Did you see they have a half height mini rack now!? What's next, a 1U mini 10" rack? lol My wheels are turning, thinking of building like 'Homelab, 3 ways' with three of these things.
10 inch rack is definitely not a gimmick! I have a small apartment and there would be no way I could store a full size 19" rack. It lets me keep my gear organized. I have some basic network equipment (patch panel, switch, cable modem, router) and a few Rasberry Pi's all packed into a single 10" cabinet. I love it.
I have a fully 3D printed 10" rack that I designed to fit perfectly in an IKEA usit, have two rpis, a switch and my router in there and it works a dream.
Great job, Colton. I really like the way it came out. This is what homelabbing is all about. You are a great inspiration for the next generation of tinkerers.
OMG so now I need to ask Santa for 3D printer and a rackmate T1 and I will be golden. I tried doing something similar last year but gave up due to a lack / cost of 10 inch parts. But a 3D printer seems to have solved a lot of this. Amazing video so fun to watch and got me thinking for next year.
I have this rack and it honestly went entirely over my head to consider there was 3D printing community for 10 inch racks so I will definitely be looking into that. I did find some…. Solutions for making effective use of the space, I found magnetic mounts that allowed me to fit 140s inside the side of the racks with enough space away from the acrylic to draw proper airflow. Also I found a computer desk recessed power strip on amazon that perfectly mounts to the back of the rack which has allowed me to more cleanly manage the cables on the back side. I love this rack, I currently have a NAS running off a CWWK X86, Plex/PiHole running off a pi and an ITX board for VM fun in addition to a switch and patch panel. This is my first rack and I am dedicated enough to it that I want to properly flesh it out for almost all of my home needs and with this configuration I have a ton of space still available.
This year built myself a 10" rack out of 20x20 extrusion profile as a 6U rack does fit pretty easily into a Kallax cube with still some clearance on either side. That's enough for a patch panel, two 8 port switches and my mini pc home server with still 2U left to spare. 3 power sockets mounted to the rail in the back to power the switches and mini pc with also enough room for a second unit.
I 3d printed my own 10inch rack! Nuts and bolts. Everything! I love it. It holds my 8 port switch and wifi AP on top. NAS on the bottom. It made everything a LOT neater than wires strung everywhere.
Excellent video as always (great intro btw). The idea of a 10" rack seems excellent especially when you don't have a lot of space. The only thing that is missing for me is some more space at the back to manage the cables. Maybe a rack with a larger back could accommodate that.
I just built a 10 inch rack in the past few weeks! One downside to every video on this topic being sponsored by Geeekbench is that only their rack is discussed (besides the other one briefly mentioned earlier). I bought a 9U cabinet (as in fully enclosed with a plexiglass front) from Navepoint for $140 (which is not far off the cost of the Geeekbench rack). I've loved working with it, and because its got a lot of depth I was able to fit a flat Cyberpower UPS in the bottom 2U space in the cabinet!
Network racks are configured differently from server racks. For server racks, you'll want to mount the switches and patch panels on the back of the rack. That way, the switch ports can easily connect to the servers which have their networks ports facing the back. Typically, you put the patch panel at the top and use them for connections outside of the rack. The switch(s) are next. These are called Top of Rack (TOR) switches. Servers are below the network gears. UPS are at the bottom since they are heavy. Power outlets can be in the rack or vertical, facing the back. Network racks have switch ports facing the front.
hmm, interesting ideas. A lenovo M720Q + 8e HBA + a 6-8 drive backplane with a pair of SFF connectors, the correct couple of cables, and that would be a neat compact nas. It'd be really cool to be able to get a NAS, and 3-5 nodes (tinyminimicro) + a small switch with a 10G uplink all into here.
For my build I reserved the bottom 2 U for power. All of the wall warts and excess cable sit in a 10" 2U mini ITX case, nothing is visible and it's all tidy that way.
I've been considering getting into 10inch racks myself for a few reasons, notably the ease of handling and the lower power draw you'd expect from the limiting formfactor, and due to recent developments it might actually be a plausible project for me now.
I just came up with the idea of creating a 1U-sized PDU unit, capable of providing multiple 12V or 19V DC power outputs with a single AC cable, at around 200W capacity, for integrated power management.
Yes, that's a convenient solution to replace all those impractical power adapters and facilitate cable management. I use a 8 Port GaN III Fast Charging Brick and PD to DC Power cables for switches, router, a few RPi's and a few other things.
