Moving a Computer to a Rackmount Case for $75

That poor motherboard! lol good video brother.

I feel like most towers would benefit from being on their side from the airflow perspective, especially when you run a bunch of drives, which is one of essential reasons why servers are rack-mounted : hot-air rises, so the more space there is between the bottom and top of the case, the less efficient your cooling. Considering the CPU is also at the very top of a tower, while your drive bay is at the bottom on the side, propagating hot air towards the GPU and CPU that the bottom fan cases will struggle to get out because, again, *hot air rises*... I am a bit confused by the modern towers design.
It's no wonder why manufacturers struggle to create good airflow! I just got a free Thermaltake for my NAS/fire-wall/smart-home build, which I'm going to put on it's side, and cut an opening for the drive-bay on what would be the top of the tower. Why? This way the air from the drive bay is directly and easily transferred to the top-fan (or in this case, the front-fan), making the whole thing way cooler. Putting hot components in a box much higher than it is large doesn't make sense... also doesn't make sense in terms of ergonomy, from reaching the connections, to just being able to put your screen on top, or your AV system (even if it's not a proper rack-mount chassis). Why the tower became the default design for PCs is beyond me...!!! I now understand why my IT veteran friend run a regular tower case on it's side!

Rosewill cases are generally trash, you're better off spending some money. I have a RSV-4500, i regret buying it.

I caught this video rather later than what you expected. The $75 cases are maybe 2U or 3U cases. I can tell you that the 4U cases are probably a lot better designed for moving a desktop PC into a rackmount case. I say this knowing that people are going to freak out. A 3U case is bare minimum for a front 120mm case fan, and if you want to actually have any drives at all in there, particularly if you are using a Ryzen or an equivalent Intel CPU, you need the airflow that a 120mm fan provides. Plus, you may want to add water cooling with a minimum of an AIO cooler. The radiator brackets are about 5.25 inches. 1U is 1.75 inches. Divide 5.25 by 1.75 and you get 3U. By the way, a 5.25 inch drive bay is about 1.72 inches high while a 3.5 inch bay is 1 inch high. That tells you that with a 4U case, you can put a 5.25 inch drive under or over some 120mm fans (they are roughly 4 inches, fyi). The width of a rackmount case varies internally slightly, but the outside has to fit about 17 inches or so. Usually they are much thinner. Your average CDR/DVD drive (the full size one on that old desktop you bought in the 90's or early 00's) is roughly 6 inches. So, what does all of that mean? Simply put, your standard ATX motherboard will fit in the case pretty well, and if you turn the power supply on its side, a standard sized desktop power supply will also fit the case. This is a huge benefit over buying a dedicated 1U, 2U, or 3U server case and trying to rig it for a desktop system. Now you can buy a rackmount case without a power supply, or with a lower capacity one that you can swap into grandpa's PC, and stick that new 1000 or 1800 watt power supply in your new case without drilling new holes or worrying about the airflow from the power supply. Still, you need to be aware of some things when buying server cases. Never buy one that is designed for an ITX case if you have an ATX board. That means you miss out on most of the cases under $100 or so. Second, if there is no photo of the inside of the case, or of the back, don't waste your time with it. This gets rid of most of the cases under $150. Third, if you want to put RGB fans in the front, and/or a water cooler, you WILL have to modify the case. That will likely rule out anything over $250 for most people. That leaves you a sweet spot of about $151 to $249 (not including shipping). Newegg has lots of cases in that range, so you are good to go. As a result, I recommend the 'Industrial Equipment Rackmount' cases. Basically, if you take one, take off the mounting ears from the sides, and stand it up on one side, it looks like an early 00's full-tower PC, and in effect, that is what it is. So, now that you have a base for a modified 4U case to fit your gaming computer, go wild.

Unfortunately this case isnt available anymore. I'm still looking for a more affordable option

I hope you post footage

Do normal PSU's work in this case?

Considering that a very old decommissioned server goes for $30-40 sometimes. A $75 just for the case is quite high i think. Any cheaper solution?

will we ever not see your face 95% each video and more on your content? there's atem mini and OBS or even lesser combo that could improve it than just purely sitcom.

What do you prefer? WD or Seagate?

I am starting a company and I am building a server this is so helpful!

