Consolidating Into a Server Rack

GreyShirtGuy · December 15, 2020

So I currently have a 2nd Gen Threadripper system with 32GB ram, 2080ti running four displays, a 34" 3440x1440 100Hz Asus Monitor, a 2560x1440 32" 60Hz, and two portrait 28" 1080 60Hz. It works great for gaming editing, and school.

I have an older X99 i7 system with 32GB ram, 980ti that I primarily use as long term storage and adobe media encoder.

My current workflow is, I edit a video on my Threadripper system and once I'm ready to encode it into a final project I turn on the X99 system (I mostly leave it off when I'm not using it) open up my network folder paste the entire project folder from the Threadripper to the X99 system and open up media encoder and it does its job. Some of my videos encode in 15 minutes, some up to 45 minutes, so by moving them over to this other system I can either start editing a 2nd video or I can game without any performance issues. (I also have a habit of queing up 5 to 10 encoding jobs at once and encode my entire weeks forth of edited videos all at once so it can take a few hours.

Anyways, I don't like having two seperate computer cases like I have now, and I wanted to consolidate everything into a single server rack. So I already picked out a few racks/case options. I intend to retire the X99 system, move threadripper into a encoding/storage/streaming rig roll, and get a Ryzer 9 dedicated gaming build.

The question I really have is, if I put my server rack in another room, and punch a hole in the wall and run cables through, should I.

1. Just get longer display port/hdmi, USB cables for the monitors and peripherals?

2. Get thunderbolt 3 cards/cables/hubs? Also would I need two seperate thunderbolt add in card to drive four displays or just one like this AROCK card? http://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/product.asp?Model=Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0#Overview