I am considering ditching my current NZXT H440 PC case and placing it in a rack mounted case. Anyone else here done this? Any thoughts or things to look out for?

Brief reading suggests I may already have issues finding one I can fit my NZXT Kraken X61 CPU cooler in. Any alternative coolers that would fit in a 4U rack case?

I am also considering purchasing the Palit KalmX GTX 1050 Ti with the passive cooler to help reduce noise.

Any case recommendations?

 

Last edited: Mar 28, 2019

Do you travel with it? My rack is also is a flight case. Don't have to worry about anything happening to that. It has TSA certified locks for the front and back. I have not had any problems with heat build up. Has my Creation Station rack mount computer, DBX Drive Rack, an 8 channel splitter and my PreSonus. Wheels and and an extension handle.

 

Nope. Don't plan to travel as I don't travel much and tend to use my Dell 13" laptop when out and about as it has 16GB RAM, i7, SSD etc so good enough for portable sketching.

I essentially want to mount it in my studio desk racks.

 

Mine travels from mix location (my house) to recording location (guitarists house where the drums and big amps are).
I got one of these for that purpose. Very easy to carry, plenty of room inside, and easy drive swaps.


http://www.coolermaster.com/case/lan-box/haf-xb/

Whoops, just saw you don't travel. Nothing to see here...

 

I have a https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C420/X11SRA-F.cfm in 4U Rack. Cooling by way of Noctua Quiet CPU Cooler fan and a couple of front fans. You can get the rack from http://www.mypccase.com/eiars19rast3.html or from https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?N=100008044 600006426&IsNodeId=1&Submit=ENE

 

XEON cpus offer any benefit for Audio usage ?

 

My friend that is a vague question and off topic. Advantage over what? In which area? I don't want this thread to turn into a Xeon vs i7. Of course there are advantages. If you research every major builder of PCs for DAWs they include XEON in their flagship models. Do we really need it? No. Feel free to PM if you want more details. I dont want to disrespect the OP.

 

Last edited: Mar 28, 2019

I have that one. Best 1050ti IMHO, but very expensive compared to the rest. And needs some airflow during stress loads.
With no extra space in my tower, I simply installed it above my PSU and reversed the PSU fan so that it blows straight into it. Works wonders.

 

Geek alert. So cool reading you guys... ;-)
BTW, this is my last toy, which I plan to install this weekend (real photo at my place):

You may wonder what is the water doing there. In case the fire extinguisher is not enough of course!
PS. Sorry, OT again...

 

Good to know! I currently have a GTX 970 in my system. What did you change out for the 1050Ti, and what kind of performance change did you notice, if anything?

 

I could write an essay about rackmount PC cases, but I won't.

The perfect one hasn't been done yet. Meaning quiet and sturdy. I could make it, but I don't care any more. I've been studying quiet cooling for about a decade or so. It's my passion. That's why PCs I make are as quiet as a mouse fart, but they're not rack mounted because rackmounts are always made to be noisy.

It really isn't that hard to make a noiseless PC rackmount case. A bit of experience, logic, and physics... but it seems like nobody cares.

I get it, completely, because rackmounted cases are usually used in big data centres where noise isn't an issue at all.

 

Alright I created a private conversation on that topic, if anyone is interested pm me

 

rack mounted cases are sh!tty, plus the fact rack is causing vibrations to travel further - unless you really need to travel around, use regular case,
if you want some silence-optimized case, Fractal Design Define series are best imo - make sure to get version without side window, they use acoustic dampening material on inner sides of panels on sides and front,
about graphics cards, nowadays literally all decent cards have sort of passive mode (fans don't spin, 0dB noise) unless reaching certain temperature threshold (usually around 60°C),
that said bigger the heatsink, the better passive cooling capability, same applies to cpu coolers - which also means you need relatively big case to fit big cpu coolers - liquid cooling is in fact less effective than huge air coolers (!)

 

Or we can open a thread

 

I have 4 separate Rack systems all dead quiet and all four run cool. Full 8 cores running for 12 hour sessions i get a max 63c

 

So, I think I am going to take the plunge and go for the rack setup. I think I am going to buy a fairly deep 4U rack chassis that will give most room and less restrictions for air flow.

My plan is to put in my Asus Sabertooth X79 motherboard, my 64GB RAM, my Core i7 4960X CPU and probably invest in a passive GTX 1050 Ti GPU. I will have an SSD in there for the OS too but may/may not add 3.5" drives.

My plan is to buy a 4U that has a fan wall in the middle. I will probably mount two 120mm fans on the front of the chassis (something like Noctua or BeQuiet Silent Wings), then mount my 280mm Kraken X61 radiator on the fan wall (will have to custom fit as hole seem to only be for 120mm in the main) along with a third 140mm fan, and hopefully be able to hack the rear and mount a 120mm or 140mm instead of the two 80mm fans you normally get.

If I did this, using PWM fans known to be silent, like the Noctua, BeQuiet or Arctic ones, I can't see how it would be any louder than any other PC case, or am I missing something?

I may even go a step further too and add some sound isolating lining to all the panels too.

My custom studio desk has two 14U rack in the legs, so have plenty of space to mount a 4U rack at the bottom of one of the legs, which will integrate it into the setup cleanly.

 

Last edited: Mar 30, 2019

I think I have found the case....only to try and find th generic model name now and somewhere with it in stock!

https://www.xcase.co.uk/products/xk465f2-4u-rackmount-chassis-e-atx-120mm-fan-wall

 

I've bought a dual-xeon server & two empty rack cases from x-case a few years back - yeah, they're a decent little outfit. A sound dampening kit certainly will do more good than harm...

With the specs you're planning to fit it's certain you won't be losing any sleep on account of a noisy pc at any rate!

 

Last edited: Mar 31, 2019

One thing to remember about cooling is that it can be extremely efficient with even only one fan [and intake hole in down-front], or two fans, with the sucking fan working at the same or higher speed, but the case should be sealed, so the air pressure builds up. I have a great case scheme, I modeled, changed the design many times over the years, but never got to making it. Shame. It's designed with quietness and music studios in mind.

The reason why I didn't make it is because I found a really great Antec case [can't remember the model] that is quite closed and heavy. I only use a low speed Scythe 120mm fan between the CPU [Scythe Ninja huge cooler] and passively cooled VGA, and another same fan for the outtake.

PSU fan doesn't work unless the CPU is under heavy load. Interesting thing is that I see much better temperatures with this case than I used to with my generic/cheap Coolermaster case and more fans. So there's too many cases with too many fans and holes all over the place. Inefficient cooling design. I think people actually like the sound of all those roaring fans...

Cheers!

 

I have a Corsair RM850 modular power supply at the moment and a NZXT Kraken X61 280mm AIO CPU cooler. My GTX 970 is a Gigabyte too, and for some baffling reason, Gigabyte have baked into the GPU's BIOS that it won't run any lower than 1500rpm and always runs. Therefore, it's impossible to make it silent, so will need to upgrade the GPU to either the Palit passive GTX 1050Ti or the 1660Ti where I can stop the fans unless under load.

With regard to sound dampening, PC-dedicated foam seems to be fairly costly. However, upon some scanning around, one thing I came across was the foam used for things like sound insulation in car doors or engine covers, that seems to be designed to prevent low frequencies in the main but also dampen higher frequency noises. Do you think that would work as it works out about 5-20% the cost of PC dedicated sound dampening foam?