For many years I've had my eye on Ucoustic server racks due to their design and function, that reason covers heat expulsion and sound dampening. On the 28 Sep, 2020 I was lucky to find a 12U Ucoustic server rack from eBay for £299 which I had planned to use for running an Opensimulator development grid on multiple 1U Dell servers.
Image copyright © Dell Technologies
While I did want a stable Opensimulator development grid for making shows, over time I decided against using Dell servers at this point and was able to run them on a small PC server that I recently purchased in 2023. As I'm now focusing more on Unreal Engine 5 it's unlikely I will need an Opensimulator grid but I will keep my options open as I want to develop a wide range of content/styles of shows and videos that will appeal to many people.
Over the subsequent years after I purchased the 12U, I've been on the constant lookout for its larger version the 42U, and on 04 Feb, 2022 I was finally able to find one in my price range, infact I managed to get it so cheap at auction I supprised even myself, it was £94 plus 3rd party van delivery costs, so while the total with delivery cost is higher than the £94 I believe the auction was a massive W.
It's remarkable considering they retail second hand almost new from £1000 - £5000, though mine requres some minor refurbishment due to how it was stored and because a cat had apparently been living in it from time to time.
This means I will need to replace the bottom foam and some of the side foam due to wear and tear only, but everything else is in good enough condition. The images below show how it should look brand new when racked up with servers and other devices.
Image copyright © Ucoustic
My orginal plan was to use it again for more servers perhaps an opensiulator grid or other servers I need for various things I want to do, or for my and my partners workstations. But with the difficulay of running cables to other rooms, and the price of some of those cables after researhing and watching LTT videos on the subject. I decided to use it almost entirely for a blender rending farm.
So the original plan was to put workstations and gaming pcs in this but I’m going to build a rendering farm for @SnackFerret Studio in mine. pic.twitter.com/dZqwNypR9a
— Velivian Fesothe ☕ (@Fesothe) August 23, 2022
Why Blender?
My Blender rendering farm will be called Critter Cluster and will utilize the use of crypto mining chassis as they can accomdate many graphics cards in a rackmount form factor and I will need spare graphics cards in the chasiss if one or more die so I can hook them up quickly to carry on rendering.
I've chosen Blender because it can network many PCs together and use multiple graphics cards to speed up renders, as I am using UE5 to develop the enviroments before porting them to blender, I can't cut blender out and build just a rending farm using UE5 as it does not yet support the use of multiple PCs and Graphics cards if this changes it will become a Unreal Engine / Blender Rending farm.
Accessories?
In 14 Jul, 2022 I won another aution I picked up 4 Rack Mount Power Distribution Units for £105.93 one of which will be used for the rack, 1 other will be used for my KewlLab, one for my gaming rack and the other for my workstation desk.
Managed to get myself some Raritan Power Distribution Units, I was hoping for one in red, I got 4 for some reason. For the #server racks. Good deal too! pic.twitter.com/IOuN8Bu9VJ
— Velivian Fesothe ☕ (@Fesothe) July 20, 2022
Rack Stats?
- Useable Height (1U = 44.45mm) 42U
- External Cabinet Dimensions (mm) 2050 x 780 x 1265
- Max distance between front & rear mounting profiles 794
- Internal Cabinet Depth (mm) 917
- Assisted Cooling Mechanism 2 x fan blowers located in rear doors
- Weight without rackmount equipment 313kg
- Max Load 500kg
- Castors
- Heavy duty steel construction
- Removeable side panels and doors for easy access
- Key lockable doors and side panels
- 2 x Heavy duty floor panels
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