[mythtv-users] NAS mobo

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Thu Aug 28 22:03:24 UTC 2008


Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 10:01:10AM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> And the *other* problem, which lots of people don't think about, is that
> full size, 4-post, cabinet racks are built to be moved around on a fork
> truck fully loaded with a couple hundred feet of copper cable in them...
> 
> and not break or bend or kill someone the manufacturer will have to pay a
> huge judgement too.
> 
> It's not *quite* as easy as it looks.
> 
> Brian: I'm looking to redo my machine room.  Where are those Atlas sites?

They are in southeast Wyoming, western Nebraska and northeast Colorado.
Basically they are all within 100 miles of Cheyenne (F.E. Warren AFB).

My favorite one is about 25 miles NE of Cheyenne on highway 85.

(and I'm sure that reference to Warren will get this post read by the gov't)

Originally those cabinets were pressurized with nitrogen to minimize
oxidation of the relay contacts, hence the gasketed doors.

Probably not practical unless you are local though :-)

beww


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