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Looking for a rack mounted case or a tower that fits a rack (ATX) that isn't ugly as sin.

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mkammes

mkammes

Joined
Apr 15, 2018
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57
Motherboard
ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING (Wi-Fi AC)
CPU
i7-8700K
Graphics
GTX 1070 Ti
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
Classic Mac
  1. Classic
  2. iMac
  3. Xserve
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
Thus far the only rackmount I'm finding is a Chenbro Rackmount 4U Server Chassis RM42200-1. Any other sexier options?
Innards thus far:
  1. ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero (Wi-Fi AC) LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI M.2 Z370 ATX Motherboard with onboard 802.11ac WiFi, Gigabit LAN and USB 3.1 for 8th Generation Intel Core Processors
  2. Noctua NF-A8 PWM Premium 80mm PC Computer Case Fan
  3. Noctua 120mm, Anti-Stall Knobs Design,SSO2 Bearing PWM Case Cooling Fan NF-S12A PWM
  4. EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition, 8GB GDDR5, LED, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC) 08G-P4-5173-KR
  5. Corsair RMx Series, RM650x, 650W, Fully Modular Power Supply, 80+ Gold Certified
  6. 2 x Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM)
  7. Ballistix Sport LT 64GB Kit (16GBx4) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin - BLS4K16G4D240FSB (Gray)
  8. Intel Core i7-8700K Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.7GHz Turbo Unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W BX80684i78700K
I plan on adding a 10GigE card, perhaps a Thunderbolt 3 card, and perhaps another GPU later on.

The Chenbro is ugly. Woof.
 
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There are a few options out there, I have thought of a rackmount hackintosh for my recording studio for a long time.
1. These guys seem to build to order any kind of aluminium case, with many possible options (side heatsinks, handles, ventilation holes/grids)
https://it.aliexpress.com/store/418985
2. https://www.hdplex.com/ had some rackmount option for their hi-fi style fanless cases (but I don't think you want to go fanless)
3. get one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007OGTGS/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
of course in proper lenght and height, and then put a non rackmount case like lian-li pc v720 on it
https://www.newegg.com/global/it/Pr...11112571&cm_re=lian_li-_-11-112-571-_-Product

Yes with this lian-li you end up with the power button on a side, this idea has vast margins for improvement but it's still an option.
 
Thanks for the options!

A agree with you and thus I have resigned myself to going with a tower and laying it sideways on a vented shelf as opposed to a server chassis, but I can't find one that will fit in a 19" wide rack, have (front) buttons accessible on the front AND have airflow.

I suppose I could use the case you recommended, but yeah, getting access to the side ports would be impossible.

So, I'm still looking for an aesthetically good looking case to fix a full-size ATX plus the other gear listed above, and have all ports on the front.
 
When Lian Li doesn't fit, my second favourite is always Jonsbo:
http://www.jonsbo.com/en/products_4_1.html
http://www.jonsbo.com/en/products_33_2.html

Horizontal cases are not a big issue BTW, they experienced a revival in recent years due to the HTPC market (even if I don't get why people would want a full size and full power pc connected to their tv instead of a 50 euros fully silent android thingy)

Oh, wait, I checked Silverstone as they have many HTPC products and just discovered their Grandia series is mostly rack-mountable.
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=330&area=en
Unless you hate black aluminum I think we found something.

you can also have a look at thermaltake, nanoxia and zalman, they might have something.
 
Look close... it has rear and bottom ventilation as well, leave an empty unit in the rack under the computer and cooling will be fine. Side ventilation is a very good idea for open racks (such as mine) so you don't have to leave empty units, however, in case I'll decide to go with full ATX¹, I think I'll go with the lian li case and take advantage of the non-rack lower floor of the rack-sized cart where my rack resides.
Also note that there are more rack mountable cases in the same series.


¹ which I might, as it's the only option to have both firewire and thunderbolt on Coffee lake, my current audio interface is firewire, but I might want to switch to thunderbolt later and I want my next build to be ready. Atm there's no z370 mATX mobo with thunderbolt3 headers for add in card, nor integrated tb3, which is crazy as there were a bunch of z270 mobo with tb3 support. On mini-ITX there is one motherboard with integrated tb3, but the only PCIE slot would go for discrete GPU, so no room for a Ti-chip firewire card, and a TB3 docking station with a firewire port costs over 300 euros.
 
mkammes said:
Thus far the only rackmount I'm finding is a Chenbro Rackmount 4U Server Chassis RM42200-1. Any other sexier options?
Innards thus far:
  1. ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero (Wi-Fi AC) LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI M.2 Z370 ATX Motherboard with onboard 802.11ac WiFi, Gigabit LAN and USB 3.1 for 8th Generation Intel Core Processors
  2. Noctua NF-A8 PWM Premium 80mm PC Computer Case Fan
  3. Noctua 120mm, Anti-Stall Knobs Design,SSO2 Bearing PWM Case Cooling Fan NF-S12A PWM
  4. EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition, 8GB GDDR5, LED, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC) 08G-P4-5173-KR
  5. Corsair RMx Series, RM650x, 650W, Fully Modular Power Supply, 80+ Gold Certified
  6. 2 x Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM)
  7. Ballistix Sport LT 64GB Kit (16GBx4) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin - BLS4K16G4D240FSB (Gray)
  8. Intel Core i7-8700K Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.7GHz Turbo Unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W BX80684i78700K
I plan on adding a 10GigE card, perhaps a Thunderbolt 3 card, and perhaps another GPU later on.

The Chenbro is ugly. Woof.
Click to expand...
 
I would very much like to replace my MacMini with a rack mount Home Theatre PC.
ATech Fabrication makes some beautiful (but expensive) rack mount cases.

I would like to build something in this chassis: http://www.atechfabrication.com/products/HeatSync_2800HP_Mini-Client.htm
But they do make a larger case that will let you put in PCI cards: http://www.atechfabrication.com/products/HeatSync_7000.htm

They are all aluminum and liquid cooled, which is why I want it for a home theatre PC. I don't want to have to listen to my little MacMini's fans screaming away while I'm trying to watch a movie.

I've been bouncing back and forth between the ATech website and TonyMac trying to figure out how to order a PC from these folks that will just work with MacOS without me having to do a lot of screwing around.

They say they will do custom builds, but I don't know enough to give them the proper list of things I want to get a working Hackintosh.

I'm not going to tell them what I'm trying to build, they don't say anything about Macintosh on their website and I don't want Apple going after them but the stuff they make is just beautiful. If Apple actually sold models like this, they would be an instant hit.

I don't work for the company, I work for a public transit agency in a completely different country, but if I could actually give them a shopping list and get a working Hackintosh in one of their cases, I don't really care what it would cost.

If anyone else is interested on creating a build that would work in this case, I'm very much in.
HeatSync-2800 114-700-logo.jpg
 
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