I'm thinking black, stacked, and ready. I'm thinking high, corner, and cool. I'm thinking 1U. I'm thinking racked, totally. I'm thinking switcheroo...
Okay, so I'm thinking that my beige G3 and my 7300 would make perfect candidates for a 1U retrofit and rack mount with my Asante and 3Com switches. Yeah, I'm thinking that an iMac fits just lovely inside a 1U case, so why not a beige G3?
I'm searching high and low. I'm searching for the evidence that it can be done. I'm looking here, there, and everywhere. I'm thinking I can pull it off.
I'm finding nothing. I'm finding nothing but a dude that stuffed an iMac logic board into a 1U case. I'm finding a company that's selling 1U kits for the iMac for $300. I'm thinking ouch. I'm feeling the pain. I'm thinking I don't want to spend $300 to stuff an old Mac in a rack.
Anybody thinking better than me?
The only problem I could forsee is the Personality Card. I don't know if it will boot without it or not; I've never really tried.
How exactly do you plan to squeeze the 7300's CPU card into a 1.75 inch tall case?
As an aside, frankly, I *really* don't understand why anyone would want a rack-mounted computer at home. Rack computers *suck* anywhere but a server room. Unless you like living inside a wind tunnel.
--Peace
Apparently you're thinking better than me. You're both right; the 7300's CPU card and the G3's Personality card will not fit in a 1U case. So I'm back to the drawing board.
I suppose I'm stuck with just putting the iMac into a Rack.
As for why I want a rack-mount computer, it has more to do with my recent attraction to rack-mount switches and my need for space. My Macs are taking up too much space and I want to conserve space by sticking some in 1U cases.
I have a 7100/66 logic board laying around too. I just recently picked up a ROM for this board, so it's in perfect working order again. It looks like it would work nicely in a 1U case.
Even in a server room they often suck. Some of them are really poorly designed requiring nearly the whole system to be disassembled to do simple things like removing hard drives.
Personally I have found the best system to be standard ATX cases on wire racks like these. http://www.metro.com/consumer/index.cfm They are very versatile and can hold a lot of stuff. I built a keyboard tray for mine and have 4 systems, a 19" monitor and a 21" monitor on it and still have a lot of room left. I used to also have my printer and servers on here but they have since been moved to another room.
Could you possibly post some pics of your setup? I'm in major need of a computer room makeover; I've very little space and I'm not utilizing the space I do have very wisely.
Would really appreciate some ideas and inspiration.
I should have some around here. I will see if I can find them. If not I will have to clean up first. Right now it looks like a tornado went through here.