Hi all-

Has anyone put a PC in a portable rack case?

I've been looking for a 4u rackmount computer case but I'm having difficulty finding the right size. Most seem to be wider and/or deeper than 19".

I posted this in the Music computers forum but maybe this is a better place.

Any suggestions?

thanks in advance.

I recently built a rackmount computer with a Lian Li PC-C32 Black computer case and installed it into my New Page 1 standard 10U on casters rack.

It pokes out a little bit at the end but the lid has more than enough room to allow for this. It might even allow leads hooked up if I so choose but haven't done so so far.

So yeah, it's worth asking the manufacturer of the road case if the specific case will fit into the road case.

Any better computer shop should have some options for you.

A couple sources:
NCIXUS.com - Great Technology, Selection and Service.
Search Results for rack case at TigerDirect.com

Thanks for asking about the rackmount cases. I'd been looking for the same thing and had run across a few, but put things on hold for a while. I found this nice page which is making the process less daunting:

Technology Guide To Building Your Own PC

Rack mount cases AKA Server chassis. (clarification just in case.)

I built my computer with a server chassis case. I was successful.

Newegg.com - Athena Power RM-4U4088B65 Black 4U Rackmount Server Case EPS-12V 658W Dual Fan Power Supply (Ver. 2.2) 3 External 5.25" Drive Bays - Server Chassis

Good luck.

IonicBreed - Project Computer pics cont…

This one may help. 16.9" L x 15.3" W x 7.0" H.

And nice link NorseHorse. Oddly enough it features my own case, the NZXT Apollo. It isn't 4U sadly.

How quiet are the fans, would there be any need to change them? It only comes with two fans, how cools does this thing stay?

I've heard of people doing their own arrangement of fans with the PC-C32. Also be aware that the air intakes are at the sides, rather than being a straight front-to-back airflow, which can be a problem if installed into a rack. I think I'm also right in saying that there aren't any dust filters in the Lian-Li.

That's PC-building for you. Lots of options for DIY, but no hard and fast rules which means you do have to kind of try it and see.

I'm currently starting on building a couple of new rack-mount PCs so I'll let you know how it goes. Probably going to based on the PC-C32 case. I had been looking at Advantech's cases - fabulous industrial-style PC cases with interchangeable filters - but things like availability / features / compatibility seem to be a real issue, here in Europe anyway - it's just not clear which cases are still in production and what features they have. For instance, I'd really appreciate something with easily accessed firewire ports (i.e. NOT on the back). Don't think I'll manage that with any of Advantech's cases... not without doing some additional modification to the front panel.

The Advantechs are really expensive too. All of which brings me back to Lian-Li.

Antec have a couple of well-regarded rackmount cases too, but I'm not a fan of those full-width drop-down doors in a live environment. I could envisage them getting broken very easily.

BTW, Digital Village's "Synergy" brand music PCs are built using the Lian-Li case, and are pretty good value.

Building a pc, looking for a rack mountable case

Biggest Monster 5U Rackmount ATX case!

building a rackmount core i7

The Lian Li are the nicest IMHO

I've thought of doing this, but the possibility of damage seemed too great. Those server chassis are designed to go in racks that are bolted to the floor, which obviously doesn't match the typical use for anyone in the remote forum.

Unless you build your PC using only the VERY expensive solid state hard drives, your drives will be at high risk of failure in a mobile rack. I don't trust the "shockmount" racks enough to keep a hard drive platter from getting screwed up. I've measured my Antec Sonata III case, a standard 19" rack will hold that case tipped sideways, with space for 2-3" foam (depending on density) packed all the way around it. It vents front to back only, and it's roughly 21" deep including a bit of space at the back for connectors.

Just my thoughts, YMMV.