I recently got Fusion 360 for CAD, it works great and has a ton of features for free! The main draw back is you can only have 10 models active at a time
Omg, this is the one video, i was look for and acutally researching, how to cram my current nas, router, RPI and switch in a 10" rack, thanks you sooo much!
it's quite the coincidence that you upload this!! over the last week or so, i've actually begun working on an entire ecosystem of 3D-printable modules for various different components and setups that are all of a standardised shape and thus all fit into a serious ton of bays on an equally 3D-printable chassis, that can then be racked or placed standalone. in my year or two of homelabbing, i've always found that my 'perfect case' hasn't really existed, so i figured i'd not only try to make mine, but help others find theirs too :)) i've never really done a project much like this before, but it's looking good from here!!!
I think the 10" minilab with 3d printing is extremely fun and fits with a less serious approach to messing with this sort of stuff. I am having a blast with mine and I have barely configured any software on it 😅
Rather than that type of UPS, you can use a 42v battery with Buck converters to your needed voltages. That should be much more efficient and tidy than going from DC(battery) to AC(inverter) to DC(the power bricks).
i did not know that 10 inch racks existed... but i am definitely interested when i get to build my first home lab soon i hope :) awesome video, gave me some great inspiration!
24:20 maybe you can have 1 pc powersupply and find a way to plug it to all the devices, at most you will need a power converter. check the labels, it should be possible. and it will look waaay cleaner
I just started doing a custom enclosure for this rack. I will be uploading it on makerworld and it'll hopefully be very easy to modify. Everything is modular. Will reach out on discord whenever this is complete.
I used my Ender3 V3 KE to print my rack. 240x240mm bed. So i had to print things at a 45 degree angle on the bed. Other than that it all printed pretty normally. I used elegoo PLA. Grey and black from amazon. I havent had any problems at all. Its been more than 3 months.
Dude I've been eyeballing one of those jet kvms lately. 3d modelling has been a learning curve for me too. Goal is to be a fusion 360 wizard like no one ever was.
You might be able to replace the power wall warts with USB to barrel power adapters and just have 1 USB power charger. Just make sure the USB power block supports all the required voltages, it’s oddly hard to find USB blocks that support 12V.
Thanks for this, great vid! Love the idea of these mini-racks, but have been put off by the matching DeskPi ITX case being 2U and not being able to fit a full height PCIe card. Adapting that printed tray to 3U/full height should be perfect for me!
i love my 10", I have my 16u 19" sort of hidden out of the way and the 10" is on a bookshelf in the center of the house. one day i hope to have a full 10" rack solution but for now i need somewhere to mount my brand new dream machine SE and Dell poweredge.
Hummm, now if only they made the rack as deep as it is wide. And then if little switch/router/device makers changed to using USB-C PD to power them.... or get some USB-C to barrel jack adaptors, there are a couple of places you can get them, i think they are made by Adafruit.
This Is Exactly What I Was Just Scribbling On My Sketchbook While At Work. My Homelab In The Kitchen Cooking lol. I’d Love To Mirror This Setup For My Apt. So Wonder What Total Cost Would Look Like For Same Hardware.
If I were to use something like this in a permanent installation id probaly hack a bunch of barreljacks onto a single powerful 12/24V PSU and a USB PD hub to avoid the back clutter. But I totally understand if hobbyists or beginners would rather not mess with power electronics like that.
I wonder if you can centralize the power. Like using a flex atx psu and breaking out power to each device. It would cut down on the cables and power bricks.
A better way to cable manage the back would be to coil and clip the excess underneath or on top of the item its powering instead of having all the excess by the UPS
My biggest problem with the rackmate was that it uses imperial screws. I'm used to all rack gear being M6, I still haven't figured out how imperial screw sizing works, let alone which ones the rackmate uses.
Watched till then end. About power bricks, I've made a patch panel for 5.5x2.1mm barrel plugs on the back and have only one 12V 5A power brick that has ooomf for all the equipment, and the voltage conversion (12V -> 9V) is built into cables.
Did you see they have a half height mini rack now!? What's next, a 1U mini 10" rack? lol
My wheels are turning, thinking of building like 'Homelab, 3 ways' with three of these things.
Wait what? Do you have a link?
@@HardwareHavenMy other comment went missing probably because I put a link, but it's called the rackmate T0
Do it Jeff!
I love that 2 of my fave 'tubers are in each others comments!
Party on Jeff!
I’m On Board With Jeff’s Idea As Well With Multiple Layouts Just To Test The Creativity In Us Tinkers
Only four videos in and he's upgrading the rebuilt homelab.
