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I have long wished for a standard which was like half the scale of 20" rack-mount. I have a home lab and I work for a boutique engineering firm. Neither of th

I have long wished for a standard which was like half the scale of 20" rack-mount. I have a home lab and I work for a boutique engineering firm. Neither of those use cases can justify a full height rack but both would benefit from the design mindset that exists for the standardized rack-mount ecosystem.

bloopernova 6y ago
You're talking about half the height and width? That would be pretty useful, you're right. Maybe be able to put 4 of these halfracks in a normal rack. Apple used to sell (or recommend, I forget) a half-height rack for academic use of XServes. I know one faculty who got one and didn't realize it would turn his office into a noisy datacentre. He had it moved to a spare office.
- Quequau 6y ago
  Yeah... I'm talking something that would be shorter in width and length... so less volume. Anyway rack-mount equipment is so loud because it all uses tiny fans that are driven at very high RPMs. Using fewer larger fans that spun slower would be much quieter. I would guess that using water cooling might be still quieter but I suspect that would be a lot of effort. Having a single very large fan at the top of the rack, that ran on mains AC, might work fine, assuming the right heat sinks and ducting.
- numpad0 6y ago
  Half depth servers and half depth + width ones for higher density mounting exists, though performance is kind of limited, blade servers are also a thing. But what I’ve heard about blades is they’re too dense for multi story building datacenters and that sharing blade chassis creates SPoF, and those points aren’t ideal.
jansan 6y ago
I really wish 10 inch racks and equipment were more common. I installed a 10 inch rack in my house (only with a switch and a few patch panels), but it the choice for components was really limited. Anyways, I am glad smaller size racks exist at all.
Symbiote 6y ago
Possibly something along the lines of Eurocards (as people who make synthesizers call them), which is based around Eurocards -- still used in industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurorack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurorack (Unless you just meant a less-than-42U 19" rack, which is easily available. You can buy 19" racks as small as 6U.)
Inhibit 6y ago
Now that you mention I do have some half width server boards kicking around on steel trays. I always assumed they went in some two-up side by side, but the trays are a little odd for that.
- detaro 6y ago
  Some vendors have systems where multiple nodes go into one case, e.g. Supermicro BigTwin or Dell PowerEdge C-series.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

bloopernova 6y ago

You're talking about half the height and width? That would be pretty useful, you're right. Maybe be able to put 4 of these halfracks in a normal rack. Apple used to sell (or recommend, I forget) a half-height rack for academic use of XServes. I know one faculty who got one and didn't realize it would turn his office into a noisy datacentre. He had it moved to a spare office.

Quequau 6y ago
Yeah... I'm talking something that would be shorter in width and length... so less volume. Anyway rack-mount equipment is so loud because it all uses tiny fans that are driven at very high RPMs. Using fewer larger fans that spun slower would be much quieter. I would guess that using water cooling might be still quieter but I suspect that would be a lot of effort. Having a single very large fan at the top of the rack, that ran on mains AC, might work fine, assuming the right heat sinks and ducting.
numpad0 6y ago
Half depth servers and half depth + width ones for higher density mounting exists, though performance is kind of limited, blade servers are also a thing. But what I’ve heard about blades is they’re too dense for multi story building datacenters and that sharing blade chassis creates SPoF, and those points aren’t ideal.

jansan 6y ago

I really wish 10 inch racks and equipment were more common. I installed a 10 inch rack in my house (only with a switch and a few patch panels), but it the choice for components was really limited. Anyways, I am glad smaller size racks exist at all.

Symbiote 6y ago

Possibly something along the lines of Eurocards (as people who make synthesizers call them), which is based around Eurocards -- still used in industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurorack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurorack (Unless you just meant a less-than-42U 19" rack, which is easily available. You can buy 19" racks as small as 6U.)

Inhibit 6y ago

Now that you mention I do have some half width server boards kicking around on steel trays. I always assumed they went in some two-up side by side, but the trays are a little odd for that.

detaro 6y ago
Some vendors have systems where multiple nodes go into one case, e.g. Supermicro BigTwin or Dell PowerEdge C-series.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]