Dual mITX Rackmount 2U - iStarUSA D-218M2-ITX

[Jeggs101]

Watching you guys with the dell c6100 I wanted an atom one when the new chips and boards from supermicro come out.

Saw the iStarUSA D-218M2-ITX BTO case. Looks like a rackmount 2u that takes 2 psus and 2 mitx mobos.

D-218M2-ITX is a reliable and stable 2U-high 15.5" depth industrial computer chassis. The chassis size supports dual mini-ITX motherboard and the backplane supports 2 PCI add-on cards. This chassis is equipped with four 80mm cooling fans for front intake air ventilation. In addition, the D-218M2-ITX supports two 1U flex power supply to meet regular server system applications.

Specs
Removable & Washable Air Filter
Aluminum Door with keylock
Support Dual Mini-ITX System
Power and Alarm Reset Switch
Power, LAN, and HDD LED
80mm x4 Cooling Fans
Front Access USB2.0 x4

Pics

Imagine if they made it with efficient redundant psus. active-active storage atom storage controller or use one of the mobile core i3 boards for more power. Maybe best would be if someone make an intel nuc enclosure like this. Maybe would be better to just use two 1u but would be nice if there was an inexpensive option like this.

 

[PigLover]

Its intriguing. But I'm not sure I see the application for Atom compared to 2x 1U solutions.

There is also a note on the specs page that says "not compatible with sliding rails". If you look closely at the sides there are no mounting holes for slide rails. Appears that it needs to be shelf mounted (or using the Gruber rails Patrick reviewed a couple of weeks ago).

 

[Patrick]

Interesting. Looks like it has rack ears so maybe more of a telco mount style application.

One thing I want to do/ try one of these days is to build a cluster in a 2U or 4U. Could stick a switch, and a bunch of NUC or mITX nodes in a 2U or 4U chassis to make a really interesting cluster. Like this idea as a first step, but I see options around $180 shipped which is not much more than a 1U short depth Supermicro that includes power supplies.

 

[RimBlock]

I have seen at least one model (seach for EKI-M550) which gives 2x mITX in a 1U chassis using two 'blade like' sliding units that pull out.

There are also other chassis of 5U (takes 6x thin-mITX) and 7U (takes 9x mITX boards) around (figures from memory on these two )

RB

 

[wyluliraven]

This 2U enclosure is nifty, need to do a little more research.

I need to start looking into migrating my setup from Fractal Design Array R2 cases to something more like this, although my disk capacity count would plumet, that is what a NAS or SAN is for. My next big project!

 

[Hanss]

Interesting. Looks like it has rack ears so maybe more of a telco mount style application.

One thing I want to do/ try one of these days is to build a cluster in a 2U or 4U. Could stick a switch, and a bunch of NUC or mITX nodes in a 2U or 4U chassis to make a really interesting cluster. Like this idea as a first step, but I see options around $180 shipped which is not much more than a 1U short depth Supermicro that includes power supplies.

I do not know if this is off-top, for a home server, but this solution is acceptable for consideration.

alternative to traditional 1U rackmount servers. The DC91 chassis consists of Subrack (9U height), 16 plug-in Trays and 3 hot swappable redundant PSUs (2+1). The DC91 is intelligent system with remote control via Ethernet. With all this going on, the price of the DC91 is not higher than that of 16 equivalent chassis of 1U.

What do you think?

 

[sotech]

Hanss - are they standard ITX boards in each slot? Can you provide a link where that chassis is for sale anywhere?

I do not know if this is off-top, for a home server, but this solution is acceptable for consideration. alternative to traditional 1U rackmount servers. The DC91 chassis consists of Subrack (9U height), 16 plug-in Trays and 3 hot swappable redundant PSUs (2+1). The DC91 is intelligent system with remote control via Ethernet. With all this going on, the price of the DC91 is not higher than that of 16 equivalent chassis of 1U.
What do you think?

Going from the IMG links, I found some more info but no price:

http://inpc.com.ua/data/dc91.html

 

[RimBlock]

Build a blade also do the same sort of thing as do epona.

Build a blade

Epona 1u dual itx chassis. They also have a chassis like the Build a Blade unit in their catalogue.

 

[Patrick]

Looks like they have 6U (still 1 server per U) options also: Chassis: DV Industrial Computer under DC61 and DC62

 

[Hanss]

Hanss - are they standard ITX boards in each slot? Can you provide a link where that chassis is for sale anywhere?
Going from the IMG links, I found some more info but no price:

DC91 : 9U rackmount cluster / 16 nodes, DV Industrial Computer

"Overseas is cheaper, but the freight is more expensive ..."
if you count the local price of about $ 2,400 without VAT, but it's hard to understand is the price FOB or EXW.


P.S.
Sorry if I did not carefully read the forum rules.

 

[RimBlock]

Ok, found the blade chassis.

Casepro 5U 9 blade chassis. Price is probably around the US$700 for the chassis.

The DC91 looks nice and I like the integrated power although it seens most mITX boards are not so great with the placement of the ram so it tends to block the airflow in these sort of setups. Boards that take SODIMM are more likely to be better in this respect. Not sure how the shipping from the Ukraine is likely to be along with warranty / servicing.

 

[Patrick]

Looks very interesting. I like the idea of using shared/ redundant PSUs better than 1 PSU per slot.

 

[RimBlock]

Agreed and that is the advantage of the DC91 but you need to pay through the nose for it compared to the other options.

I have just been quoted around US$1k for the casepro unit inc 9x 200W psus, rails and shipping. Would imagine it would be possible to have a 9 unit setup for under US$2.5k (possibly under US$2K depending on requirements) inc MB/CPU/Ram and a hard disk per 'blade'.

The 1U 2x blade unit is around US$250 inc 2x 200W psu, rack supports (cheap greuber rails) and shipping.

I would be tempted but I really have no need with the 2x C6100s sitting at home at the moment. I must resist .

 

[Hanss]

Agreed and that is the advantage of the DC91 but you need to pay through the nose for it compared to the other options.

purchase price will be offset by the cost of ownership.
The system on the Intel i3-3220 consumes 12-35 watts. Therefore:

I have just been quoted around US$1k for the casepro unit inc 9x 200W psus,

Therefore, it is not an advantage, but the disadvantage.

The 1U 2x blade unit is around US$250 inc 2x 200W psu, rack supports (cheap greuber rails) and shipping.

You may not have noticed that in the blade of Dc91 blade set regular MoBo and cooler.

 

[IamSpartacus]

I'm looking to stuff a 2-node Xeon D-1541 cluster into 4u of space with somewhat quiet cooling myself. Trying to determine if there are any single chassis options for this because I don't even seem to see many good 2u options.

 

[cesmith9999]

not really. there is a 6u option from www.buildablade.com

Chris