The graphic card is not a problem, but thank you for the comments on the noise.

Regarding your suggestion of a tower server from Dell mounted sideways, do you have a specific model in mind or can any of them be mounted sideways?

Alex


>>Hi,
>>
>>I am loooking to buy a rack mounted server for home network, for personal use, development work and backup of work files. Would appreciate recommendations.
>
>Do you already have a rack? If you're not familiar with them, typical 2U or 1U rackmount servers use small, high-speed fans that are REALLY noisy. A lot of them require low-profile adapter cards so you can't install high-performance graphics cards, for example.
>
>For home use I really recommend against rack mount servers unless you already have a rack set up with acceptable heat and noise control measures in place. Setting a rack up properly is not trivial.
>
>You could consider certain conventional computer cases, instead. For example, some Dell small business servers come in tower cases that are the same dimensions as 4U or 5U rackmount cases. You can buy bracket kits from Dell that let you mount them sideways in a rack.
>
>I'm starting to feel that noise control is really important. I recently spec'd a video and image capture machine for a health and wellness clinic, where they specifically need it to be as quiet and unobtrusive as possible. It's an Antec P183 case with eight 3.5" hard drives and an 850W Antec modular power supply. It is nearly silent - you have to put your ear almost on the case to be able to tell it's running. The same clinic has a specialized blood-analysis machine running in the next office, with its own dedicated PC in a cheap standard case (a little louder than a standard office PC). The clinic is so quiet, that when you've got your head near the Antec, all you can hear is this cheap PC running in the office next door!
>
>If you absolutely, positively must have a 1U or 2U rackmount server, I'd first look on the Dell site to get some ideas of servers and prices. If they're too expensive, you can build your own - a local computer shop should be able to source you a case, and you can add a motherboard and other parts.