Jump to content

Impact - 19" Rack PC over Thunderbolt 3 - Build Log

Impact

 

 

15 Meters of Thunderbolt 3 fiber optics, a 4U chassis and high airflow cooling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

892789892_Hardwarespecs.png.0517d363935521ce4bfbffa59024ae3b.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1

Noctua hardware has arrived

 

689772903_NoctuaCooling(3).thumb.jpg.19a8a8587dfa6603999a4ff3ef4e4937.jpg

 

1863824547_NoctuaCooling(2).thumb.jpg.0e7e7ed467e0b49db435bdac3c72a04d.jpg

 

1404707110_NoctuaCooling(1).thumb.jpg.f8a2f8a368ef01121c818c40355e0670.jpg

 

78744218_NoctuaCooling(4).thumb.jpg.24e9415f7ece3b5d778673a2309ba075.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2

Custom front panel for Silverstone RM42 (made by a good friend of mine! Thanks Lukas!)

 

13719de7-6850-4fd4-a071-fb6f6e4b6bc9.thumb.jpg.c9fbcbbd0dad2d66d907c951a6a0e579.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3

Custom front panel for Silverstone RM42 is finished, almost... (need to do a few adjustements with the Dremel)

 

bcqAiok.thumb.jpeg.266cdc9be0dfec4b7651688c92afeaef.jpeg

 

1897095808_FrontPanel(3).thumb.jpg.92306da0d56334a032512bbe7337b937.jpg

 

1503605953_FrontPanel.thumb.jpg.0857fae9027afb23bf4f2f375bc9cb27.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4

Finished the front panel and mounted the Noctua fans

 

10OwYQ2.thumb.jpeg.c7250da9b54b5fa4fdd791a0f1f66e61.jpeg

 

bQTJBkd.thumb.jpeg.673fcaef8b792a23113d61c1b49ae533.jpeg

 

KAb9EWc.thumb.jpeg.b035fd28d9306222daf7ff27bf432bb0.jpeg

 

ea8PQUo.thumb.jpeg.f2b8789a406f28e978f877a1dca4af15.jpeg

 

lxK8xUX.thumb.jpeg.308b1324db3c5b26e62c75bc78b0dc9d.jpeg

 

 

 

 

 

Day 5

Bought some rails

 

B98baBg.thumb.jpeg.9ba3db6c515682175182cdda1ae48b39.jpeg

 

ulNGF6l.thumb.jpeg.514e4998b96e30f87838fb8643053e29.jpeg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6

The build is "finished"

 

 

 

cwSbIvL.thumb.jpeg.1518d6435a2e9efde21d0055ff856b2e.jpeg

 

2uQKBpf.thumb.jpeg.4990be141d1dd6a437706441c0d3257a.jpeg

 

anzTk5h.thumb.jpeg.4b7df754b0bca89556ac50cbb4abefff.jpeg

 

WUS7mMS.thumb.jpeg.8f7249272f1d8588054ef5286b862ba3.jpeg

 

AuzzqxV.thumb.jpeg.5ce4f50dcad55101909333bd2445bd96.jpeg

 

Ud22THF.thumb.jpeg.dfee6940816c693c1fa78d001b8d7206.jpeg

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes, embrace the brown! Great choice!

Be sure to QUOTE or TAG me in your reply so I see it!

 

CPU Ryzen 7 5800X3D GPU EVGA 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra MOBO Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming RAM Crucial Ballistix 3600 MHz CL16 32 GB PSU Corsair RM1000x COOLING Noctua NH-D15

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Day 3 Update

 

I picked the new front panel up yesterday from a friend of mine. I now have to drill the screw holes into it, which will hold it onto the case and also have to make a few cuts with the Dremel, so it fits perfectly. Never used a Dremel before, so wish me luck 😛 

 

Hopefully I'll be able to post the finished case by friday.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Day 4 Update

 

So I finished the new front panel. I made a few cutouts with the Dremel so it fits properly, drilled a few holes to screw it down and then painted it. I must say, it does look pretty good from a few feet away, but up close its a bit rough. Not bad tho for the first time I ever really modified a case. Maybe I'll do a 2nd revision with thinner steel, round fan cutouts and I/O cutouts that actually fit. We managed to fuck that up, so can't mount the I/O yet. Will need to make a few more modifications 😛 

 

But on the bright side, this doesn't matter, because I run Thunderbolt 3 to a dock anyway and therefor don't need the I/O.

 

Now onto building the thing!

