Need Some Help. Need 1U case For Asus K8N-DL

[|CR|Constantine]

Good Morning Fellas,
I am having some real issues with finding a 1U rackmounted server case for the Asus K8N-DL Nforce 4 board. I am moving my current dual Opty 275 gaming server to a new hosting place here in south Florida.

To be cost effective I need to replace the existing the 3U server rack mounted case to a 1U unit. The problems I am having finding are as follows:

- I/O Shield. It seems as though all the placements of the I/O shields are permanently fixed on the 1U chassis. The Asus K8N-DL I/O panel looks vastly different to many of the cases I found online. I would not mind hacking away at the back panel in order for it to fit, but damn I would like a clean fit.

- The board does not have an onboard video card, so I will have to use a riser setup. However the placement of the PCI-Express slots look much further down the motherboard than most server board and I am worried it will not fit the 1U chassis opening at all.

Here are some pics of the board itself compared to a 1U chassis from Tyan. The Tyan is very similar to other 1U chassis that I have found so far, so I used it for a reference.

Notice the I/O ports compared to a 1U chassis

Notice how far to the left the PCI Express slot is compared to the 1U chassis.

If anyone knows of a 1U server chassis that would fit this board I would be incredibly greatful.

 

[IntimidatorX]

With that case as example, it wont work, you will end up with something like this:

Maybe you should email them about your problem, i'll look into my suppliers for you and see if there is any brand that has a 1U case that fits that board.

 

[brasherman]

Have you measured to make sure your sound risers would fit in a 1U? They look almost too tall to fit with standoffs.

My friend had the same problem with his three new servers and it actually forced him to change to a board that would fit the rack cases he had. Good luck with this.

 

[swatbat]

What about using a pci video card and riser? Or better yet will that board run without video? If it will you install windows using a video card and then switch to remote desktop for doing admin work.

 

[|CR|Constantine]

Thanks for the overlay Fellas, but I think I may have to bit the bullet on this one. I found a great Tyan bare bones system (B3870G20S4H) on NewEgg for $600 Bucs. I will just have yank the processors and ram from this unit and toss them in.

I could either sell the remaining bare bones unit (Antec 3u case, Asus K8N-DL, 2GB DDR400 ECC Corsair, DVD Rom, 550Watt Antec PSU) or get another couple of dual Opty's and leave it in my old hosting center.

I appreciate the help fellas the photoshop layover cemented my decision.

Great Site attracts great people, thanks again.

Constantine

 

[IntimidatorX]

No problem didnt took me much time, just had to find the measures of the board and rack case.

In any case you can make the board boot without a video card, just take the "Alt on all errors" off the bios and then you can remote admin the server like swatbat said.

If you really need to connect it to a monitor, you can always buy a external output that connects to your USB.