considering/looking for a motherboard tray for rack instead of case

[dannybhoi]

Hi All,

New to the site/forum.
I am looking to move a bunch of second hand gaming pcs which im using for home lab out of a bedroom and into the garage with a server rack setup.
reason being to get the noise/heat out of the house.

I want to know if anybody knows of any trays that can be used for installing a computer into a server rack but where you dont use the computer case. I have tried some googling but can't find what im looking for so thinking it's not a product anyone sells?

If it is i would be getting a server rack that is fully enclosed with its on fans for cooling the rack.
The other reason i am wondering about this is i dont like the computer cases the computer are currently in because they are terrible quality and i want to also make use of the space as best as possible in the server rack i would get.
I have 3 full size towers currently which would go in a server rack along with probably a 1U switch and maybe a UPS.

Hoping someone on here has some info they could share, i am just struggling to find info on this idea. In the past I have seen videos on youtube of people walking through datacentres where they used this idea to get higher density computing in their racks but just doing away with the cases of servers. the motherboards were just screwed directly into a specially designed tray. obviously my situation would not be the scale of a commercial datacentre so looking for some off the shelf products that could achieve this.

 

[JSchuricht]

IIRC, Hotmail did that with Pentium Pro systems before Microsoft took over.

If you aren't looking for anything too elaborate, simple rack shelf's with cardboard or plastic standoff's as an insulator would work.

 

[zxv]

This is not just possible, but was done in production by the likes of Google many years ago.

At the very first BSDCon somewhere around 1999 near Berkeley, the core team took a field trip to a nearby Globalcenter NOC to see Yahoo's cages. One of the founders of Yahoo had sponsored the conference, and he arranged the field trip.

Googles cages were across the row and they did something similar to what you describe. In that cage, there were two rows of racks. Each had trays top to bottom with a motherboard laying on cardboard on each tray which l looked something like this: Monoprice Single Sided Shelf, 3.5(H) x 10(D) x 19(W), 30 lbs. - Monoprice.com

Hard drive and power supply were laying next to the MB on each tray. They were running significant loads, judging from the extra cooling. They had box fans (as in 20 inch fan from Walmart) duct taped to the racks at intervals. These were open racks - no side panels, no front or back.

Good luck!

 

[Spotswood]

FWIW, I've built quite a few "trays" (framework of t-slot extrusions) sized to fit in a server rack.

In fact, @Patrick is one of my clients.

Good luck with your project!

-Rich

This is not just possible, but was done in production by the likes of Google many years ago.

At the very first BSDCon somewhere around 1999 near Berkeley, the core team took a field trip to a nearby Globalcenter NOC to see Yahoo's cages. One of the founders of Yahoo had sponsored the conference, and he arranged the field trip.

Googles cages were across the row and they did something similar to what you describe. In that cage, there were two rows of racks. Each had trays top to bottom with a motherboard laying on cardboard on each tray which l looked something like this: Monoprice Single Sided Shelf, 3.5(H) x 10(D) x 19(W), 30 lbs. - Monoprice.com

Hard drive and power supply were laying next to the MB on each tray. They were running significant loads, judging from the extra cooling. They had box fans (as in 20 inch fan from Walmart) duct taped to the racks at intervals. These were open racks - no side panels, no front or back.

Good luck!