So, from whom are people buying their rackmound cases from?
I've been looking for some resellers in the European region and not come up with anything usable yet. Does anyone know a good distributor?

I am buying from ebay..much better price. Just pick up Penguin computing 2u Case with 300W PS for $80 shipped. 1U with PS around $150 shipped. Auction everyday.

www.atxcase.com is the only case I buy.

1U black case with 300W P4 ready power supply and 3 internal blower fans keep it all cool and 2 removable harddrive bays and 1 full size cdrom bay, $179 plus shipping (about $220 gets it to my door). And these aren't aluminum flimsy cases these are ?stainless steel? whatever it is it's TOUGH and rigid (they are kinda heavy, but heck tough is what I'm worried about not weight, my rack can handle it!).

Edit: damn I sound like I'm spamming for them haha trust me I'm just a customer, really!

Originally posted by Dixiesys
www.atxcase.com is the only case I buy.

1U black case with 300W P4 ready power supply and 3 internal blower fans keep it all cool and 2 removable harddrive bays and 1 full size cdrom bay, $179 plus shipping (about $220 gets it to my door). And these aren't aluminum flimsy cases these are ?stainless steel? whatever it is it's TOUGH and rigid (they are kinda heavy, but heck tough is what I'm worried about not weight, my rack can handle it!).

Edit: damn I sound like I'm spamming for them haha trust me I'm just a customer, really! Yea, we use them to. The first 1u I got from them, I picked it up, and was like dang, what's in it a frieght train? It has to be stainless steel to be that heavy. I just made, an order with them of 35 cases 2 days ago, got an huge deal. I get the slightly more expensive cases though, because you can fit two hard drives, floppy, and standard cdrom, instead of the 10 bucksless one which you can either fit 2 hdd, 1 flopy, no cdrom, or 1 hd, 1 floppy, and 1 cdrom. I give two thumb's up to www.atxcase.com.

check out servercase.com - they have plenty in stock, 1u, 2u, 3u, 4u etc units.... also redundant power supplies :)

servercase.com = cheap servers compared to ATX case.

I use their cases as well, its a slightly tight fit with the tyan mboards but I custom mod them a bit to allow for better wire management :).

try http://www.monarchcomputer.com .. they offer cheap cases as well. Doesn't hurt to shop around I guess.

Not sure where in Europe you are after - but in the UK we use www.acme-technology.co.uk

They are just releasing a new range which should be around £130

Thank you for your comments :) . I'll keep on looking. Thanks for that ACME link, wonder what the shipping costs would be to somewhere in northern Europe. I'd better check UPS tomorrow. Thanks again.

I rather buy complete boxes from Dell with a 3 year service contract. Great Service - no hassle in case something goes down.

The Fish

Originally posted by DanielP
servercase.com = cheap servers compared to ATX case.

I just picked up a 1u and 300w p/s from them. I had originally ordered a $250 dollar case with 250w p/s (all internal bays). Shortly after i ordered, they called me long distance (CA -> IL) to say "We have an overstock of the same case, but with removable trays. Its $150. Want it?"

Well, I sure did, and thats what I got. And it isn't 'cheap'. Shipped UPS - 30lbs, has 12 fans, got the 300w p/s, doesn't twist when flexed, and a nice heavy guage steel.

This is the first rack case I've bought - I spent about the last year on-and-off picking one out - and I'm mighty impressed with it.:)

Originally posted by topls64


I just picked up a 1u and 300w p/s from them. I had originally ordered a $250 dollar case with 250w p/s (all internal bays). Shortly after i ordered, they called me long distance (CA -> IL) to say "We have an overstock of the same case, but with removable trays. Its $150. Want it?"

Well, I sure did, and thats what I got. And it isn't 'cheap'. Shipped UPS - 30lbs, has 12 fans, got the 300w p/s, doesn't twist when flexed, and a nice heavy guage steel.

This is the first rack case I've bought - I spent about the last year on-and-off picking one out - and I'm mighty impressed with it.:)

I bought it from servercase.com, by the way...

Which case was that... I didn't think I saw any 1u's with that many fans in em there?

I use www.rackmountnet.com

1u cases w/ 2 hotswap IDE/SCSI drives (either or).. you can get a major variety in each size, they have a 1u w/ 3 hotswap.. but I like my floppy/cdrom just incase :)

expensive btw.. $300 for the 1u w/ 2 hotswap.. but well worth it imo.. hotswap trays included.. it just WORKS. :)

Originally posted by Dixiesys
[ And these aren't aluminum flimsy cases these are ?stainless steel? whatever it is it's TOUGH and rigid (they are kinda heavy,


If sitting in a rack and bolted in properly a heavy case doesn't do anything an aluminum case will. Aluminum cases are not cheap... they are designed for better heat exchange. That's why high end tower (desktop's) aluminum cases are 2-3 times the cost of a standard case.

A metal/steel case traps heat inside.. yes with good fans they should pull the heat out.. aluminum acts like a big heat sink. Feeling the outside of a 1u or 2u aluminum case you would think the machine is overheating because of how warm the outside gets compared to a steel case.

And I can feel the air coming from the power supply fan on an aluminum case and it's cool.. compared to the same setup on a steel case the air is very warm coming from the power supply.

I have an aluminum 2U and I really don't like it, if it's the bottom case the middle sags noticably, and it's just real reassuring in it's "toughness".

Rastoma, while aluminum cases do act as heat sinks they can be hell on AMD systems, in a rack packed full of 1u servers that heat shoots straight up from the bottom case to the top and passes directly into the motherboard. While the bottom servers might be fine those top servers cook even with a lot of airflow... I prefer the steel cases myself with good airflow. :)

that may be true.... since over all more problems arise from amd xp servers than intel or even duron systems, i don't use them. other than a couple that i put in towers.

also we put reboot ports and switchs in the middle of the racks also so 40 systems are not on top of each other... but have a gap of a few u's in the middle.

are there any 1U cases with redundant power supplies?

Originally posted by DanielP
Which case was that... I didn't think I saw any 1u's with that many fans in em there?

Dan, I originally looked at the RMC-1L (http://www.servercase.com/ImageFiles/SC1L.html) but after they called me and offered me a comparable case cheaper, I ended up with the RMC-1M-E/RMC-1M-S (http://www.servercase.com/ImageFiles/SC1M.html), less the backplane and riser card. I didn't need them anyway. Eight fans total come with the case (+2 on the dual cpus +2 in power supply) for a total of 12 in my server. It has a hell of a whine from the fans, but its a colo server so I won't hear it :) I esp. like the two slim fans that draw heat from the cpu's and vent it out the side. The bracket they attatch to is moveable front-back =/- about 2 inches.