Rackmounting questions

[fastbilly1]

I am planning on converting my pcs to rackmount for my home lan. I have ten I am planning on doing this to - eight will be setup as a gaming LAN, one as a gaming server, and one will be an always on/NAS/run WakeonLAN master for the others. I am planning to build two 18u racks and have a nice place to put them that will stay cold and it doesnt matter how noisy they are. But since my experience with rackmounting is mostly AV gear, I have some questions:

1. Are all rails made equally?
2. Can you fit a fullsize gaming GPU in a 3U case (without a riser), or do you have to go to a 4U? The bulk of the PCs have AGP cards and are from around 2005.
3. Is it worth it to buy the better cases when most of the time no one will see them? I am currently eyeballing the Ark 4U-500-CA or the Norco RPC-450B.
4. Are sliders worth the extra money if I do not plan on upgrading any time soon? My gut is no, but I have to ask.

I am sure I will have more questions based on the answers, so thank you in advance. I can go into more detail about my idea, specifically the ideal rack builds if you would like.

[Ziggy]

1. Are all rails made equally?

By this do you mean, do they all conform to the same form factor?

Like you, I only have audio rack mounted stuff. But I always thought (or perhaps incorrectly assumed) that ALL rack mounted stuff was the same size standard. When I got a rack mountable video transcoder a few months back, I noticed it was the same size as my audio equipment, so that seemed to confirm my suspicion.

The file/server room at work has a floor to ceiling rack, and just by eye balling it, it looks like it's the same size (width, at least) as my audio rack.

[Hobie-wan]

FWIW I have an (empty) comm rack (I think it is) and the rails are just over 17.5 inches apart.

[fastbilly1]

The spacing on the rails is 1.75 inchs apart. I was wondering if the build quality of rails is roughly the same. Sorry for the confusion.

[Hobie-wan]

Ah, mine has way more holes than that. It has a pattern of 7 holes that repeats every 3.5 inches. There are 2 closer together, than the other 5 are a little further apart.

[fastbilly1]

Uhoh, that makes things interesting.

[Hobie-wan]

Wait no, it is a 1.75 inch pattern with 3 holes. There are 2 closer together, then one a little further. It's very subtle and it is a used rack so the holes where the black paint is gone is throwing me off since there's nothing mounted in it.

[sonic2041]

Get slides. Things are a pain if you don't have them. If you don't do slides get a shelf because you cant just mount a case from the front, there will be way too much stress on it. Racks that are just front mount are made for network stuff. I would get a 4U, 3U would cut it close. Look on new egg and find something that includes slides. Its better to pay for something quality than deal with garbage even once IMO.


EDIT: and by nice I mean get a decent 4U with slides. I will look later and see what my brother has, he didn't spend a lot on it and I think it came with slides. We upgraded it to have hot swap bays which would increase the cost by a lot, but those are not necessary.

EDIT AGAIN: I should really think if that's all I have before posting. A 4U is like tipping an average mid tower on its side.

EDIT: last time, I swear. My brother has the Norco 470 and is happy with it. He got the slides during some kind of promo. It looks similar to the 2 you listed in design and quality to what you listed, so I'd say look for something along those lines, and find something that you can get slides from the same manufacturer on promo, or just get a shelf, that way you would only need to screw in the front (using a shelf) and maintenance will be easy.

The fans that are included with those cases can get pretty loud, so keep that in mind.

[fastbilly1]

sonic2041, edit as many times as you feel like. Good info is always good to have.

Noise does not bother me. Aslong as the fans are under 80db they are not a problem.

[Hobie-wan]

Noise does not bother me. Aslong as the fans are under 80db they are not a problem.

Oh come on, he isn't a bad fanboy.

*ba dump tish*