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Day 5 Update

 

Well, I just bought some rails. I don't have a 19" rack for it yet, which seems like a terrible idea, but I fear that these rails will go EOL if I wait for too long.

So instead I bought them now. I still need to figure out a space for the rack tho, so it's gonna take a while until I get one and make use of those rails.

 

btw.: The PC is almost done now. It's already assembled and is working well, but I need to clean up the cable management and then take some pictures. Maybe this weekend? 🙂

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Very nice. 

Intel i9-13900ks - Gigabyte Aorus Z690 Elite DDR4 - Corsair Vengeance LPX 128GB DDR4 3600 C18 - Gigabyte Aorus Master RTX 4090 24GB - Corsair 4000D Airflow - 2x Samsung 980 Pro 1TB  - Corsair AX1600i 80 PLUS Titanium 1600W - Aorus FI27Q - Noctua NH-D15 running 3 fans (CPU) - 6 x NF-A12x25 (3 intake, 3 exhaust) - Aorus K1 - Aorus M5 - Aorus AMP500 - Aorus H5 - Corsair TC70 - Win 11 Pro

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 9/11/2021 at 9:59 PM, RollinLower said:

What a beauty! Absolutely love the frontpanel you build, looks amazing!

 

On 9/11/2021 at 2:49 PM, A1200 said:

Very nice. 

 

Thanks guys! 🙂

 

On 8/26/2021 at 6:22 PM, RAS_3885 said:

Yes, embrace the brown! Great choice!

 

I agree, brown is the way to go! 😛 

At first I thought I should go with their black lineup of products, but the NF-A12s aren't available in black yet and brown is just a lot more interesting than black.

 

 

 

Day 6 Update

 

So the build itself is "finished", which means I already have a few ideas on how to improve it. I thought about creating a new front panel for the fans, whit round fan cutouts and more variable fan mounting options. As they sit right now, I wouldn't even be able to mount a 360mm radiator, as the screw holes only lign up for two of the fans. As I said previously, we made a few mistakes with that panel, but it should be relatively easy to improve on that.

 

Overall I'm really happy with how this turned out now.

Edit: Sleeved brown/white cables maybe? 🤔

 

For the Thunderbolt setup I enabled the Thunderbolt support within the BIOS and on top of that enabled resizeable BAR support, for which I needed to disable CSM.

Of course I also set the XMP profile and adjusted the fan curves.

 

image.thumb.jpeg.4d0427bf239c2207010eb859413cbb4f.jpeg

 

image.thumb.jpeg.5f293278288cca2783ac31b2ec266804.jpeg

 

 

 

 

Edit:
In case anyone is wondering which thunderbolt dock I am using, it's the Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 Workstation Dock Gen.2

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd500265-thinkpad-thunderbolt-3-dock-gen-2-overview-and-sevice-parts

 

 

image.jpeg.812f8b9aa3f49093af595b83c04f24cd.jpeg

 

And I also bought myself their monitor/desk mount for it, so the dock is now hanging underneath my desk.

 

Lenovo Docking Station Mounting Kit **New Retail**, 4XF0S99497: Amazon.de:  Computer & Zubehör

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just here to say seriously consider the upgrade to TB4.  

Until I built A computer with it I didn't realize the ability it had to have multiple TB ports on a hub/docking station could also be very useful.  

Great guide,  this is the real solution to a silent and clean setup. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Just here to say seriously consider the upgrade to TB4.  

Until I built A computer with it I didn't realize the ability it had to have multiple TB ports on a hub/docking station could also be very useful.  

Great guide,  this is the real solution to a silent and clean setup. 

Thanks!
 

While having more Thunderbolt ports on a hub seems like a nice idea, I must say that I don't need it. I don't even use the one that I have on my dock. 😛

If it was a cheap upgrade, yup I'd do it, but I'd have to upgrade my dock, my AIC and would probably also need a new motherboard. That's rather costly. If I'll ever upgrade, then probably for USB 5 / Thunderbolt 5.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

Day Whatever Update

 

So my Lenovo dock died. I updated the firmware, which killed the DisplayPort / HDMI controller firmware. Thanks Lenovo!

Anyway, I then bought a new dock from WD, thinking it would fix my screen flickering issue -> Nope it didn't and actually got worse.

Now I replaced the motherboard with an ASUS B550 with integrated Thunderbolt 4. That actually fixed it, but I found out that the new WD dock doesn't work with the optical TB3 cable that I have.

 

Well...

