If apple has a new rack maunt mac pro that would be awesome like 2 of those with flash storage and all the things you need rackmaunted for the ultimate rack rackintosh pro
@@harshkalbhor4653 except its going to still cost too much, VmWare and an actual proper server to the rescue. it can even run Windows and Linux , and BSD, both at the same time !
@@monad_tcp okie I think you can run linux which is all I need and you know when people spend loads of money renting machines might as well just use my own with some windows pcs also in there and was a suggestion for people like mkbhd I don't want suck good loking rack I am fine with a ITX pc and most of the people also are
I wonder if you could rig up some dust filtration for the Studio. A square piece of open cell foam (aquarium filter?) with a circle cut out so as to fit the air intake might help a lot.
i love how he says he will never rackmount his pc in the near future even though it is probably the easiest computer to rackmount considering they make rackmount pc cases
At Apple, Function Follows Form instead of the other way around as per the adage. It's all about the looks with Apple products, not necessarily proper design engineering. Apple had some wacky impractical designs over the years. Makes thing hard for use in professional environments.
It kinda annoys me that there's no included option for the side with a Mac Mini on that Rack mount, to mount 2 Mac Minis at the same time. The size of a Mac Studio looks like it could accommodate 2 Mac Minis on top of each-other. Feels like wasted space.
I used to administrate XServes through the 2000s, they were great bits of kit. Couldn't believe Apple discontinued them and suggested the replacement of a Mac Mini server. You should try and find an old one and gut it to put some up-to-date hardware in.
I wonder if you could install a removable / washable dust filter under that new rack? It might not catch all the dust, as it would still come from the sides, but it'll probably keep you from needing to open the macs as frequently.
6:40 All the more reason we need right-to-repair. Fixing a device shouldn't require destroying it, or getting locked out of features if replacing certain parts.
3M stick on rubber feet might work too, I have 5 of the 1/4 inch ones on the bottom of my Alienware M17x R3 and it doesn't move around when it's sitting on the floor.
Some advice. Go to your local Walmart or home improvement store. Near where they sell air conditioners, they usually sell cut-to-fit washable foam to act as filters for A/C units. By creative use of scissors, you can get better filtration to sit under your Macs. However, being rack mounted, you would need to remove the rack to remove/wash/reinstall, but at least you wouldn't have to disassemble the Mac itself. I use this stuff on the bottom of my laptop cooling fan pad, and I don't really have any dust issues. Also, a Roomba on a daily schedule can also really help to keep the dust down too.
Meh, that would just restrict the airflow directly to the unit. The 'real' solution to a dustproof rack is to have a fully enclosed rack with its own thermal management system, complete with fans, and filters. Then everything that goes into the rack stays clean, and always has fresh cool air.
@@ChrisBurnes yeah but the real solution is not really feasible for the average joe. A simple mesh would already block lots of dust without inhibiting the airflow too much, and considering the macs thermal headroom (I never thought this to be something I'd say lmao) I honestly don't think it would be an issue
@@ChrisBurnes i still consider this "average joe" to "maybe enthusiast" since the mount itself certainly not a professional product. The mount also isnt optimised for for typical front to back or back to front airflow. And considering pricepoint id still say that the proper solution is not in budget the budget for most people. But yeah, if given the choice between the two i would obviously go for the proper solution, but ony if i dont have to pay for the power bill and purchase itself. And we havent even talked about the, noise yet, which is an issue since jeff runs his rack in his office
I love my 1U version of that. It lives in a rolling rack case, which means I can sling my whole streaming studio in the back of the car in a rack, camera bag and a lighting bag. Or just set up in a different room in my house with minimal fuss and re-running of cables.
Can't it fit another Mac Mini on top of the first one? Seems kinda like wasted space and potential since the studio is so tall and the extra space isn't used for anything else above the mini.
Some hook and loop tape on the bottom of your mac studio would fix the sliding issue. Over-engineered is the best kind of engineered, so I approve of your alternate solution! :)
I can tell you what Apple was thinking hiding those screws: "How can we make this desktop computer as difficult to repair and anti-consumer as possible?" Everything they make at this point is intentionally engineered to be e-waste the second it leaves the factory. Hopefully Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm or someone will come out with a desktop ARM processor that can rival Apple's M series.
Nah, they are thinking this is designed to be a "plug-it-in and leave it" kinda computer. They also expect you to upgrade your Mac every 5-7years (If not, are you really a professional?). You don't need to open up the case every year to clean your Mac now do you? Macs are tools/appliances, they aren't designed as gadgets that people use to "play around with their computers". They are professional tools, doing mission-critical work. You just have the wrong perspective when looking at these computers.
@@RunForPeace-hk1cu is there any other "appliance" in your home or workspace that is this expensive and specifically designed to not be repairable and to just be thrown away? Also, outside of the M1, there is absolutely nothing special about a Mac versus any other computer. You can even run macOS in virtual machines on far better hardware if you "need" Mac software. They aren't magic or something foreign to regular computers like a PowerPC workstation or zOS mainframe from someone like IBM. Also, with pretty much any other desktop, you can upgrade the machine without replacing the entire system. Power supplies, RAM, and storage can last far longer and remain relevant for more than 5 to 7 years. Even when it comes to laptops, Framework has proven that you can build an easily repairable and upgradable system without sacrificing power, portability, or aesthetic. This isn't about being able to "play around with their computers," this is about not intentionally designing something to be garbage. Edit: Specified expensive appliances because obviously random crappy toasters and cheap calculators and things aren't designed to be easily repaired either, but they also aren't many thousands of dollars.
