Server Case

[Praetor5426]

Hey guys, my current gaming desktop has an ASUS rampage V extreme and a 5960x in it, I'm looking to retire these parts into a server role, however I actually am looking to do co-location with the server, so I need an actual server case. I'm totally new to actual server grade hardware and not just reusing my old desktops, does anyone have some server case recommendations that could fit this hardware, and preferably as little Us as possible to keep rent down. I would also appreciate suggestions on where to look for this stuff in general as amazon doesn't seem to have too much or great ways of searching for it either. This server will mainly be used to host game servers for me and my friends to play on and small personal projects, so I'm not looking for any features in particular. Thanks for any help!

[Electronics Wizardy]

How many U can this server be? How many drives does it need?

 

Id really suggest going with a premade server like a dell r630, and selling that board. That way you can get 1u(you can't really get 1u easily with a atx board), get 2 sockets with more cores per chip, get much more ram support, more ecc, remote management via impi.

[Praetor5426]

One of the main reasons I'm looking to use this board/CPU combo is to save cost, (Don't have to buy a bunch of new hardware) but for the workloads I'm doing I really need a high clock CPU. I don't need anything fancy like ECC, high drive counts or anything like that.

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Praetor5426 said:

One of the main reasons I'm looking to use this board/CPU combo is to save cost, (Don't have to buy a bunch of new hardware) but for the workloads I'm doing I really need a high clock CPU. I don't need anything fancy like ECC, high drive counts or anything like that.

Do you have any other parts, I still think its a much better idea to sell your board and cpu, and get server parts. The drac will be nice to have for a colocated server, along with other feature goodies.

 

Id try to go with a 2u case. Id probably get something like this guy https://www.newegg.com/istarusa-e2m12hd/p/N82E16811165787?quicklink=true

 

But here is a cheaper option with less drive bays. https://www.newegg.com/black-istarusa-d-200l/p/N82E16811165399

 

You can't really get a atx psu in 2u, so you need to get a psu specific for this case. You need 3u for a normal atx psu.

[wseaton]

There is no such thing as server x86 hardware. Server is a role, not a box. Server OSs dont detect when they arent installed in a server case.

 

I can run a dozen VMs with servers on the cheesiest RBG case as I can a 2U server in a rack. 

 

Most "Server " chassis have hot swap bays as a primary design feature, and with the proliferation of SSD that's rapidly fading from meta.

 

I will take a vanilla mini tower server over a rack in a standalone config anyday. The tower has better thermal management and can be dead quiet with a 120mm fan. Rack servers sound like blenders mating to stay cool.

 

Base your case choice on hard drive bays. If I can gripe about current case designs we need more generic designs vs stupid glass panels and RGB nonsense.

 

 

[Praetor5426]

20 hours ago, wseaton said:

There is no such thing as server x86 hardware. Server is a role, not a box. Server OSs dont detect when they arent installed in a server case.

 

I can run a dozen VMs with servers on the cheesiest RBG case as I can a 2U server in a rack. 

 

Most "Server " chassis have hot swap bays as a primary design feature, and with the proliferation of SSD that's rapidly fading from meta.

 

I will take a vanilla mini tower server over a rack in a standalone config anyday. The tower has better thermal management and can be dead quiet with a 120mm fan. Rack servers sound like blenders mating to stay cool.

 

Base your case choice on hard drive bays. If I can gripe about current case designs we need more generic designs vs stupid glass panels and RGB nonsense.

 

 

Hey, so the reason I need a proper server case is because I'm looking to rent rack space in a data center for it, so I actually need one that can be rack mounted. I don't actually have any HDD requirement's the server will just have 2x M.2 drives, so I'm just looking for something that can fit my old hardware in it.

[Pixel5]

do you already have a data center in mind and checked their pricing?

many will charge you per U height of the server and you will also need to check how big the server is allowed to be at most.

 

Step one is check the data center where you want this server to go and with that information you can go and find a case, chances are you would be much better off just renting a server thats already in the data center.

[TheLastSeeker]

So you want something that's basically a pc case that rack mounts?

 

Found an older topic that already did it, also... you could add the gpu laying down with a riser