My Tri-Monitor Rackmount Computer Build!

Show off your quiet rig.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

jamesg
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Location: Cambridge, UK

Post by jamesg » Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:55 pm

Kater was joking! I thought it was pretty funny anyway :)

I don't play much music on this PC, which is why I only have a rubbish pair of Creative 2.1 speakers. I built myself a home theatre PC a couple of years ago which took a lot more effort than the cabinet!

I should really do a write-up on that too, but here's a taster for now...

Image

murtoz
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Location: Wiltshire, UK

Re: My Tri-Monitor Rackmount Computer Build!

Post by murtoz » Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:57 pm

Very nice setup!

Just one thing I am wondering about...
jamesg wrote:suspended with bungee cord in the 1u case.
How!?! Do you have any pics of that?

cloneman
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Post by cloneman » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:00 pm

very impressive. It shows what someone can do these days when they are motivated - and have some cash to spend, lol!

How much did the main PC set you back? If only there were more people like you to set the example... The only enthusiasts I know just get the latest and greatest cpu, video, ram, and a nice case... and they think they are all smooth - heh. You show'em.

jamesg
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Location: Cambridge, UK

Post by jamesg » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:14 pm

cloneman wrote:very impressive. It shows what someone can do these days when they are motivated - and have some cash to spend, lol!

How much did the main PC set you back? If only there were more people like you to set the example... The only enthusiasts I know just get the latest and greatest cpu, video, ram, and a nice case... and they think they are all smooth - heh. You show'em.
Thanks! I think I spent less than 700GBP ($1400) on the main PC, but things are more expensive here than in the US. I don't play enough games to make it worth spending a lot on parts, and I can always buy some faster components later on if I need them.

jamesg
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Location: Cambridge, UK

Re: My Tri-Monitor Rackmount Computer Build!

Post by jamesg » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:51 pm

murtoz wrote:Very nice setup!

Just one thing I am wondering about...
jamesg wrote:suspended with bungee cord in the 1u case.
How!?! Do you have any pics of that?
I didn't have any pics but I just took some, as it's quite easy to pull out the individual machines now :)

There's hardly any room (1U is 1.75 inches) to suspend a hard disc and there aren't even any drive bays in the case.

Before I did this, the hard disc somehow found the resonant frequency of the house :P I could actually hear it downstairs as a loud drone!

I attached 4 long screws vertically from the bottom of the case using nuts and washers. They have to be absolutely rigid. I then wrapped the cord around the screws and hard disc. It's not very neat but it works perfectly.

Image

Image

cloneman
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Post by cloneman » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:50 pm

Image

You could sell this pic to hosting companies. They always have this very random picture of cables and network equipment :D

JimX
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Post by JimX » Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:52 pm

Very well done! Congrats!

smason
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Post by smason » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:12 am

This is REALLY nice 8)

Jay_S
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Post by Jay_S » Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:15 pm

Very clean setup!

How do the PCs intake air when the cabinet door is shut? There's a picture a few posts up showing the cabinet door open - it looks like the bottom of the cabinet is open? Is the back open?

Thanks,
Jay

jamesg
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Location: Cambridge, UK

Post by jamesg » Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:54 pm

Thanks Jay. Yeah, the bottom of the cabinet is open, and it's on castors so there's plenty of airflow from the bottom.

I've removed the back door of the cabinet as it makes cable access a lot easier and you can't tell when it's against a wall.

Tresstump
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Location: Tasmania, Australia

Post by Tresstump » Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:01 pm

I have always dreamt of having a rackmmount setup like this.