I dont know, thier are some decent rack mount cases for $75-$90 mark. iStarUSA make some good cases on amazon.

My $78.80 case is a D-300 blue bezel.
Im glad i grabbed a 3U server case from iStarUSA, thier D-300 model when it was on heavy sale. very modular, adaptable, and least of all cosmetically pleasing. Just cant use a standered power supply.

i started rack mounting on a whim (got sick of RGB) and enjoying rack mounting.

i have this case i got the the ssd to mount on the top of one of the bay took out bay the drive mounted ssd reverse it actually clears.

if you want to make the case even quieter you can add, dynamat where you can, it will add some weight but it will remove a lot of sound as well

I like your content

Maybe you could try a low profile cooler and that would give you the room to use all the 3.5" bays

Too much talking, not enough footage of the build.

Still good cable management compared to my old Tower Case Server. The two 3.5" IDE drives are mounted in the HDD area, the two SATA-1 2.5" drives are mounted using zip-tires. The whole thing is built from left-overs, I only bought the case for $10. A case with a Windows 98SE Activation Sticker :)

Should have gone with the GD08 from silverstone, it can be rack mounted and would be less of a mess.

The audio LOL XD..

Rosewill makes a 2U case for $95, that is pretty nice. I replace the front three 80mm fans with Noctua. It holds 3 standard stacking bays and all of the bays are removable. Each bay is cooled by one of the front fans. The case fits a micro atx board and is high enough for either of the two Noctua low profile cpu coolers. It utilizes a standard powersupply and has a vented top cover. I use these cases for my daily, my NAS and my router. RSV-2600

I am about to order a Roswill RSV L4000 and a 4 drive hotswap bay. I will fit my dual xeon rig. I will figure a rack solution for it another day. I grab something off Ebay or build something out of wood. The goal is to get it off my desk, and I don't want t put it on the floor.

In that price range you can get better workstation cases that have just as many, if not more tooless HDD slots. Obviously if you must rack mount that wont work

you did good, we should see more of this kind of builds

Just wondering if you know about or tried out a little known NAS app, that we found out to be a real gem; Rockstor?

great show Chris! Nar that`s challenged making it work!

Chris, what about using a 2.5 SSD drive, I know its outbox but the space you save. and get bay holds to keep them in place.

Skin off the knuckles. Definitely dealing with a problematic case. I've been there. :)

What?
Why would you THINK that FreeBSD, Linux and yes, since Windows 8, cannot work/boot on Intel or AMD.

This does tell me your level of understanding of computers and operating systems.

FYI, there is something called the Hardware Abstraction Layer, check it out so you can understand better how this ‘magic’ works under the hood.

It’s just a driver/supported-hardware issue!!

I am just throwing this out there as a question. What are the best sites for Linux training and for certifications?

Thanks for the GPU prices. 😤💨

Good Video. In this example you started out with no case. If you had a case would you have considered just placing the desktop case on a shelf on the rack? $40 investment.

XMR is better than BTC, just saying.

ROSE will. Ros will is a city in New Mexico.

In terms of cheap & "gets the job done" I would have just bought a rack shelf and place a regular PC case on that and called it done... just a quick search on Amazon I see them as cheap as $20 for 1/2 depth or $35 for full depth

Thank you, Chris. Hardware is not my area. I have enough problems with my own creaking bones, cartilage, and tendons. But good for you.

Looks like you need a low profile cooler, in order to use the lower drivebay

fix ur mic clipping

These days companies have to legally dispose of their unused material , thus....recycle centers for I.T equipment...these days it's big business

Nice I've used Rosewill for 20+ years in fact ordered a $19 case this week to throw my older amd rig in for a backup 👍🏻

i have a HTPC case that fits perfectly in my rack, just need a decent pc to put in it :)

If you want a Rack you gonna need to ROCK my friend :D ----- in terms of money hehe. Regards!

Last time I used a rack mount was for stereo components many moons ago ;)

A brand you may find useful in the future for your rack mounted stuff, iStarUSA. I have several of their hot swap bays and rack mount cases, very nice from my experience. They are more expensive than Rosewill but not the $200 starting price of other brands, they straddle that middle ground between Rosewill and say Norco. Newegg tends to put their stuff on sale a lot too as long as you're not picky about specific colors (the sales tend to be only for a specific color for whatever reason).