Gonna build 20+ Threadripper PCs what case should I go with?

[Ai Kyuu]

Hello there.

 

In the near future I will have to or rather be forced to build quite a few workstations based on Ryzen Threadripper PRO 39**WX
ASUS Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE
Noctua NH-U14S-TR4-SP3 2 fans
NVIDIA RTX A6000

4 x 3.5" HDD
Whatewer 1000+W power supply
and lot of fans

 

I'm hesitant about choosing a case. WRX80E is an extra E-ATX motherboard 30.98 cm × 33.02 cm (12.2" x 13"), so could you guys give me extra advice what to use for it?

I don't care about looks and I don't mind tight fit as long the build gives me performance, airflow and serviceability. I'd rather prefer cases with a steel side panel.

If possible nothing too expensive since we already blew up our budget. I wonder if I can get away with Fractal Design DEFINE XL R2 or something even cheaper =)

 

 

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

10 minutes ago, Ai Kyuu said:

In the near future I will have to or rather be forced to build

You have a safe word?

10 minutes ago, Ai Kyuu said:

I wonder if I can get away with Fractal Design DEFINE XL R2 or something even cheaper

The Define series is the first thing that came to mind before I read this part. The Meshify 2 is a bit cheaper.

[Ai Kyuu]

3 minutes ago, Hairless Monkey Boy said:

The Meshify 2 is a bit cheaper.

The specs says "Motherboard compatibility E-ATX (max 285 mm)" which is not my case presumably.

Even after reading the manual I can't really tell if there's enough space and standoffs to fit the MB and (at least) 4 HDD's.

[Needfuldoer]

What's the use case?

 

What's the budget?

 

Why isn't the customer/client/business buying prebuilt workstations that come with warranties?

[tkitch]

4 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

What's the use case?

 

What's the budget?

 

Why isn't the customer/client/business buying prebuilt workstations that come with warranties?

part built PCs have better overall warranties than any OEM.

[Needfuldoer]

6 hours ago, tkitch said:

part built PCs have better overall warranties than any OEM.

They're longer, but you do all the labor yourself and have to do without the PC for however long it takes to turn around an RMA. There's a reason you will find few, if any, white box PCs in large offices. (Especially in the server room, you're you'll find rebranded Dell, HP, and Supermicro chassis, not a Norco case with an Asus motherboard and Corsair power supply. And if there is a whitebox, it was built by a service provider as their appliance for running their software.)

 

Dell and HP will sell you commercial support contracts, where if you find a problem with the PC they'll send a tech on-site with the parts to fix it next business day (or sooner). Business support is a whole other animal from the warranty you get with a plastic consumer machine from Best Buy.

[Roswell]

I don’t know if I’m missing some out of left field context, but spending $200k on hardware without a commercial onsite service contract from an OEM sounds absolutely insane to me.

[For Science!]

17 hours ago, Ai Kyuu said:

The specs says "Motherboard compatibility E-ATX (max 285 mm)" which is not my case presumably.

Even after reading the manual I can't really tell if there's enough space and standoffs to fit the MB and (at least) 4 HDD's.

Reminds me of the Threadripper Quad GPU builds I did a few years back. We used Thermaltake View37's which layout worked quite well to achieve essentially a wind tunnel. I used a ATX board, but as you can see in the picture there is quite some horizontal real-estate, so I think your motherboard should fit too.

 

[tkitch]

6 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

They're longer, but you do all the labor yourself and have to do without the PC for however long it takes to turn around an RMA. There's a reason you will find few, if any, white box PCs in large offices. (Especially in the server room, you're you'll find rebranded Dell, HP, and Supermicro chassis, not a Norco case with an Asus motherboard and Corsair power supply. And if there is a whitebox, it was built by a service provider as their appliance for running their software.)

 

Dell and HP will sell you commercial support contracts, where if you find a problem with the PC they'll send a tech on-site with the parts to fix it next business day (or sooner). Business support is a whole other animal from the warranty you get with a plastic consumer machine from Best Buy.

Depends on the use case.

If I need shitty desktop PCs for people to run Office and a few other low-intensity apps?  Hells yeah, I'm going to buy a stupid HP / Dell / Other OEM Box.  (Currently I'm a big fan of the MSI DP-20Z, it's a pretty awesome little box.)

 

If I need a server?  Uhhh, yeah, I'm 110% buying a server, unless there's a very specific reason to consider building one.  (Even then, it'd be an actual server build, not an ATX Board in a case.)