@@IanLantz if you are spending $5000-7000 dollars on a m1ultra , you can bet that same professional will be more than willing to spend another $5000-7000 in 5-7yrs time if the new model is 100% faster. We are still talking about Mac Studio or do you have something against Apple in general … like an Apple Hater? Are you seriously comparing the value between a m1 MacBook to a framework laptop? Do you care about battery life? How many people upgrade their laptop every 1-2years? 🤷🏻♂️ Have you done any market research? Or just use bro science and hunches?
@@IanLantz if you are a stingy consumer, you ain’t the apple demographic. If you make good money with your computer and can recoup the cost of the computer in 2-3 work projects/contracts, it’s safe to assume that in 5-7yrs that investment is well worth it If you buy it for a business, you’ll think differently from someone buying it using their mom’s allowance money or someone who not buying it for their work. Finally, you can keep saying it’s garbage but people are continually buying them. Maybe you should be more introspective and understand why people become loyal customers of the product rather than calling everything that apple sells are “garbage” $2.5T worth of garbage. You have any garbage to sell to anyone? Let’s see how much garbage you manage to get rid off shall we? Being an emotional wreck don’t make your argument any more valid
@@IanLantz do you know how much zOS mainframe computers costs? 😂😂😂 My brother is one of their contractors doofus. You are just throwing random jargon out. Takes a team of full time staff to maintain zOS mainframe. 🤦♂️ What are you trying to say really?!? Is that why companies buy racks and racks of macmini because they didn’t know you can virtualized MacOS 😂😂😂🤡 You really think you are some sort of an expert and everyone else are morons. 🤦♂️ Do you ever know why they made Mac studio the same dimension as Mac mini? Because integration into those same racks will be a lot more seamless. Just thicker. They are made to make the transition easy.
I still think the Xserve design is nicer looking than pretty much anything anyone else built since. The Mac Pro Rack just looks weird. Functional, but not cool in the way the Xserve did. Probably could stand to add in more ventilation, however.
Well sure, look how hostile Apple is toward enterprises. No Wake-on-LAN, the built in remote access is pretty bad, and as much as folks hate UAC on Windows it's still head and shoulders above Apple's user/admin management. We've got so much spit and bailing wire on our Mac environment in an attempt to give it feature parity with our Windows environment it's not even funny. If it wasn't for some special snowflakes that think that Steve Jobs brought down the Macbook Pro from Mount Sinai, we'd have a much more sane, stable, and supportable Windows and Linux environment.
@@EasyMac308 All the Macs I have work with WoL, for years now-there's even a toggle for it in System Preferences. But other than that, yeah Apple hasn't really improved their fleet management stuff, in fact they just stopped supporting whatever their internally-maintained tool was, after years of life support.
@@JeffGeerling really? Every time I ask about it I'm told that I'm crazy and there's no reason why you'd want to be able to remotely boot a MBP. Even JAMF professional services told us as much, as well as the folks on r/macsysadmin. I'd love some details as this would be a quality of life improvement for my lab environment. Another gripe is that I can't reimage a device from a server I control. If I'm on a network with low bandwidth, an internet restore could take hours... So I'm stuck using USB sticks.
@@EasyMac308 The WoL magic packet works for a sleeping Mac (at least in my experience on wired networks). I haven't ever tried it with a Mac that's powered off, though, nor over WiFi. That may or may not work.
@@JeffGeerling They sent you the keystone mount! It takes the place of the blanking plate above the mini, but will leave a bit of gap above the mini. They also have a dual pi mount that fits over the mini too.
Thanks for the great review! I'm interested to know if the Mac Studio is held in the rack, or if it just sits in the rack. For example if my rack was at an angle, would the Mac Studio just slide out of the back of the rack? Or is it securely held in place. I do mostly audio work, and I'm looking at a rack solution like this for my studio desk, which has the racks angled up at about 60 degrees.
At that price point I'll just put my old Mac mini on a shelf. Every time I watch one of Jeff's videos I still get the itch to compile a Linux kernel again. I've probably compiled around 100 of them in the 1.3.xx series and early 2.0.x series back in the mid to late 90s but haven't since.
Starting around the core i5, modern hardware got fast enough and distro kernel compiles got good enough that you really wouldn't see much of a noticeable speed difference anymore. Main reason to self-compile your kernel these days is mostly to trim it down in size and maybe leave out some modules
It's interesting that they provide an IO plate in case you only want to run one mac, but there's all that dead space above the Mac mini... Unless I misunderstood. But they could definitely fit some more keystones above the Mac mini on the right side.
Well ... apple and they're "I'm such a green environmental friendly company" Dust accumulates... trow away mac buy new Same as the astray in cars ... if full buy new car ?
