Hello!
I am looking for feedback on some rack mount case designs I am working on, and had a few people recommend I post here!
Would like to know general idea of what people are looking for. I was really targeting the DIY server builder, but at same time trying to make these really appeal to the low noise crowd, and possibly even gaming PC / workstation crowds as well.
Have a lot of designs done, but am looking for more ideas - hope to hear what everyone here has to say!
Here's a few cases I have drawn up so far to give an idea what I am working on:
2U x 12" deep, with ATX/MicroATX motherboard, and an SFX or SFX-L power supply. These PSUs are cheap, abundant, and silent - unlike 1U and FlexATX. Cooled by 3x 80mm fans, in red. Motherboard in green. Power supply in Blue.
3U x 15" deep with 240mm liquid cooler support, ATX motherboard, SFX or SFX-L power supply, and a configurable HDD/SSD bracket for a mix of anything 3x 3.5" HDD and 1x 2.5" SSD, or can be 2x 3.5" HDD / 4x 2.5" SSD, etc. Cooled by 2x 120mm fans. HDDs and SSDs are in yellow. (One SSD is accidentally purple.) Radiator in red.
Same layout can use a PCIe 4.0 riser to fit a giant 3-slot GPU such as a 3090FE. This surprisingly still leaves one PCIe slot available for a HBA or GbE card. (I should have highlighted this card another color, but you can see it and its slot cutout in green.)
or if you want a 360mm liquid cooler or just 3x 120mm fans for a HEDT type build, that's possible too.
4U
4U also will be avilable in 15", 17", or 20" deep for all the EEB type boards, down to short ATX or MicroATX. These almost exclusively use ATX and ATX form factor redundant PSU derivatives. Shown is the 20" deep version with 1x 5.25" bay, a 360mm AIO, 3x 120mm x 25mm fans, 3x 3.5" HDDs, a 225mm long ATX PSU, EEB motherboard, and a 3090 FE GPU.
Questions for here:
Does a "silent" rack case appeal to you / anyone?
Planned on SFX and ATX power supplies for this product line to start, since they are available. Anything else you'd like to see on power supply side?
What do you normally pay for rack rails for your cases? Seems most rack rails are $100+ per set. I was hoping to get that way down, to like $25 a set.
Complaints on cable management in other cases you've used. (ex: sharp edges, running wires through small holes in the fan wall.)
Storage - U.3? SATA? I can't really do back planes or SAS expanders with the semiconductor shortage.
Alternatively, what about barely any storage at all, lots of systems do not need anything but a single M.2 drive.
Smaller and shorter cases?
Liquid cooling support? (360mm radiator in a 3U anyone)
PCIe bifurcation and trifurcation support. Wokring on PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 solutions. (IMO, this is critical for 1U and 2U cases.)
Not sure anyone needs 5U or larger.
Any other complaints about existing AIC, Chenbro, iStar, inWin, Rosewill cases.
If you have any feedback, ideas to add, please post! I am happy to create some new renders, layouts, etc. around ideas or anything else that the market seems to be missing. (Particularly for the 1U and 2U cases.)
I am looking for feedback on some rack mount case designs I am working on, and had a few people recommend I post here!
Would like to know general idea of what people are looking for. I was really targeting the DIY server builder, but at same time trying to make these really appeal to the low noise crowd, and possibly even gaming PC / workstation crowds as well.
Have a lot of designs done, but am looking for more ideas - hope to hear what everyone here has to say!
Here's a few cases I have drawn up so far to give an idea what I am working on:
2U x 12" deep, with ATX/MicroATX motherboard, and an SFX or SFX-L power supply. These PSUs are cheap, abundant, and silent - unlike 1U and FlexATX. Cooled by 3x 80mm fans, in red. Motherboard in green. Power supply in Blue.
3U x 15" deep with 240mm liquid cooler support, ATX motherboard, SFX or SFX-L power supply, and a configurable HDD/SSD bracket for a mix of anything 3x 3.5" HDD and 1x 2.5" SSD, or can be 2x 3.5" HDD / 4x 2.5" SSD, etc. Cooled by 2x 120mm fans. HDDs and SSDs are in yellow. (One SSD is accidentally purple.) Radiator in red.
Same layout can use a PCIe 4.0 riser to fit a giant 3-slot GPU such as a 3090FE. This surprisingly still leaves one PCIe slot available for a HBA or GbE card. (I should have highlighted this card another color, but you can see it and its slot cutout in green.)
or if you want a 360mm liquid cooler or just 3x 120mm fans for a HEDT type build, that's possible too.
4U
4U also will be avilable in 15", 17", or 20" deep for all the EEB type boards, down to short ATX or MicroATX. These almost exclusively use ATX and ATX form factor redundant PSU derivatives. Shown is the 20" deep version with 1x 5.25" bay, a 360mm AIO, 3x 120mm x 25mm fans, 3x 3.5" HDDs, a 225mm long ATX PSU, EEB motherboard, and a 3090 FE GPU.
Questions for here:
Does a "silent" rack case appeal to you / anyone?
Planned on SFX and ATX power supplies for this product line to start, since they are available. Anything else you'd like to see on power supply side?
What do you normally pay for rack rails for your cases? Seems most rack rails are $100+ per set. I was hoping to get that way down, to like $25 a set.
Complaints on cable management in other cases you've used. (ex: sharp edges, running wires through small holes in the fan wall.)
Storage - U.3? SATA? I can't really do back planes or SAS expanders with the semiconductor shortage.
Alternatively, what about barely any storage at all, lots of systems do not need anything but a single M.2 drive.
Smaller and shorter cases?
Liquid cooling support? (360mm radiator in a 3U anyone)
PCIe bifurcation and trifurcation support. Wokring on PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 solutions. (IMO, this is critical for 1U and 2U cases.)
Not sure anyone needs 5U or larger.
Any other complaints about existing AIC, Chenbro, iStar, inWin, Rosewill cases.
If you have any feedback, ideas to add, please post! I am happy to create some new renders, layouts, etc. around ideas or anything else that the market seems to be missing. (Particularly for the 1U and 2U cases.)
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