 

If I need some absurdly high-end workstations?  That's probably going to be built by me.  If we're talking about a thousand dollar CPU and an even more expensive GPU?  Yeah, I'd want that to be something that I can fix on my own, unless I need to order in bulk.  20 Computers is not bulk, that's well under a week's work to get those together and ready to image and deploy.

[Ai Kyuu]

19 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Why isn't the customer/client/business buying prebuilt workstations that come with warranties?

 

7 hours ago, Roswell said:

I don’t know if I’m missing some out of left field context, but spending $200k on hardware without a commercial onsite service contract from an OEM sounds absolutely insane to me.

Initially this was supposed to be Lenovo P620 but they're not available anymore due to the recent events. So no service contracts whatsoever, just me.

[Bitter]

Are these going in a data center type environment or to individual users?

[thrasher_565]

12 hours ago, For Science! said:

Reminds me of the Threadripper Quad GPU builds I did a few years back. We used Thermaltake View37's which layout worked quite well to achieve essentially a wind tunnel. I used a ATX board, but as you can see in the picture there is quite some horizontal real-estate, so I think your motherboard should fit too.

 

i have so many questions about thows but ill sum it up

 

[thrasher_565]

On 6/30/2022 at 11:27 AM, Ai Kyuu said:

Hello there.

 

In the near future I will have to or rather be forced to build quite a few workstations based on Ryzen Threadripper PRO 39**WX
ASUS Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE
Noctua NH-U14S-TR4-SP3 2 fans
NVIDIA RTX A6000

4 x 3.5" HDD
Whatewer 1000+W power supply
and lot of fans

 

I'm hesitant about choosing a case. WRX80E is an extra E-ATX motherboard 30.98 cm × 33.02 cm (12.2" x 13"), so could you guys give me extra advice what to use for it?

I don't care about looks and I don't mind tight fit as long the build gives me performance, airflow and serviceability. I'd rather prefer cases with a steel side panel.

If possible nothing too expensive since we already blew up our budget. I wonder if I can get away with Fractal Design DEFINE XL R2 or something even cheaper

 

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Phanteks-Enthoo-PH-ES620PC_BK01-Full-Tower/dp/B0894H2JZ4/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1110OH1H50D65&keywords=phanteks+Enthoo+Pro+2&qid=1656770413&sprefix=phanteks+enthoo+pro+2%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-2

 

dont no why the still case is more then the tg one atm...

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Phanteks-Enthoo-Full-Tower-High-Performance/dp/B0894J31QS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1110OH1H50D65&keywords=phanteks+Enthoo+Pro+2&qid=1656770462&sprefix=phanteks+enthoo+pro+2%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1

[Ai Kyuu]

Thanks for your suggestion guys. But sadly neither Phanteks nor Thermaltake case are available in the quantity I needed.

I should've just done this first but I did a quick test in Photoshop and confirmed both Define XL R2 and Meshify 2XL have all the mounting points for the motherboard. Define XL R2 looks even better as it kinda leaves some space for cable routing.

Fractal suppourt also confirmed things for me.

 

On 7/1/2022 at 11:19 PM, Bitter said:

Are these going in a data center type environment or to individual users?

The latter.

 

[Bitter]

Well scratch my idea of just rackmount everything or shelves with open benches.

[thrasher_565]

7 hours ago, Ai Kyuu said:

Thanks for your suggestion guys. But sadly neither Phanteks nor Thermaltake case are available in the quantity I needed.

I should've just done this first but I did a quick test in Photoshop and confirmed both Define XL R2 and Meshify 2XL have all the mounting points for the motherboard. Define XL R2 looks even better as it kinda leaves some space for cable routing.

Fractal suppourt also confirmed things for me.

 

The latter.

 

the Define XL R2 is crap for air flow...

[jaslion]

19 hours ago, Ai Kyuu said:

Thanks for your suggestion guys. But sadly neither Phanteks nor Thermaltake case are available in the quantity I needed.

I should've just done this first but I did a quick test in Photoshop and confirmed both Define XL R2 and Meshify 2XL have all the mounting points for the motherboard. Define XL R2 looks even better as it kinda leaves some space for cable routing.

Fractal suppourt also confirmed things for me.

 

The latter.

 

Issue is that the define xl r2 is meant for silence and MASSIVELY sacrifices airflow. Not somethjng you want for a system of this class. 100% get the meshify

[Taerin]

Can I recommend the Corsair 750d airflow edition?  It's what I have my 3960x workstation in, and it's airflow keeps my system idling around 43c.  All air, no water-cooling.  5.25 bays if you want, and comes with 6 3.25 bays that I ended up removing as I use all m.2 and a nas.