, then adapt from USB-A to USB-C, and then attach a USB dock/hub to connect [keyboard, mouse, USB headphones, microphone, flash drives, and 3.5mm speakers]. Issues Some things I've run into already include: AMD CPU is said to not be compatible with readily available Thunderbolt 3/4 add-in cards Motherboards don't have USB-C with DisplayPort alt mode USB-C native cables are multitudes more expensive Running the cables in a wife approved manner requires about 40'ish feet cables (would like extra to in sure a good reach). Parts Server Rack: https://www.newegg.com/sysracks-srf-42-6-9-g-rack-enclosure/p/2BA-004S-000B7?Item=9SIB8H8GWZ8035&quicklink=true Long Active DisplayPort Cable(s): https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1664717-REG/iogear_gdp14aoc20_8k_displayport_optical_cable.html/overview DisplayPort MST Splitter: https://www.newegg.com/p/183-00HU-00028?Item=9SIBFMPJ5K9654&Description=displayport 1.4 mst&cm_re=displayport_1.4 mst-_-9SIBFMPJ5K9654-_-Product&cm_sp=SP-_-1579026-_-0-_-2-_-9SIBFMPJ5K9654-_-displayport 1.4 mst-_-1.4|displayport-_-17 Long Active USB 3 Cable: https://www.newegg.com/black-tripp-lite-65-ft-usb-3-0/p/N82E16812329608?Item=9SIAFJ86WS5360&quicklink=true USB Dock/Hub: https://www.newegg.com/wavlink-wl-umd501-gray/p/1DN-0023-00062?Item=9SIA6PFDAV1885 USB-C to USB-A: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1642996-REG/crucial_ctusbcfusbamad_crucial_x6_and_x8.html

Hi All Before moving into our new and renovated home, I had planned to build a desk PC but this plan won't work as well as I would want it to. Beijing being Beijing, space is so expensive so getting anything extra is a big bonus. External radiator: The original idea was to have a passively cooled PC using quite a few radiators, whereas now I'm thinking of getting a larger radiator(s) for a car etc and putting this on the outside of the house and wall mounting the PC. The new place is a bit strangely laid out, we occupy the ground and -1 floors, below us are storage rooms and there's a void on either side of the house (including next to my office) where a skylight lets light into the windows of rooms like my office and the storage room below. That void stays pretty cool in summer (Beijing is in the 30s °C, this must be in the teens), and quite cold in winter (often in the - figures, can get below -10°C probably a similar temperature despite being underground). I'm thinking that there will probably be 2 major considerations, pressure and the risk of freezing. Pressure I can overcome with pumps and staying with serial flow, but interested if anyone has experience with getting the pressure to run through a large radiator like a car. With the freezing risk, I can go with antifreeze as coolant but it looks like people have stated it needs to be diluted quite substantially. Does anyone have knowledge on this? This PC also won't be on all of the time, so I am concerned about it ptoentially freezing if the concentration is not good enough. Rack mounting The alternative would be to rack mount it. I have a 42U rack about 3 meters away from my office. The office has 2 ethernet jacks using CAT7 currently wired into a USW Pro 48+UDM Pro. I wouldn't mind replacing the wire in 1 of these with another that could enable a more distant setup. It also wouldn't be out of the question to run a wire up through the ceiling and to the rack. The length of this cable would probably need to be at least 11/12m. By the time I get around to this, or just coincide with an upgrade, my current CPU/MOBO will likely be replaced. Considering these 2 may be replaced, what would your thoughts on this be? My requirements currently (and likely stay this way for a while) are: 4k HDR 144hz display with 1ms refresh rate. 2 additional portrait 1080p monitors. USB: keypad, keyboard, mouse, webcam, DAC and another couple of ports for adhoc use. Would TB4 be the way to go or is there something else that's advisable? Especially given that there's already CAT 7 to play with. I'll rewatch some of Linus' house videos to refresh my memory on what he's doing but I think he was using a long corning TB cable that isn't easy to get your hands on. I don't mind going slightly experimental but it would be good to have a proof of concept/example before proceeding. I've used TB3 with a Caldigit dock as part of a previous setup and was happy with that. Any thoughts or references would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks

