Wall Mount Dilemma

Theckie

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I need to wall mount my hardware and think I should do a 19" x 26" wall mount rack case. I would put 2 POE+ 24 port switches, patch cable, power bar and computer/server. I think a 12U is plenty for this. I need ~30 cameras for a car wash.

Having said all that I am at analysis paralysis. I have been looking and rack mount servers but they tend to be much deeper 33"+.
Today, I have the idea of using my desktop as the brains and adding a NAS for all the TB drives I need.

So, any issues with putting a desktop in a server rack case and adding a NAS for the storage? Will Blue Iris be okay with such a config?

The servers I am looking at on eBay are usually Xenon and do not have quick-sync. Desktops give me more options. It would be great if I can use my personal tower for the IP Cam system and then I can get a fresher tower for personal use.

TOWER SPECS:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.19044 Build 19044
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DESKTOP-G53L7TO
System Manufacturer Alienware
System Model Alienware X51 R3
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU 6e3
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6400 CPU @ 2.70GHz, 2701 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Alienware 1.2.15, 5/29/2019
SMBIOS Version 2.8
Embedded Controller Version 15.07
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer Alienware
BaseBoard Product 026CD3
BaseBoard Version A00
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State On
PCR7 Configuration Elevation Required to View
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.19041.1806"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 15.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 8.03 GB
Total Virtual Memory 18.3 GB
Available Virtual Memory 6.51 GB
Page File Space 2.38 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection Off
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes
 

Mike A.

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Turn the desktop on its side and you should be good. Most of the wall-mount racks will be ~16"-19" deep x ~17 wide. My Dell tower is ~11" deep x 14" tall. I've considered doing the same. Would fit in my wall rack fine.

The towers are kind of wide. Could save a few U with a smaller desktop.

Oh... Sorry, I misread. Swapping the board to a rack-mount case you may have more issues with things aligning right with the case. Easier just to stick the desktop in there on a shelf. If you don't like how that looks, you can get one of the perforated covers of however many U to hide it.
 

Theckie

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Turn the desktop on its side and you should be good. Most of the wall-mount racks will be ~16"-19" deep x ~17 wide. My Dell tower is ~11" deep x 14" tall. I've considered doing the same. Would fit in my wall rack fine.
I want to keep it in its original case. Your answer was enough wind in the sails to make this decision. I'll wipe my machine, fresh install, and put in the server rack on its side.
 

jmltech

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Spinning hard drives will work okay on their sides…. Until they don’t ;), since your are making them work against gravity. I would get a 250g (you maybe able to go even smaller) ssd and clone your operating system and to host BI, then use your NAS for the storage as you intended. SSD’s don’t care what the orientation of the drives are, since there are no moving parts.

Also think about two network cards in the desktop… one for the business lan, the other just for the camera network. This will keep all of the camera traffic on its own lan, seperate from your other business traffic. Guidance for doing this is in the wiki.
 

concord

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I've had several workstations and NAS servers, both with drives that mount vertical and horizontal, I didn't notice any difference in failure rate. Not sure if changing orientation any time after formatting would effect performance/life span, I'm sure google search could provide more info.

Note that I usually started swapping out enterprise drives (SCSI, SAS and SATA) after 4-5 years of use, but continued using them (reformatted) in our workstations as a temporary scratch drive and many lasted up to another 5 years.
 

looktall

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I've had several workstations and NAS servers, both with drives that mount vertical and horizontal, I didn't notice any difference in failure rate. Not sure if changing orientation any time after formatting would effect performance/life span, I'm sure google search could provide more info.
Run a drive in any orientation you like.
It makes no difference.
Moving them while running however is a different thing and can cause issue.
 

Theckie

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Here I go back to analysis paralysis. I am not saving any money using my tower and getting a nas. I could just get a nas... :facepalm:
 

Mike A.

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Or you could add more storage to your server likely for less than the NAS. Just to add to the paralysis. ; )
 

Theckie

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I have been thinking about this for at least 3 years. So far I have conduit installed. Now I want to have the system built and tested with a camera at home, and then go install it at the wash.
 

Theckie

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I think I am going to for this:
SuperMicro 2U Server, E3-1220v3, 8GB RAM, 6x TB SATA

Checking Intel website, this processor can quick-sync, has plenty of TB drives in it, 2U. I asked the seller to see if they had any POE+ to add to the deal.
 

mat200

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I think I am going to for this:
SuperMicro 2U Server, E3-1220v3, 8GB RAM, 6x TB SATA

Checking Intel website, this processor can quick-sync, has plenty of TB drives in it, 2U. I asked the seller to see if they had any POE+ to add to the deal.
Hi @Theckie

I also was irritated by wanting to put a PC into a wall mount rack .. unfortunately most of the 2U server boxes are fair too deep ( length too long ) .. also many of the 1U / 2U servers make a lot of noise with smaller high spin fans ..

ended up getting a shelf and putting equipment on that .. not idea, but with some velcro should hold ok ..
 

tech_junkie

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Hi @Theckie

I also was irritated by wanting to put a PC into a wall mount rack .. unfortunately most of the 2U server boxes are fair too deep ( length too long ) .. also many of the 1U / 2U servers make a lot of noise with smaller high spin fans ..

ended up getting a shelf and putting equipment on that .. not idea, but with some velcro should hold ok ..
Mid towers fit inside a 20" deep rack. The way I rack them, is to get a rack mount shelf, and lay it down so the motherboard is on the bottom. I remove the side cover that is now the top and put above it a 3U fan front plate with quiet 120mm fans.
 

sebastiantombs

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QuickSync isn't really necessary at all. Sub streams can reduce CPU loading by a factor of five or greater while QuickSync might reduce it a percent or so. Additionally, many have experienced problems when using QuickSync with versions of BI that support AI, DeepStack and, I believe, SenseAI. In many cases with sub streams enabled, using QuickSyn can actually increase CPU loading slightly because of the "overhead" of passing the video to the video processor.
 

Theckie

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Geez... I missed this detail? Well I bought the server.

QuickSync isn't really necessary at all. Sub streams can reduce CPU loading by a factor of five or greater while QuickSync might reduce it a percent or so.
I thought it was a great deal for about $500:
  • 2U Rackmountable Chassis CSE-825,
  • 2x redundant power supplies (PWS-702A-1R)
  • Mounting rack rails
  • X10SLL-F motherboard
  • 2x 4-Core 3.1GHz E3-1220v3 Intel processors
  • 8GB DDR3 memory
  • 6x 3.5" 4TB SATA hard drives
  • Video
  • 2x USB
  • 2x Gigabit NIC
  • No optical drive
 
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