Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Will standard ATX mother board fit in "Server" Rack mount case?

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Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 03-21-2006, 03:42 PM:

I need to build a cpu in a rack mount case. It needs to be in either a 1 or 2 unit high rack mount case.

If I buy a case labeled as a "server" case. Do I need to put a mother board that is labeled as a "server" board? Does the "Server" label simply apply to the capabilities of the board, or does it also mean that the layout of the rear connections are different than a non-server mobo?

All I really need is a standard ATX or Mini ATX board. Will they fit in the case?

Posted by Robert Minichino (Member # 3495) on 03-21-2006, 04:34 PM:

The "server" cases usually take an ATX or EATX (ATX but bigger) motherboard, and a regular "desktop" ATX or Micro-ATX (ATX but smaller) motherboard should fit with no problem. The layout of the rear ports may differ, but if they do the boards come with a metal "gasket" that fits in the case cutout (even most desktop boards come with these as the port configurations vary widely now).

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 03-22-2006, 10:28 AM:

A standard ATX motherboard MAY fit into a rackmount case, however you would not be able to add any PCI cards to it. Unless the motherboard has a riser card, with the PCI cards installed parallel to the motherboard.

1U and 2U case heights do not provide enough room for them to stand up.

Posted by Robert Minichino (Member # 3495) on 03-22-2006, 03:16 PM:

In my experience the cases generally come with riser cards (or they're optional), not the motherboards.

EDIT: Also there are low-profile cards available with interchangable back plates to fit in either full-height slots or the half-height ones available in some 2U rack chassis and compact desktops.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 03-22-2006, 04:09 PM:

Thanks for the info.
The case I've been eyeing is from Dynapower and it inlcudes 2 riser cards.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 03-22-2006, 04:10 PM:

Thanks for the info.
The case I've been eyeing is from Dynapower and it inlcudes 2 riser cards.

What mother board brands do you like best? I'm trying to keep the cost down, and had been looking at Biostar boards. Any thoughts?

Posted by Joel N. Weber II (Member # 3530) on 03-28-2006, 09:35 PM:

I also wonder a bit whether some of the taller CPU heatsinks may not fit in a 1U case, and or whether their fans may not be designed for optimal airflow in a 1U case if the fan is above the heatsink and expecting more air space above it than the case provides. The compatibility notes for the Silverstone SG01 micro ATX case say `` CPU cooler cannot exceed 78mm in height''. I suspect this means that there are taller coolers in the marketplace. And 1.75 inches times 25.4 milimeters per inch suggests that a 1U case is going to be about 44mm tall, and some of that space is used for the thickness of the motherboard, the thickness of the processor, the thickness of the case's sheet metal, and the air gap between the motherboard and case.

Another issue that sometimes comes up with servers is remote management. If you're building a file server for 5 people, remote management is probably way more trouble to set up than it's worth. If you're building a web server that's going to be in a colo facility that doesn't have someone on site 24x7, then being able to reboot the machine remotely and have access to the console remotely while the machine hasn't yet finished booting may be useful. Some motherboards intended specifically for server use include a management processor which runs off the always-on section of the power supply and facilitates these things, but the extent of those capabilities varies widely.

(Then again, for colocated webservers, you're probably often better off with a virtual machine hosting provider, rather than having your own physical machine. The exception is probably if you are running an exceptionally high volume website.)

The 1U and 2U servers I've seen generally use motherboards with built in video interfaces, whereas many ATX motherboards don't have built in video. And it's generally not all that hard to get a motherboard that has enough stuff built in that you won't need any PCI cards. (There are also some unix servers that don't have video at all, just an RS232 console port, which works fine for unix servers that are designed that way, but the BIOS on most x86 PC motherboards tends to assume that you will have a video card.)