Hey guys, I have a rack at home and would like to add cooling. There are several solutions out there, and the one that I might get is this one: https://lanberg.pl/en/produkt/AK-1503-B Based on the documentation, it shows an airflow of 46 CFM/per fan. I was wondering what if I use the Noctua's NF-A14 industrial ppc 24v 3000 q100 ip67 PWM. Those fans seem very powerful, but I have no idea how I would connect them to AC power from the rack. Is there a 1U fan tray solution in which I can mount my fans? I guess it has to have an AC/24V DC converter as well to power those fans. Thank you in advance if anyone can point me in the right direction

Now that Linus' home is sort of smart, it's time to bring in the network rack to house the brains of the operation: Routers, switches, NVRs, UPSes, the whole nine yards! Why is it pink? Check out RackSolutions' RS148 Data Canter Server Cabinet at https://lmg.gg/cDiVF Buy Ubiquiti Networks UniFi Dream Machine Pro On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/jdK5K On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/hc2AS On B&H (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/xNaBk8 Buy Ubiquiti Networks Unifi 48Port Pro Switch Gen2 On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/s2aWKOy On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/AADxNBO On B&H (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/PBWnqFs Buy Ubiquiti UniFi Protect Network Video Recorder On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/0yQhwww On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/yZZNuNC On B&H (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/yXy2k Buy Ubiquiti Networks UniFi SmartPower Redundant Power System On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/8McAA On B&H (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/DNuo Buy Eaton 9PX Lithium Ion UPS On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/L9ZA

I have a load of potentially rack mountable electronics and I'm so tired of all the clutter, so I'm thinking of moving everything into a rack. Got any recommendations for a good 3-4U chassis for an ATX gaming PC? Would it be worth designing a custom cooling solution with shrouds or are we talking water-cooling / downdraft coolers? Gimme pics of some cool rackmount builds, if you've got any thanks!!

Budget (including currency): 200 Country: somewhere in Europe Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 6 2HE Servers, 1 48 Port Switch, 1 Patchpanel, 1 Console Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): Hi, to those who know how to build stuff from scratch. Im planning to buy me a new Server Rack, my current 12U is getting pretty cramped, and doesnt have a door. My Question is, whether it makes sense to buy a new rack or build your own. Is there a "huge" saving when building your own ? Dimensions: H 120cm W 50cm D 450 - 50cm

Country: United States Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Linux Computer Node? Other details: I don't know what the customer wants these for, but I'm building them! As ever my job has steered me into building something amazing. Something not quite Epic, but truly Ripping... That's so bad I'm sorry. We have a customer that has in the past asked for some really beefy rigs as detailed on the forums last June. Mid March of this year they came back asking for more. Not more of the same, but simply More. By that I mean they want systems with more Cores/Threads, RAM, Storage and all of it in a 2/3U Rack mount... Now I told them point blank that I can't go past 128GB's of RAM on anything short of HEDT and they said Yes. After a few quotes we came down to the following specs. CPU: R9-3970X (32c/64t) Cooler: Dynamix A26 (Small and fits.) RAM: 8x32GB Crucial Ballistix 3,200Mhz CL16 (They wanted 512GB but didn't want to pay for ThreadRipper Pro) Mobo: ASRock TRX40 Creator (Does what they want +10Gb NIC for inter node connection) Storage- SSD: 1TB Samsung 970 EVO (Because they don't need a 980PRO) HDDs: 3 x 8TB Seagate Ironwolfs in RAID 5 (More Storage, More Better) GPU: GT710 (No GPU Compute in these rigs.) PSU: BeQuiet PurePower 11 500w (Enough power, 80+ Gold and Modular) Case: iStar D-Storm 300-PFS (3U, Full ATX, Rack mount) + Extra Noctua fan for airflow. The only thing I'm woried about is the small CPU Cooler, but it's rated for the job given enough airflow. Here is the Parts Picture less the case, I'll upload the build when It's all done.