HITACHI HUA722020ALA330
Ultrastar A7K2000
Enterprice Edition,

its a waste of money to buy consumer quality HDDs.
my Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ is dead, didnt lasted 2 years.

i think im gonna make a RAID10 this time.

http://www.hitachigst.com/Compare_UltrastarDeskstar_TB_final.pdf
Technical Library - Ultrastar A7K2000

This looks like a really nice drive, but the vibration protection is designed to reduce "rotational vibration interference." This is caused by resonant vibrations in servers with large RAID arrays where there's lots of spinning platters bolted to the same drive cage. Still a situation where the PC should be bolted to the floor in a data center, still NOT something you should put at risk bouncing around in the back of your truck.

I'm standing by my statement of either using solid state drives with no moving parts (very expensive), or using a case that allows you to heavily pad all the way around it so it's protected during transport.

Tascam's X-48 is essentially a PC with a 3.5" hard drive bolted inside. My X48s have been carried about in flightcases to show after show for the last two years, without a problem. I'm using standard Seagate Barracudas in there.

I'm sure most specs I've seen for 3.5" drives indicate a pretty substantial shock tolerance for a drive that's not spinning, heads parked. If an in-transit flightcase receives a knock severe enough to break the hard drive, I'm sure some other (far more expensive) part of the recorder is likely to break too.

NICE! That wasnt there last year.

I went to surplus electronics store and bought some piece of junk and cut it with a dremmel and made my own case. Also built a heat sink for the PSU and attached it with a multipin to the CPU.

http://www.aspstudios.com/mcpssbrochure.pdf

I ended up getting this thing.

I didn't actually need a rackmount case but I wanted something that was reasonably portable. It only has 1 90 mm fan and 2 60 mm fan but it looks like it'll have great ventilation. i got the version without the window, and there is basically a 3 inch belt of holes around the whole thing. Compared to my Antec 900, this thing seems like it will be extremely easy to work inside. it'll take a few extra seconds to remove the 5.25" drive mounts, but it's not a big deal. Only bad thing is that it just has 3 3.5" hard drive bays, but it was $120 cheaper so I could just convert one of the 5.25" to a harddrive bay for $30.

...really curiosu shape; at first glance it looked like a microwave oven to me heh
Looks like it's gong to be super ventilated (no pun intended...)

I built one of those cases a few years back. The real trick with the Thermaltake Lanparty case is to get the expensive 7" LCD touchscreen that comes out the front of the box. It is big enough to control all the basics of a DAW, so you don't need to carry around an extra monitor is you're just doing a recording. As a bonus, the touch screen allows you to control the transport of the DAW in a pinch. That case and a roll up keyboard and mouse and you are all set...
Also, get the handle. It makes moving it around much easier.

All the best,
-mark

We've built a few 4U rack mount location PCs in this case:

4U Short Depth Rackmount Computer

It's a rugged metal enclosure. I used my own fans and HD mounts. It does have a robust bar across the top that holds in cards in the PCI slots.

It's not particularly light and the depth JUST fits in an SKB / Gator style rack case. The biggest downside I have so far is that if you have an issue you have to remove the case from the rack to get the top off as it screws on from midway on both sides rather than only on the back as some do.

-Silas

Depending on the type of case this is going in, I wouldn't trust the cpu heatsink to stay in place either. A couple months ago, somebody on here posted pics of his brand new rackmount studio PC after UPS had had their way with it. IIRC, the heatsink broke off and took out some of the other innards.

If it's in a shockproof case that lives on wheels, the heatsink will probably be ok. If it's in something that gets carried and tipped, no way.

-Dan.