Having a homelab/NAS channel is a big deal to keep suspense.
10 inch rack is definitely not a gimmick! I have a small apartment and there would be no way I could store a full size 19" rack. It lets me keep my gear organized. I have some basic network equipment (patch panel, switch, cable modem, router) and a few Rasberry Pi's all packed into a single 10" cabinet. I love it.
I have a fully 3D printed 10" rack that I designed to fit perfectly in an IKEA usit, have two rpis, a switch and my router in there and it works a dream.
please share the photo of your rack
@@jtpro2572 Where should I?
I’d also be interested in seeing
@Caplonky5 maybe on your channels community post
@Caplonky5 the r/minilab subreddit would be the best place to post it
Great job, Colton. I really like the way it came out. This is what homelabbing is all about. You are a great inspiration for the next generation of tinkerers.
OMG so now I need to ask Santa for 3D printer and a rackmate T1 and I will be golden. I tried doing something similar last year but gave up due to a lack / cost of 10 inch parts. But a 3D printer seems to have solved a lot of this. Amazing video so fun to watch and got me thinking for next year.
I have this rack and it honestly went entirely over my head to consider there was 3D printing community for 10 inch racks so I will definitely be looking into that. I did find some…. Solutions for making effective use of the space, I found magnetic mounts that allowed me to fit 140s inside the side of the racks with enough space away from the acrylic to draw proper airflow. Also I found a computer desk recessed power strip on amazon that perfectly mounts to the back of the rack which has allowed me to more cleanly manage the cables on the back side. I love this rack, I currently have a NAS running off a CWWK X86, Plex/PiHole running off a pi and an ITX board for VM fun in addition to a switch and patch panel. This is my first rack and I am dedicated enough to it that I want to properly flesh it out for almost all of my home needs and with this configuration I have a ton of space still available.
This year built myself a 10" rack out of 20x20 extrusion profile as a 6U rack does fit pretty easily into a Kallax cube with still some clearance on either side. That's enough for a patch panel, two 8 port switches and my mini pc home server with still 2U left to spare. 3 power sockets mounted to the rail in the back to power the switches and mini pc with also enough room for a second unit.
Put a multi output variable power supply in the bottom and get rid of the individual PSU's.
I 3d printed my own 10inch rack! Nuts and bolts. Everything! I love it. It holds my 8 port switch and wifi AP on top. NAS on the bottom. It made everything a LOT neater than wires strung everywhere.
Mine is only 4U but I can add more anytime I want.
Colton, your joy is showing and it's contagious. Seasons Greetings and keep up the awesome work!
The little rack with the 3D printed trays looks incredible! I appreciate your creativity with this stuff. Thank you!
Excellent video as always (great intro btw). The idea of a 10" rack seems excellent especially when you don't have a lot of space. The only thing that is missing for me is some more space at the back to manage the cables. Maybe a rack with a larger back could accommodate that.
Now knowing that there is a community for printing parts for this rack really has me considering it
I just built a 10 inch rack in the past few weeks! One downside to every video on this topic being sponsored by Geeekbench is that only their rack is discussed (besides the other one briefly mentioned earlier).
I bought a 9U cabinet (as in fully enclosed with a plexiglass front) from Navepoint for $140 (which is not far off the cost of the Geeekbench rack). I've loved working with it, and because its got a lot of depth I was able to fit a flat Cyberpower UPS in the bottom 2U space in the cabinet!
Network racks are configured differently from server racks. For server racks, you'll want to mount the switches and patch panels on the back of the rack. That way, the switch ports can easily connect to the servers which have their networks ports facing the back.
Typically, you put the patch panel at the top and use them for connections outside of the rack. The switch(s) are next. These are called Top of Rack (TOR) switches. Servers are below the network gears. UPS are at the bottom since they are heavy. Power outlets can be in the rack or vertical, facing the back.
Network racks have switch ports facing the front.
hmm, interesting ideas. A lenovo M720Q + 8e HBA + a 6-8 drive backplane with a pair of SFF connectors, the correct couple of cables, and that would be a neat compact nas. It'd be really cool to be able to get a NAS, and 3-5 nodes (tinyminimicro) + a small switch with a 10G uplink all into here.
The back is the fat homer meme xD
Dsmn the intro is gold
Thanks!
New intro music!! Thanks for an awesome year good sir.