So I'm going to Nero this thread again to say that I'm presently in discussion with protocase to go over and rework the LTT design for a build I'm working on. One concern I have is that the 3090 with a EKWB Vector block will not fit into a 4u case, so I'm considering 5U? Another thought is that placing the rads in front of the motherboard is a fundamentally flawed. My machine runs at over 600w in 'full tilt' OC mode. The thing is a furnace, it would be like placing you components in front of a heater. At this time, I have the hardware on a TT core p3 chassis with a EK 420mm rad (140x3) and its not even close to providing the head dissipation that I needs. To make maters worse, I recently ordered a new cpu that will provide the loop with even more heat. Wouldn't it make more sense to vent the case through its sides? I haven't purchased a server cabinet yet but I could imagine its design playing a roll in this decision. Anyway thanks for the consideration, any and all thoughts would be appreciated. hardware: MSI atx motherboard 9900k delidded with derbour OC plate -ekwb block evga ftw3 ultra 3090 -ekwb block 32 GB trident royal 3600mhz rog thor 1200 psu Hardware update (incoming next week) asus atx motherboard 5950x -ekwb monoblock supporting hardware from above to carry over

Hi, TL;DR: Is it really necessary to ground a patchpanel or, if building a networking rack, the entire rack and why? I recently discovered that the supposed "telephone jacks" dotted around our house are actually wired with cat.6a cabling, all arriving in the attic and most sitting there unterminated. I would like to hook them all up to a switch, as to take advantage of our new fiber connection without having to always rely on WiFi. Since I have never done anything involving putting together hardware I spent quite some time researching what ist needed, and stumbled upon patch panels. Thus my idea is to terminate all these (8) wires into a patch panel in the attic and then use short patch cables to hook them up to a switch and maybe put both in a small 6U rack as a means of keeping things tidy. But during my research I have stumbled upon various internet forums (all in German, sorry) claiming that I need to ground the rack and all components within, lest I risk not only damaging my components but having life-threatening 240V on the outside. I can't help but wonder why this is supposed to be necessary though, because was under the impression, that all components are grounded via their respective plugs? I have also never noticed anybody saying this during home network upgrade videos (eg. here or here). But even if I didn't use the rack (this is after all going into the attic that serves only as a storage space), I noticed that even patch panels not designed for rackmounting seem to have some sort of grounding cable (see for example here). Is it necessary to connect that to anything in this sort of home network? And if it is - why? If I'd be terminating the cables into rj-45 and plugging them directly into the switch, I wouldn't be grounding anything either. So what is the difference? Thanks in advance!

Hi, i need an advice for a rackserverchassy for my existing Server. There shout be many places for my hard drives, but schould not cost too much. ( It would be great to find something in the range of 50 - 200 €) And it should have enought space for my bequiet 360 AIO and the ATX MSI Mainboard. Budget (including currency): depents (€) Country: Germany Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Not anything but anything. Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 4x WD RED (not the bullshit ones) 4 TB 3.5" 1x Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB 2.5" THX for any advice you have :)

Hello guys, I have to build several rack mounted systems which will be moved around. They don't need huge amounts of drive slots (the systems will only have SSDs in them) and will only have one GPU inside. But this GPU is the problem. I am kinda scared that when these systems will be moved (most of them will be mounted in television broadcasting vans) that the GPUs will break from their slots. Are there any 4U (or preferably even smaller but 4U would be fine) cases that have inbuilt GPU stability support (in bracket form or some other way)? The GPUs in question are also quite big/heavy (2080S and in the future 3080 and maybe 3090s) so even in a normal desktop case they could need some support stopping them from "sacking". If there aren't any such rack cases out there does anyone have an idea for the GPU support short of manufacturing custom mounting hardware? We are a very small, independent camera development company so all suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and I hope you all have an awesome day.

