Racking regular pc's

[LotharJade]

My friends and I can get pallets of old computers from a local reasearching place. We would be interested in setting up quite a few doing DC. Is there a way people commonly create a rackish system from regular PC components? Basically we have limited space, but would have all the innards from a regular comptuer at our disposal.

How would that work with power supplies, hard drives, cd-roms, cables and the like?

 

[GeoffS]

I've seen people buy 3" standoffs and stack the motherboards, stacking the PSUs and HDs also... for DC purposes, you don't need all the peripherals... and if you are running a project that you can boot off a lan, you don't need the HD either... just the mobo, ram, not even the vidcard if your mobo can run headless

 

[networkman]

HERE is a great link to the way other people have put together racks and towers of PCs for dedicated DC crunching. If nothing else, the pictures should give plenty of ideas.

 

[bluestrobe]

Seti@Home sure has a nice fanbase. Haven't seen a setup like that for either F@H or FAH.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

a "crack rack" would be the most effective method, although usually the least visually appealing.

if you have an actual server rack, you can purchase rack trays, and just stack the pc's side by side (usually 3 per tray)

 

[silverpig]

I'm just about to build something myself. I've only got 3 extra systems. Just gonna get a few 16" threaded rods that will fit through the mobo holes, stand the mobos off with nuts, and then figure something out for the power supplies etc.

 

[superkdogg]

It's not really what you're asking, and elegance is completely out the window, but I have had up to 8 complete machines sitting open in a full-size bookshelf before. Just a thought.