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Day [insert something] Update

 

I had the Lenovo dock replaced by the retailer I bought it from and got good news: It works flawlessly now.

That means I can go ahead with my project and build myself a rack. I already kinda started ... 😛

 

(Image lost 🙄

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

any updates? 

"And I'll be damned if I let myself trip from a lesser man's ledge"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Velcade said:

any updates? 

To be honest not a whole lot has changed. Everything is working great still.

The only issue I noticed, is that sometimes my main monitor and the USB devices won't instantly power on. Usually it then just takes a minute or two and they finally start to function. But this seems to happen quite rarely now.

 

One thing that I added now to the server cabinet are glass doors:


PXL_20220111_205512083.thumb.jpg.071dfaa7dffbe73ba58c986be123bdfc.jpg

 

PXL_20220111_205603763.thumb.jpg.7e4425678f16f7071678526370aee4b0.jpg


PXL_20220111_205541537.thumb.jpg.438e14e5cc548c8715d33e8a713fe5b8.jpg

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Does the Lenovo Dock support high refresh rates at 1440p monitors? Having Display Port 1.4 means in theorie it probably should, but I found nothing online that states that it does. I am just in the process of picking a dock for the same kind of idea and find it rather diffficult to find the ideal one. The Lenovo one would fit the bill if it could deliver 120hz, although the reviews about the quality are less than stellar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, dommml said:

Does the Lenovo Dock support high refresh rates at 1440p monitors? Having Display Port 1.4 means in theorie it probably should, but I found nothing online that states that it does. I am just in the process of picking a dock for the same kind of idea and find it rather diffficult to find the ideal one. The Lenovo one would fit the bill if it could deliver 120hz, although the reviews about the quality are less than stellar.

I'm using it with a 144Hz 2560x1440 display which works well - at least right now.

 

I had issues in the past with connecting multiple displays, which is why I ran an additional 10m HDMI cable to my second monitor.

Not sure if the issue still persists. I'd have to test that.

 

It also works with G-Sync when I was still using my GTX 1080.

 

Another problem I encountered with my current setup is, that when the PC starts up it won't always display a picture immediately. It takes up to 3 minutes sometimes before USB devices and the display power on. Not sure whether this is caused by the dock, or the ASUS motherboard that I now have. It will always resolve itself automatically. Sometimes it seems to help to unplug the TB cable and plug that back in. 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks, that sounds promising, as this dock is one of only two that I found on the market right now with DP 1.4 . In the near future I'm probably not going to rund a second display as my 49" ultra-wide takes up all my desk anyway.

 

For all its great features TB sure seems to be quite quirky sometimes. I guess I'll probably keep my PC in sleep mode most of the time so the delay in start up probably won't be that bad. Also the PC is gonna sit in the basement and my office is on the 1st floor. So it probably would have resolved all the delays until I'm at my desk.

 

Thanks again for the user experience, that helps a lot.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/24/2021 at 4:29 PM, Senzelian said:

Just going to leave this here 😛

 

PXL_20211024_102349280.thumb.jpg.d44da1ca3124701e5c57200e9718bb2a.jpg

Am I right to say that while a rack mounted PC can seem super cool, it's best to not have it be your first build especially if you don't have a rack or a reason to own a rack of hardware?

I've bbeen thinking of sooner than later building my first PC and have thought a lot about how while where I live might change in the next couple of years I kind of would like to set things up so I can keep some of the build for a long time such as the case and if I want to eventually have a custom NAS not being sure if that means a Rack is the right call or not necessarily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Ultraforce said:

Am I right to say that while a rack mounted PC can seem super cool, it's best to not have it be your first build especially if you don't have a rack or a reason to own a rack of hardware?

I've bbeen thinking of sooner than later building my first PC and have thought a lot about how while where I live might change in the next couple of years I kind of would like to set things up so I can keep some of the build for a long time such as the case and if I want to eventually have a custom NAS not being sure if that means a Rack is the right call or not necessarily.

19" rack cases aren't all that different from regular cases. The one that I have even comes with feet to use as a tower case.
So whether you have a rack or not at the moment, or whether this is your first build or not, doesn't really matter in my opinion.

 

But what's important, is that rack cases are usually not very tall (or wide, depending on how you look at it), which means that CPU cooler height is quite limited.

 

The same applies to a NAS. It doesn't really matter whether or not your NAS is in a rack or a standalone tower. What's important, is that it fits all the necessary hardware and you have easy access to your harddrives. A friend of mine uses a Fractal Define R2 XL as his NAS case. 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×