Alright, so i've been running Pihole for a few weeks now, and i absolutely love it! I can definitely recommend it to anyone who has a spare rPi laying about. Personally, i've been using a Raspberry Pi 3B+. it's a bit overkill for just a DNS sinkhole, but atleast it won't run hot and i finally have a permanent usecase for this thing. The only problem i had was mounting. i previously just had it laying on top of my rack. (this is an older pic, please ignore the AP just laying there, it's been ceiling mounted since! this looks pretty jank tough, and my cat would constantly knock it off there so it would just hang off of the USB/ethernet cable. How would you mount a Pi in a 19" server rack tho? spacing out an entire U for just a Pi seems a bit overkill, and it's not like there is rackmount hardware available. Atleast, not if you don't own a 3D printer that is. Now in the top U of my rack there's my router. it's a Mikrotik RB2011 UiAS-RM. and inside, its just a tiny little board and lots of empty space. Perfect for a Pi! now that just leaves the cables. sadly, my router doesn't have any internal connectors. so i have to route cables into the enclosure somehow. lucky for me, the Mikrotik has some ventilation holes cut into the front. perfect for routing a cable through! i just had to make sure to pass the cable through the hole before crimping on the second connector. otherwise passing it through there would be a real challenge. the router also has a USB port in the front, which i used to power the Pi in the same way the eth cable comes into the box. i originally wanted to use the PoE of this router to power the Pi, but Mikrotik uses some weird proprietary PoE standard, and none of the PoE HATS i used ever worked with this. So regular old USB it is i guess. and here's the finished product! definitely looks a lot cleaner than just a little PCB on top of the rack. and if it wasn't for the cables, you wouldn't ever know there was a Pi running PiHole in there! excuse the lower-light photo, my cheapo Xiaomi phone doesn't handle those very well.

So I've got a Dell Powerconnect 2848 that does exactly what I need, but I am bothered by one thing: I replaced the stock delta fans (loud) with Noctua 40x10 12v fans. They work, BUT the switch complains in the console with: >FAN #1 IN NON-FUNCTIONAL STATE - REPLACE >FAN #2 IN NON-FUNCTIONAL STATE - REPLACE And the fan light on the front flashes red and green constantly, which again states a failed fan. It's been running fine and has not gone above operating temp for multiple days at near max load. Here's my plan: Add resistance to the voltage line on the Noctua fan so that the switch thinks it's got the delta fan plugged in and stops complaining. Thoughts?

I would like to build myself a new (quiet) VM/container (Proxmox) server. Some requirements: - As low as possible on power - Capable to run ultiple VM's and containers in Proxmox withcout any compromises - Enough storage for all the VM's (the more the better ) - As cheap as possible - Rack case - I live in Belgium so old enterprise hardware is not that much available here... I am planning on building a second node, I currently have a server running with 1 running Windows Server 2019 VM, 1 pfsense VM and 5 Containers. The Virtual Machines are relatively slow, specs will be listed below! I would want to have at least 2-3 windows VM instances running with no hassle what so ever, but also have the containers running with no issues. Type of vms: - Windows server VM - windows 7 vm (for testing) - Windows vista VM (for testing) Type of CT (containers): - Webserver + database server - gitlab server - gitlab runner server - FiveM (game) server, for testing and development - Independant Database server - Plex media server (needs storage) Specs of my current server: CPU(s) 8 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz (2 Sockets) 8x 2GB DDR2 FB-DIMM 667 MT/s RAM 6x 68.3 GiB HDD's (2.5") 2x redundant PSU (700 WATT each) So my current load, when I start up all of my CT's and VM's is the following; https://i.imgur.com/C8VDXDB.png And yes, that's idle.... (8 containers and 2 VM's) Anyone here who maybe can help me out finding the right parts? I'd like to have this build in a server rack case

Hi. So far, I stacked a lot of stuff into a piece of furniture that was litterally a leftover extra unit of kitchen construction from the people who were living before where I live now. And after 3years, it started to sloooooowly give up. The side of it is, month after month, creeping away to the side, leaving the bottom plate. This "thing" (with my pitiful attempt at "trying" to do something to at least be able to sleep last night and stress a little bit less) is actually where are: -my two storage and virtualization server -my fiber router -my U4 workstation&maincomputer and it's on top of it that are stored a screen, keyboard and KVM switch + loads of spare parts... So, here I am... looking for a rack cabinet between 15 and 18U, deep enough to take in a R720, the cheapest possible that can be delievered in France/EU. I'm quite sick of messaging every marketplace seller asking how deep of a server we can fit in their advertised "600mm deep" cabinet, and be told that the rails are so pushed back that only 45mm deep servers would fit, or that the back panel isn't removable, or only to be never answered. And yeah, I know officially Dell wants 75cm of rack depth and stuff, but aint got that kind of money and this R720 is gonna sit on the bottom like a naughty boy on top of the UPS units. I mean, if someone there knows which brand/place/vendor sells cheapo deep 15 to 18U rack cabinets with non-stellar shipping costs in EU, it would be awesome. That old kitchen cabinet is painfully slowly dislocating.

