[NTLUG:Discuss] When do you save with rackmounts?

[Chris Cox]

Terry Hancock wrote:
> Hi,
> Following the "2U" system thread, it's obvious that some of you use rackmount 
> systems.  I'm wondering what the tradeoffs are.
> 
> Obviously rackmount systems tend to be expensive for the same level of 
> system, and they save space.  But unless you really are in a business where 
> the physical computer cases actually take up a large fraction of your floor 
> space, it's hard to believe that this alone is worth the extra cost.

Actually, in some cases, the rackmount is cheaper.  Rackmounted boxes
don't have to be QUIET, unlike their workstation bretheren.  They
can make many shortcuts that simply wouldn't apply in a workstation
(e.g. heatsinks without fans for example).

Real estate is the MOST expensive part of the computer room.  Unless
you're talking about shuttle.com's, littlepc.com's or saintsong.com.tw's
your desktops and/or towers will ALWAYS occupy more real estate.... but
as you say, this applies only when you are interested in having many
computers... for just a couple of machines, NOISE IMHO is the best
reason for avoiding a rackmounted system.  Next reason.. oddly enough
is space. :-)  You'll find the form factor of a rackmount system
to be quite large... unless stacked for density in a rack.  I've
wrestled with the mini-rack idea many times... and at the end of
the day, I usually get a workstation.... I just don't like being
put into a box.. so to speak... with regards to expansion and hardware
choices.

However, many rackmountable systems come with many things swappable.
(swappable PSUs, fans, drives)  As pluggable PCI becomes a reality,
it's likely to find its way into the rackmount boards first.  What
is predominantly missing between a rackmount/server board and a
workstation board... (apart form a plethora of PCI slots)... AGP!
In fact, this one item tends to make the server boards much more
"reliable" since video so often affects stability... not that many
try to treat their servers like workstations.

A lot of server boards also have some nice management features not
present on workstation boards (for remote monitoring, startup,
shutdown).  Some even allow for routing the bios out the serial
port (though since Windows ownz the data center, this feature
isn't as wide-spread as one might think).


My two cents...(off the top of my head)
Chris