Nice! I crammed a small UPS and a 6 SFF PC cluster in my Geeekpi mini rack . With a KVM, and some small network switches
For my build I reserved the bottom 2 U for power. All of the wall warts and excess cable sit in a 10" 2U mini ITX case, nothing is visible and it's all tidy that way.
A rack like this would be great rebuild for my home setup. Merry Christmas to you and your family, sir!
That KVM sounds amazing! I would *love* to hear more about it.
I've been considering getting into 10inch racks myself for a few reasons, notably the ease of handling and the lower power draw you'd expect from the limiting formfactor, and due to recent developments it might actually be a plausible project for me now.
I just came up with the idea of creating a 1U-sized PDU unit, capable of providing multiple 12V or 19V DC power outputs with a single AC cable, at around 200W capacity, for integrated power management.
Yes, that's a convenient solution to replace all those impractical power adapters and facilitate cable management. I use a 8 Port GaN III Fast Charging Brick and PD to DC Power cables for switches, router, a few RPi's and a few other things.
I recently got Fusion 360 for CAD, it works great and has a ton of features for free! The main draw back is you can only have 10 models active at a time
Omg, this is the one video, i was look for and acutally researching, how to cram my current nas, router, RPI and switch in a 10" rack, thanks you sooo much!
i like the minecraft music in the intro
Watching someone share how they've had fun for the past few days is the best kind of video
This was really fun.
Learnt a lot about the pitfalls of 3D printing, for example!
it's quite the coincidence that you upload this!!
over the last week or so, i've actually begun working on an entire ecosystem of 3D-printable modules for various different components and setups that are all of a standardised shape and thus all fit into a serious ton of bays on an equally 3D-printable chassis, that can then be racked or placed standalone.
in my year or two of homelabbing, i've always found that my 'perfect case' hasn't really existed, so i figured i'd not only try to make mine, but help others find theirs too :))
i've never really done a project much like this before, but it's looking good from here!!!
So.... Gridfinity for racks?
This is making me rethink all of my future homelab plans, great video!
Any normal person has a project in mind and designs a box to put it inside.
This man has a box and "designs" a project to put it inside.
I think the 10" minilab with 3d printing is extremely fun and fits with a less serious approach to messing with this sort of stuff. I am having a blast with mine and I have barely configured any software on it 😅
10:46 a strip of foam tape on the sides will help reduce the "wiggle" and provide a more snug fit ;)
Don't forget you can print diagonally on that print bed to gain some more width...
i see those gridfinity trays, you are a man of good taste
Fun setup for IT/hobbyists/tinkerers in rental premises. Easy to relocate.
I just got off Instagram reels and the wording in that intro was INSANE
3D printing + Home lab = like on your video!
Not sure why I never considered this. Now I’m thinking about taking this one step further and designing and printing the 10” rack itself.
Awesome video. I love 10" homelab racks. I hope it becomes a standard.
Rather than that type of UPS, you can use a 42v battery with Buck converters to your needed voltages. That should be much more efficient and tidy than going from DC(battery) to AC(inverter) to DC(the power bricks).
i did not know that 10 inch racks existed... but i am definitely interested when i get to build my first home lab soon i hope :)
awesome video, gave me some great inspiration!
24:20 maybe you can have 1 pc powersupply and find a way to plug it to all the devices,
at most you will need a power converter. check the labels, it should be possible. and it will look waaay cleaner
I just started doing a custom enclosure for this rack. I will be uploading it on makerworld and it'll hopefully be very easy to modify. Everything is modular.
Will reach out on discord whenever this is complete.
I used my Ender3 V3 KE to print my rack. 240x240mm bed. So i had to print things at a 45 degree angle on the bed. Other than that it all printed pretty normally. I used elegoo PLA. Grey and black from amazon. I havent had any problems at all. Its been more than 3 months.
Dude I've been eyeballing one of those jet kvms lately. 3d modelling has been a learning curve for me too. Goal is to be a fusion 360 wizard like no one ever was.
You might be able to replace the power wall warts with USB to barrel power adapters and just have 1 USB power charger. Just make sure the USB power block supports all the required voltages, it’s oddly hard to find USB blocks that support 12V.
That 3x 5.25” bay adapter looks like it’d fit 1 vertical bay on the side. You should check and see if that would work!
Thanks for this, great vid! Love the idea of these mini-racks, but have been put off by the matching DeskPi ITX case being 2U and not being able to fit a full height PCIe card. Adapting that printed tray to 3U/full height should be perfect for me!
Looks really cute!