Hi all, I have to build a computer for my lab at work. we need as many PCIe slots as we can get. The motherboard should fit in a 19 inch rack mount pc case. Also we would like to have two hard-drives to run it in a RAID configuration for data collection and an SSD drive for booting. And if you can suggest a case for the new computer too that will be great. For the CPU we need it to be fast, preferable not less than 4-cores, and what kind of RAM will be compatible with it. for now we don't require a GPU money is not a problem, go wild Thanks a lot.

Hello, I'm looking for a motherboard which supports 6+ (dual slot) GPUs for i9-9900K/Ryzen 9/Threadripper 2/XEON. I wont use those GPUs for cryptomining. I'll be running virtual machines with GPU passthrough to 3 macOS VMs and 3 Windows VMs (plus 1-2 Linux VMs if I can find a motherboard which supports so many GPUs. All those GPUs as well as CPU will be liquid cooled with 1 liquid cooling circuit for 4 GPUs and 1 liquid cooling circuit for 2-3 GPUs & CPU. System will be rack mounted in a 5U for better cooling. I know that those are expensive as hell.

Hey all, so I need help with a project my wife's parents are looking at doing. In short, they are building a new home and want the following: IP cameras inside and out (wired) - at least 10 Remote door-unlock after viewing camera At least 2x wired ethernet ports in each room (lets say 10 rooms) Ability to view cameras from tablet + wall-mount touch-screen NAS to store everything they have, including movies and TV shows (at least 40TB usable space) PLEX server to watch their stuff, anywhere in the house + while on the move NVR to store / manage IP camera feeds Ability to have home-automation in the future (I don't know about this stuff) I'm meeting with them next week to get their actual requirements, but so far I'm thinking I'll need the following (and help with: PoE managed switch for IP cameras (24 port cat6) - but which one? IP cameras - but which ones? I don't want to pay any monthly fees / use their online solution NVR software - maybe ZoneMinder? NAS - but which one? Managed switch for home network (24 port cat6a) - but which one? Router - but which one? Patch panels - one for cat6 and one for cat6a - Ideally feed-through as opposed to punch-down 18RU wall-mount rack - but which one? 1RU rack-mount server (maybe an old DL360 G8?) - no idea about server grade hardware / software though Hypervisor - proxmox? Ability to have RAID 6 on 1RU server, or something so I can hot-swap in HDDs when they fail Touch-screen tablet thingy for use in kitchen to view stuff Other things i've not yet thought of The overarching aspects are: No paying monthly fees to anyone All OpenSource if possible Easy to maintain - i'll do the install and config and then hopefully annual maintenance only :) Cheap, but good quality stuff is more important I'm hoping people here can help me shape what I need to do. Thank you if you're able to assist :)

Hey folks! Been a while since I've needed some guidance on tech, so I came to the best of the best (that's y'all). I'm in the preliminary stages of building a home server and I want to dig ideas for an aesthetic. I'd like a wide variety of different designs, so go ahead and flood this post with anything and everything. Mini ITX or Micro ATX will "probably" be the board of choice, but that's up in the air. Could be 1U or bigger ... no dimensions are off-limits. Let's see what y'all got! Thank you in advance to everyone who contributes. You're all breathtaking. ~ J

Just recently, I started transferring my work over to a home server. I started buying some used servers and now, I need somewhere to put them. I currently have a 1U processing machine and a 2U storage server. I have the 2 servers on a little stool under my desk. I don't have space for a big rack and don't need anything more then 6-12Us. I'd prefer to buy something used or cheap because I am running lightweight stuff. I don't rely on this stuff for business, I just have them to improve the quality of my projects. Does anyone have any suggestions for racks that I can put on the floor? Thanks!

Hello Linus et al, I was hoping LTT would do a video/series to show us how they organize and store their equipment, track it, etc. We struggle with optimizing space for racks, carts, and workbench. Thank you! Sandy