WRT the notion that you need SSD's to record to , I have to disagree.
We've been shipping our computers and drives all around the world for the last decade and a half and have not had a single drive failure caused by shipping. The computer is FAR more vulnerable to shock than an un-powered hard drive. To be honest, we have never bolted one of our computers in a rack and expected it to come out the other end functioning. All our systems travel in pelican cases with at least 2" of foam. Not the smallest package in the world, but they always show up and work.
Also, SSD's have significantly slower write times when compared to the modern 7200rpm drives. This is a big issue when trying to write a lot of high res tracks. I regularly record 48 tracks of DSD or 64 tracks of 96k PCM to a single Samsung Spinpoint F1 drive. Try that with a Solid State drive....
As far as my favorite cases: Antec Take 3 and Take 4, Istar d-400ase. These are real steel cases and have quiet power supplies and fans with lots of nice features. Also they use only front to back cooling(The antec has an additional 120 mm fan that vents to the Right rear corner of the case as well, but the power supply has it's own fan and air source from the front panel and all the periferials vent from front to back). Both have front panel air filters as well, to cut down on the dust going through the system.
Finally, we only use the stock Intel processor fans in our systems. I have NEVER seen one of these come loose from a mobo and if you have a problem with your processor, using the stock fan helps with warranty issues.
As always, YMMV.
All the best,

-mark

haha. My dad was helping me take this thing out of the box and he was like, why did you buy a microwave? The box does say Thermaltake though.

The handle doesn't come with the lite version, and the non-lite version seems to have been discontinued along with the LCD screen... it definetly would have been worth it though.

Some great points about drives and CPU coolers. My computer wiz friend would agree with you, Mark, he reminded me that the US military uses plain old hard disk drives for guidance and navigation in fighter jets (or they did until SSDs came out, and they need less bandwidth) so surely they're good enough for what we need. Although he recommends replacing them yearly to prevent catastrophic failure.

As for CPU coolers, that's a great point that I might not have thought of until it was too late. But for anyone intending to bring these mobile rigs into a control room to mix and monitor their recording, you probably still wouldn't want to use a stock cooler, they're VERY noisy. I use a quite large and heavy heatsink with a 120mm fan that is much quieter. Perhaps the trick to that would be to attach some rails (maybe lined with foam padding) to the inside cover of the case facing the cooler. Hopefully that would hold it in place and prevent those jarring vibrations from ripping it from the motherboard and destroying everything in its path.

Hey folks, you know I said I was going to start building a couple of rack PCs for recording?

Well, I just completed no.1, built into a Lian-Li PC32 case. It isn't anything fancy (yet), but it is working which is the main thing for now. I have another one to build this week, then I've got to fit them to my rack, then go and do a festival with them!

It's not as noisy as an old-school "747-taking-off" system, but it's falls way short of silent. Hard to say what's contributing most of the noise, but I suspect it's a combination of the two hard drives and the system fans (and the odd way they're mounted). When I get time I'll start looking at noise issues etc, and probably upgrade and rearrange some parts here and there.

As for the case, it's a mixture of good and not-so-good. The system is surprisingly light because the case is made from aluminium. But at the same time, it doesn't inspire confidence like a steel case does. The cooling arrangement is a little strange, with the two fans suspended from that central bar, and there are no dust filters. On the other hand, there are nice recessed but accessible front-panel connections for external drives etc, and lots of empty space inside for cable routing etc.

It could have done with another 5.25" bay so I could use drive silencers (only two large bays available, and one already stuffed with the DVD drive). Ultimately these machines may end up with three hard drives in them, so silencing them all is not going to be possible. But there's plenty of space in the 3.5" drive cage for bare drives. The drive cages slot in neatly and are held in place by a thumblock screw, so they're easy to whip out if you need to flip things around, but the cages aren't firmly anchored to the chassis, so they're a potential source of rattles.

You also don't want to try suspending the case purely by the rack ears. The entire case is aluminium, and none of it especially thick, so things are likely to bend in transit. But the case does have tapped holes along each side, presumably for mounting rack slides, so you can support it along its entire length.

Lastly, I must say that it's an unpleasant shock to be back in the Windows world. Ugh. Whoever said Windows 7 has now "caught up" with Mac OS X? It's the same old Windows SNAFU dressed up in prettier clothes. Fiddly and buggy and far from confidence-inspiring. I'll get by - all recording gear seems to involve a few workarounds - but I'm glad these aren't going to be my day-to-day computing machines.