I'm taken aback, you lack an attack to backtrack the "back in the Mac rack", cut yourself slack, Jack. You're getting no flac, that worry is wack. I love this hack. Take a sack of cash and take a crack to stay in the black. I got your back.
It's weird, right? I just retired my work issued MBP. I despised it for the three years I ran it, but for some reason I do like a lot of their hardware; it's just the OS and some of the low level decisions that are trash.
The Sonnet xMac mini server was a nicer solution for the older Mac minis. It gave you PCI expansion slots and a 1U chassis that wasn't much deeper than your standard commercial grade switch.
Looks pretty handy and decent build quality, but 300 bucks for *THAT?!!* 😮 I paid $169 with FREE shipping for a *complete IBM x-3650 M3* (2U) server, around the beginning of this year (and it came with power cables, 2 x 146GB SAS drives, built-in RAID, etc, etc). Used of course, but not abused. I upped the storage space to around 3.8TB. (on RAID5) and it hosts several VM's, my invoicing program, and Apache for a few local websites. Total investment: around $412 with 8 x 600gb. drives, and another 32gb. of RAM to bring it up to 64 gb. It's no graphics monster, but I could actually install a decent PCIe graphics card for direct desktop access, if I add an x16 PCIe riser bracket in the back. It currently runs Debian 11 with a webmin interface and SSH for a terminal, just in case. Only draws abt. 140w. in 'economy' mode, and still has plenty of power to keep the load levels under 5-10% most of the time. Yeah, I know.. off topic, but relevant if you want to do some serious multi-tasking on the cheap.😉
Very interesting video, thanks. What do you think about ad a 3D printer retainer to increase the two keystone socket stability? You can use the existing two screws holes to fasten the plugs
Putting a gaming Pc in a rack isn't a bad idea. I was struggling with organizing my tv-cabinet which was holding all my network equipment as well as my PC a couple of years ago, then I decided to install two 10U rails on either side and went with that, switched the desktop into a 4U-server case and now it really looks better.
Sliger makes a bunch of 3U/4U ATX rackmount cases with GPU support if you're interested in rackmounting your PC. I've been thinking about doing it myself, but SFF ITX PCs are an addiction that I cannot shake 😔
Oh, this blasphemy! I love those Mac mini design. Can't just stuff it in a rack.... just kidding... Having a huge underground basement garage where my Tesla resides and having a 19" server rack cabinets and enough room for screens and the computer talking back to me while I am busy with a suit that can fly.....is also my wet dream...
I'm having flashbacks to Xserves with spring loaded hard drive bays... if you forgot to lock them and bumped the handle it ejected with just enough force to break your RAID :|
8kg per sq m adhesive velcro on each surface, i.e. desk (hooks) and mac (Loops). A 1 inch strip and Problem solved. You ain't having any issues with it moving and it would make a burglar just run away without it.
But what I'm looking for is a way to put a closed macbook pro in a rack. I have an old macbook pro I want to use as a server and I want to put it in a rack mount and lock it in place there such that kids can't open or disconnect it. A lockable enclosure would be ideal. Any thoughts?
Apple ventilation is clean room incompetence..... This is what happens when you design products in a hyper clean environment.... only a complete moron of an engineer would design a ventilation system, that restricts flow and pulls across an open surface designed to catch dust under gravity and finally adds a FU of not having an easy way to filter or clean the airflow.
A Mac in your rack? That’s whack. You’re swinging that racked Mac like a new jack. Anyone who macs on your racked Mac will get clapped back in the sac, amirite?
I plugged my SD card reader into a USB 3 hub in my monitor. Then I attached the card reader in the back top of a monitor. Front the view of my desk chair, it looks like I plug SD cards into the top of my monitor. So it is very close and out of sight.
I don't watch any of your Mac videos as Apple gives me the shivers. To me It's like having car reviews on a cooking show. I love and watch all your other videos though, and don't mind me it's all down to personal preference
"needs two screws for each keystone because it wobbles" Sounds like a problem you could fix with a power drill and a thread tap. Or generous application of superglue.
I don't think the screws being hidden under the rubber will be an issue given iFixit's past track record of providing replacements for glue for and Apple device component that uses glue.
Used to work for a software company that made document management software for businesses. We needed to test our software on safari and because of apple's virtualization restrictions at the time we found it was more economical to buy like 50 Mac minis. We ended up buying a few pull out mesh metal shelves for the rack and mounted them vertically with lots of velcro in two rows of 5 on each shelf. That setup was still going strong after 5 years when I left a few years ago.
A plate with a cutout in it that exactly fits the bottom hump of the studio and mini would both solve the sliding problem and provide them with fresh air from below, keeping the hotter exhaust air above. Could even make that area a fan duct from an external fan.
Mack had some Macs. Mack had no racks. Rackless Mack Almost got sacked Along came some racks And Mack's Macs are now racked. That would sound like crap spoken too ...
Why not rack mount your big gaming PC? I had a 42U open frame rack next to my desk (it looked awesome!) with (among other things) two 4U server cases - one of which held my main desktop PC (which I transferred from a huge tower case). Looked great, excellent airflow. Something to think about…
