Pros And Cons Of Rack Mount

I'm going to build a new PC for gaming. I'll assemble on the motherboard sabertooth x99. Rack mount PCs are popular with my friends. But, I have never assembled one before. I will be building the case from a metal fabricator. So, before I start, I'd like to know the pros and cons of rack mount workstation.

 

I see no reason for rack mounts in home environments. There are no performance advantages. There is no space saving advantage. But their are (often significant) costs disadvantages for rack compatible components. All you really get is bragging rights that only a very few will ever appreciate, or understand.

Will you be staring at and admiring your equipment rack all day? Or will you be paying attention to what's happening on your monitor(s)?

 

I see many reasons for rack mounts, if you have no space to hold your computers. That is the point in having them. Having multiple bulky cases laying around, or have a few 1U or 2U cases in a small rack. With ample cooling.

 

Most home users don't have multiple bulky cases laying around - at least not in the same room. But if they do have several in the same room, and have a nice chunk of $$$ laying around, then using a rack mount system might be a viable solution. That said, you can stack normal tower cases too to save floor space, and keep it aesthetically pleasing.

But to that, typically racks are mounted a couple feet away from the back wall so you can get behind them, or at least several inches so you can reach behind them. So I don't think saving floor space is really a factor unless we are talking about many computers (like more than 4) and perhaps a large Ethernet switch too. And racks are (or should be, anyway) mounted/secured to the floor or have some brace to the back wall so the racks cannot tip over, or worse, be pulled over on top of a small child. This is even a greater problem (even for adults only) if the installed equipment is mounted with slide-out brackets, which greatly alter the center of gravity when pulled out.

For those reasons and more I still don't see any significant advantage to using a rack mount in a home environment. There are always exceptions, of course. But exceptions don't make the rule.

If you have a business with a server farm in your home (or maybe host large LAN parties), a rack mount system with a decent KVM switch and single monitor (and/or remote access) makes sense. And in that case, the racks should definitely be properly anchored and electrically grounded to Earth ground. Electrical service to the rack(s) must be more than ample and professionally certified. And the room should be environmentally and dust controlled, and also secured to prevent unauthorized, unescorted access by vulnerable little ones. If you are going to do it, do it right!

An excellent and most critical point. While racks often provide an open environment which helps with cooling, the rising heat can (especially without good room ventilation) impact cooling effectiveness, and perhaps cooling requirements of the upper mounted devices.

And that brings up another point - noise. Regular mid or full tower cases support several large (120mm or larger) case fans which can spin slower while still moving massive amounts of cooling air. Plus, PC cases - the better ones anyway - are also designed to suppress noise. Rack cases typically are not designed for noise suppression because they typically go in "industrial" environments, in isolated computer/server rooms.

1U and 2U cases are only 1.75 (44.45mm) and 3.5 inches (88.90mm) tall respectively. This means to move the same amount of air with smaller fans, the fans must spin at very high RPM levels and that means a lot of noise. Loud, high-pitched, irritating fan noise! Even if you are the only one that has to put up with that noise, not sure about you, but fan noise drives me crazy when listening to music, a video or even during gameplay. I want my cases and computer gear to sit quietly and discretely out of the way.

So again, except for bragging rights to only a very few people, their advantage in a home environment is very limited. They impose greater cooling challenges (including dust control) and rack systems provide absolutely zero performance advantages.

 

Thank you very much.
I don't want it to be noisy. It's an irritation and unwanted distraction. I'll rethink my decision to use rack mounts.

 

I agree completely. I am very happy with my Fractal Design R4 case. This case is about 6 inches away from me. The CPU uses its Intel supplied OEM cooler. The case has 2 x 140mm fans spinning, the PSU fan is spinning and MSI Radeon R7 370 graphics card fan is spinning and the only fan noise I hear is from the blower motor for the house air conditioning down in the basement coming through the air vent across the room!

 

Not to derail the thread but newer ac's and certain changes to the duct can make things so much quitter.

 

Sadly most server fans are quite loud, especially when they are spinning up on a boot. They do quiet down, but they are much louder than home computer cases.

 

And real data center ac's can be quite noisy also but home ac's should be quiet and even a data center if it's normally occupied.

 

True - but this is a 55 year old house and in terms of cooling or heating, the 15 year old HVAC system works great - so I am not touching it! And frankly, while I do hear a slight hum from the fan motor, most of the noise is from the air being pushed through the air vent. In any event, it is quiet enough so when listening to Pandora, I cannot hear (or my mind blocks out) the AC fan noise.

As for data centers and fan noise - again these are industrial environments, not home or office, with giant blowers moving massive amounts of air, typically through raised floors and up through equipment racks. Then the fans in the rack mounted equipment spin faster because they are smaller and these rack mounted computers are not designed to sit around near idle all day. They are designed to work at near capacities 24/7/365 thus generating lots of heat that needs to be extracted quickly.

 

You can buy a Speed fan adjuster for this option.

In my desktop i have two very high powered fans to keep cool.The max speed is 52,000 RPM's and this is no joke.Sounds like a jet when it's first boots up.But if you adjust the fan speed with a fan switch or nobs on the front of the case than.It goes quiet for the rest of the time.

And the fans i hardly hear them.

You can buy some thing like this option below.

https://www.directron.com/fpx001.html?gsear=1&gclid=CNmawoKMz80CFVE0aQodXv8J_Q

 

The problem with decreasing the fan speeds to reduce the fan noise is you also decrease the amount of air they move. While I personally hate fan noise, controlling heat is way more important. So, if noise matters to you, I feel the better solution is to buy a quality case that supports large fans that move more air at lower RPMs. Then buy quality fans and let the motherboard's chipset control the fan speeds based on the actual temperatures, not loudness. If you do choose to use a manual speed controller, monitor system, drive and GPU temps too, not just the CPU.

BTW, when I was in the Air Force, I worked for many years in air traffic control UHF/VHF radio transmitter facilities and constant, high pitched fan noise from our transmitters was a very real health and safety concern. For our larger facilities, we were issued and had to wear ear protection to avoid accumulating hearing loss. While certainly, the high SPL (sound pressure level or loudness) of 25 or so fans making noise together was a major factor, the constant "pitch" of the noise by the fans running at about the same speeds (these ran at 18,000 RPM) created a constant high-pitch drone in the same frequency range pounding on our ears - and that's not good either.

So even being exposed repeatedly to the noise of a few loud fans over an extended period of time can permanently affect your hearing too. And the problem is, the accumulating damage is so subtle day to day, you don't notice it until years later when suddenly you notice everyone's lips are flapping but you cannot hear what they are saying.

Something else to think about.