Rack-mount servers for slave boxes?

[Old Dirty Bathtub]

Hi all. I'm a long-time lurker and first-time poster. I've been dual boxing for about a year and I'm planning to move up to a five box setup in the near future.

I'm wondering about using 1U rack-mount servers as slave boxes to save space and conserve power. Specifically, I'm considering this server.
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Of course I'll need to install an OS get a better PCI graphics card in there; I'm looking at XP and a 256m PCI GeForce 6200 at the moment. With these upgrades, can anyone see any reason this wouldn't work? Would these boxes be robust enough to run two instances of WOW with the 256m 6200? Would it be worth the extra $15 per box to get a 512m PCI card?

Thanks to the whole community for a lot of great information -- I don't think I would have considered trying the move to 5 boxes without having such a good resource at hand! (So if my wife complains, I'm sending her to you guys...)

[Molt]

The specs on the machine look fine for running a couple of instances of WoW on with one slight reservation- the card you linked to seems to have a DVI port and a VGA port and if you're running multiple identical monitors off it you may well end up with one looking a lot clearer than the other. My own suspicion is that the 256MB would be okay too, although given the fact that there was a notable hardware bump when BC came out I personally would go to 512MB to make the box a little more WotLK-proof.

[Katharsis]

Rack mounts push a lot of air through small channels. Maybe they make them more quiet these days but if not, the noise might be unappealing in a small room.

[Ken]

I agree with the noise issue. Most of those servers are really loud.

I don't understand why you would want to buy multiple server systems, because rack-mounted hardware is often quite expensive(hardware and electricity bill-whise).
1 decent quad-core PC system with 1 main harddisk(for Windows and apps) and 5 smaller ones(for each WoW client), 4GB of RAM and a decent videocard(with 512MB memory) should do the trick. I bet that's a lot cheaper.

I run 4 WoW instances on 1 Linux machine which only has a single 2.8GHz core and 2 harddisks. It's not the fastest(I'm gonna upgrade to quad core), but it actually works! So 1 decent PC should suffice.

[Basilikos]

I don't understand why you would want to buy multiple server systems, because rack-mounted hardware is often quite expensive(hardware and electricity bill-wise).

This is true. I considered going rack-mounted before I started MBing, but it turns out you can easily build four decent system for what you'd build a single rack for.

Also, I have not attempted a linux solution. Anyone here know how to do that? I'm considering going purely hardware and would love to know how to avoid paying for more windows licenses.

Thanks.

[Djarid]

Also, I have not attempted a linux solution. Anyone here know how to do that? I'm considering going purely hardware and would love to know how to avoid paying for more windows licenses.

The Wiki is your friend! http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Linux Contributed by Ken vh (Thanks Ken)

[Ken]

Also, I have not attempted a linux solution. Anyone here know how to do that? I'm considering going purely hardware and would love to know how to avoid paying for more windows licenses.

The Wiki is your friend! http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Linux Contributed by Ken vh (Thanks Ken)

You're welcome
I also added some other pages:
http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Vista (also about symbolic linking, stuff I found in topics on the forum)
http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/inde...to_Make_Movies This was empty, so I filled it a bit, since it was linked from the front page.

By the by:
General performance in Linux is better than in Windows Vista. It is worse than in XP though, but very very playable.

[Xzin]

Rack mounts cost more too. Just buy 5 traditional machines and stack them. Air flow will be fine. If you need space, get MicroATX boards.

[Nisch]

I'm slowly migrating my setup from a mid-tower setup to a rackmount. I've got my main in a 4U case. I agree that 1U is WAY too loud, and really 2U should be the minimum height for the fan noise and cooling. 3U would be more ideal for the slaves and a 4U for your main. I'm going to end up with a 19U height, which comes out to be about 40" tall, but reasonably quiet.

I remember at my last job I went from tower servers to a 1U rack setup. Mind you my office is where the servers were. That was a HUGE mistake. Only go 1U if you can remote mount them in a closet or another room.

[Basilikos]

If you need space, get MicroATX boards.

he's not joking, here. If the OP would like ne to link some recommended Newegg parts for building machines with these boards, I'll be happy to. If / When I switch over to hardware-only specs, I have a pre-designed system that is more than sufficient to run a single WoW client for not a lot of money at all. bear in mind there is the cost of monitors / multiplexers / all that jazz, but the machines themselves can be built to be perfectly fine. It's also far easier on your hardware to run only one WoW instance. If you're not planning on overclocking hardware (which I never do, I spend too much to risk damage), then stock cooling is fine (especially with the lesser heat from a single WoW).

The power bill will go up, but I look at it as an investment in protecting my hardware.