*Passes out, hits head on pool of awe and dies*

raziell
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Post by raziell » Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:46 am

3 monitors ?
such a waste of money...

klankymen
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Post by klankymen » Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:38 am

wow, this is just incredibly unbelievably awesome.
I wish I had that much money to spend, and could make my setup look even half as nice :D

jackoftrading
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Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:35 am

Multi-Monitors

Post by jackoftrading » Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:30 am

Just came across this setup. I just got a 4 montior trading computer from NTI - they have a system for 12 monitors. 4 is huge (well over 1) could not imagin 12. they call them Quadstations at naplestech . com

andyb
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Post by andyb » Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:04 pm

"Thats totally crap, pointless, and a waste of time effort and money........."

This is what could have happened if you posted it on ANY other forum, its nice to see that you picked the right place

Fucki*g awsome is what I say :P bastard


Andy

elec999
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Post by elec999 » Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:48 pm

This is a beauty. What is it like to have triple monitor.
Thanks

Krillepille
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Post by Krillepille » Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:11 am

This is awesome! :)

abyssinianson
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Post by abyssinianson » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:39 am

Krillepille wrote:This is awesome! :)
indeed. amazing setup. i was thinking of going with 3 20" for my music recording PC too but I am going to go with 2 24" widescreens instead just to save on desk real estate and use it for my MIDI piano and mixers. kudos for a really good job.

abyssinianson
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Post by abyssinianson » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:40 am

raziell wrote:3 monitors ?
such a waste of money...
what have you got?

Fayd
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Post by Fayd » Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:11 pm

tough call between 3 monitors, and 1 REALLY big one.

Konnetikut
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Post by Konnetikut » Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:14 pm

Fayd wrote:tough call between 3 monitors, and 1 REALLY big one.
I'd go for the 3.

Fayd
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Post by Fayd » Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:25 pm

Konnetikut wrote:
Fayd wrote:tough call between 3 monitors, and 1 REALLY big one.
I'd go for the 3.
compared to a 1920x1080 42" LCD?

would be awesome if surround gaming worked like it should.

lm
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Post by lm » Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:52 am

I'd take one 30" 2560x1600 :)

djkest
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Post by djkest » Sat Oct 27, 2007 3:45 pm

color me jealous. Very nice setup, and it's nice to see something a little different!

shamrock
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Location: Australia

Post by shamrock » Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:26 am

Oh my!

That is a very nice setup you have there, I like the way you put the cathode behind the desk.

Nice cable management also. =)

Rick
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Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:16 am

Post by Rick » Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:20 am

wow. that looks really clean

couple of questions:

1) what temps do you get on CPU/GPUs in the main rig?
2) what about temps on that VIA CPU (I've never used one)
3) whats that little blue box in the rack above the NAS and under the patch panels?

once again: sick system, love the blue neons, they powered by your PC?

jamesg
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:08 am
Location: Cambridge, UK

Post by jamesg » Mon Nov 26, 2007 1:45 pm

Thanks Rick.

Haven't done exhaustive tests, but CPU temp up to about 60 deg C, GPU up to about 80 deg C (both much lower at idle).

Can't remember temp of VIA CPU, but it's so low power it doesn't need active cooling. I had about 100 days uptime until I installed a patch and needed to reboot!

The blue box is an xbox :)

Blue cold cathode tube was very cheap on ebay. I'm powering it with a power adapter from an old router instead of a molex.

Pgh
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Post by Pgh » Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:15 pm

jamesg -

I have a similar setup with the same video cards. I see you have the SLI bridge connector in place. I was under the impression that the bridge connector could not be used with "SLI Multi-view."

Are you somehow able to toggle back and forth between SLI Multi-view on three monitors and SLI Frame acceleration on a single monitor without removing the bridge?

jamesg
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Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:08 am
Location: Cambridge, UK

Post by jamesg » Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:06 pm

Yes. I normally run in non-SLI mode using all three monitors. The SLI bridge remains connected.

When I want to run an SLI game (hardly ever), I just go into the Nvidia control panel, enable SLI and then reboot. In SLI mode, I only get a picture on the centre monitor.

bonestonne
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Post by bonestonne » Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:24 pm

:roll:

is your desktop pic one panoramic or three separate pics? i've been wondering for a while.

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