Pretty nice project. Thank you for this video.
This is making it very difficult to stop myself jumping on buying a 3D printer, I love this mini hiome lab rack
I love everything about this and I am going to do the same thing now.
I got a few tweaks in mind.
i love my 10", I have my 16u 19" sort of hidden out of the way and the 10" is on a bookshelf in the center of the house. one day i hope to have a full 10" rack solution but for now i need somewhere to mount my brand new dream machine SE and Dell poweredge.
Will you do a video on the b580 on hardware transcoding?
Possibly! I’m definitely curious. Genuinely considering one as an upgrade for my wife’s PC
I do enjoy when things are more funner.
Leave a space, preferably at the top for all the power bricks. hide them away, but let the heat out.
I think this will be perfect for my needs.
I'm going to rack my stack of Lenovo Tiny units but I'm going to 3d print the rack too.
haha once i saw jeff's review and he said mini itx i had this exact idea
Damn that looks so cool!
20:39 Channelling some Tina Belcher there 👓
Hummm, now if only they made the rack as deep as it is wide.
And then if little switch/router/device makers changed to using USB-C PD to power them.... or get some USB-C to barrel jack adaptors, there are a couple of places you can get them, i think they are made by Adafruit.
You should print the full rack, i print all the pieces in a ender 3 v2. Two tiny lenovo, switch, 2 x 3.5" cage, 6x2.5" cage
The math checks out. This is fun
Man! awesome video!
Ah, a fellow Pinecil + USB-C PD powerbank user. 😃👍
Can’t believe it took me so long to figure it out, but what a combo! Haha
just saw a video yesterday on the mini rack and order me one & look... u did a video and yeah had same idea as you ;)
(insert Homer Simpson's Back Fat Meme) 🤣 (despite that... nice work)
Nice work!
Things I learned today from UA-cam. 256 is greater than 254. AMAZING I feel so much smarter LOL :)
Sorry man the upside down keystone is too much
This Is Exactly What I Was Just Scribbling On My Sketchbook While At Work. My Homelab In The Kitchen Cooking lol. I’d Love To Mirror This Setup For My Apt. So Wonder What Total Cost Would Look Like For Same Hardware.
If I were to use something like this in a permanent installation id probaly hack a bunch of barreljacks onto a single powerful 12/24V PSU and a USB PD hub to avoid the back clutter. But I totally understand if hobbyists or beginners would rather not mess with power electronics like that.
You could cut out in between the two holes in the itx pc and then put a small OLED screen there, which will show the status of the array.
I wonder if you can centralize the power. Like using a flex atx psu and breaking out power to each device. It would cut down on the cables and power bricks.
A better way to cable manage the back would be to coil and clip the excess underneath or on top of the item its powering instead of having all the excess by the UPS
My university does free 3d printing and I'm about to make so many things and get one of these fr
New video of Hardware Haven!!!!
6:04 - sir, that is orange. Like the top of the LTT screwdriver at 6:09
Could be good for 3 vertical Minisforum MS-01s without their covers for decent airflow coverage.
this looks great from the front, its a shame you cant get cables the exact length needed on the back to tidy it all up
Bambu labs all the way
The rack is on sale for $159 right now
My biggest problem with the rackmate was that it uses imperial screws. I'm used to all rack gear being M6, I still haven't figured out how imperial screw sizing works, let alone which ones the rackmate uses.
looks very networky at the back haha, jokes aside looks like a fun little project.
Just put a label on the 2.5Gig and 1Gig jacks.
I still think the 10” rack should be standardised as a 6u insert to a 19” rack
do you have a nanokvm that you could add? Its a RISC-V processor.
This is a super fun video and in my opinion all what homelabing and hardware tinkering is all about!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thanks for the heart on my comment. Keep up the good work!
You're welcome! And thanks for watching.
Thanks!
Nah thank you! Next time though get yourself a RAID membership though, that way you at least get some perks 👍🏻
It looks like it does but can you confirm if the handles at the top of the rack can be removed please?
m.2 to 6 sata adapter would work with that hp elitedesk
I was interested in the Rackmate T1 until I saw the price. You can get 10U-15U 19" racks cheaper than this.
Yep, I thought the same, but mine also is being cut on a chinese desktop 3060 CNC mill.
Watched till then end.
About power bricks, I've made a patch panel for 5.5x2.1mm barrel plugs on the back and have only one 12V 5A power brick that has ooomf for all the equipment, and the voltage conversion (12V -> 9V) is built into cables.