[mythtv-users] NAS mobo

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Thu Aug 28 16:01:10 UTC 2008


Yan Seiner wrote:
> On Thu, August 28, 2008 7:10 am, John Drescher wrote:
> 
>> Now I wish I had racks at work. In the past I have stayed away from
>> rack mounted equipment because the cost was too much compared to the
>> cost of the rest of the server (less than $1500 US) minus the hard
>> drives. Thanks for the idea. I may still use this being that I have a
>> couple of dozen drives sitting on the shelf waiting to be put into
>> production...
> 
> Yeah, I really think that the whole rack thing is a huge scam.  4 7'
> aluminum channels, a couple of alum angles, and some bolts and you have a
> rack.  WIth a simple computer controlled machine, you can cut and drill
> the rack in < 1 minute if you're bulk-feeding the channel.  We're talking
> maybe $50 in materials in relatively small quantity.  Call it an open 19"
> rack, and you can sell it for $700.
> 
> Gah.  I suspect it has to do with racks being 'capital equipment' and thus
> you can depreciate them using the 5 year schedule for US taxes.
> 
Typical, but not extreme.

How about when they used to remove all of the expensive RF and IF
components from a TV set and replace them all with a 75-cent BNC jack.
Somehow this increased the price by hundreds of dollars.

Around here we get rack cabinets (not channel type racks, full cabinets)
for free. We just pay a visit to one of the abandoned Atlas Missile
sites in the area.

Nice cabinets too, made by RCA out of 1/4" tool steel, with gasketed
doors front and rear.

It's a bit of work to get them out, but worth it.

The real problem is that racks are not made in consumer-level mass
quantities, and are generally sold to companies who don't care about the
price.

beww



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