What do you guys think of this server chassis gaming PC? Let us know below! Buy an AsRock Rack Z690D4ID-2/G5/X550 Deep Mini-ITX Motherboard: lmg.gg/0LTW4 Buy an Icron ICR-EL5363 KVM Extender: geni.us/MwDAjv Buy an Alphacool 12936 Eisblock XPX Pro 1U CPU Water Block: geni.us/Oznhp Buy an ASUS Prime B550M-A Motherboard: geni.us/CuC7RB Buy an .innodisk. EGPL-T101 M.2 to 10GbE LAN Module: geni.us/lVIzZV Buy a Sabrent Rocket 2Tb NVMe M.2 SSD: geni.us/2Mn0Nwy Buy a Silverstone ES03-WiFi V2 Remote Computer Power Switch: lmg.gg/4KRpj Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.
As a homelabber that is constantly flabbergasted by the price of things for a server vs. consumer PC's, the line, "It's a server, man. It's for businesses, not normal people" hit me DEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPP
@@green-cash Anything in Business-IT is expensive as heck. An Nvidia L4 which is functionally equivalent to an RTX 4070 costs $2500 before taxes. And if you want to do some AI stuff with it, you gotta license it from Nvidia for a measly $4000 per year per GPU. It's insanity. And it's the reason why Nvidia is leaving the consumer market.
I absolutely love including David's comments from behind the camera, it adds a lot of energy and sarcasm to the video and makes it overally more engaging!
You'd be surprised how much water you can get in a running computer and it still works ;) I had a leak which was dripping water down the side of the CPU socket, down the whole motherboard, and into some sata ports, and the only way I realised was because one of the sata ports stopped working. It was fine after I dried it out (still running great4+ years later). I'll admit air cooling would probably have worked just as well, but I like fiddling with computers so this was all extra fun for me.
I don't see a reason to switch to water when air is just as good and way cheaper. My dark rock pro 4 will be more than enough for any cpu I use in the near future. I have a 5800X3D right now and even it doesn't go much further than high 70s at 100% utilization.
Nope. Do you know why he's using a server rack? I will tell you. He lives in a Mansion; in the mansion, he has an automated system that opens and closes his blinds, heats the pool, Runs the air conditioners, and Has all the movies for the movie theater, he also needs a computer for the bowling alley, and now he needs a laptop for each room of the house. Instead of installing a computer in the room, he only runs a DHMI Cord a few 100 feet to operate the monitor.
To be more nerdy(engineer), the non-energized transistor acts as a diode, so when installed "backwards", it acts as a short, causing the held-power-button-like behavior.
@@Blitzbogen it's an extremely low cost way to switch a small DC signal. When connected correctly, i can't think of a single down side to the design. A single 2 cent JFET can do this job perfectly.
1:38 - Heyo, you might wanna replace that clear vinyl tubing NOW instead of later. You'll be fine in the short run, but I've seen that tubing fail with minimal pressures going through it because of water hammer (if your pump turns on/off at all). Not to mention that you're running warm water through one run of it. That clear stuff WILL eventually start to bulge to a diameter greater than when it started. If you're going vinyl, you'd be better off with braided reinforced vinyl tubing. Can be found at the same hardware store you got the clear stuff from.
Considering that they had a plumber at the house recently to fix the rest of the loop that they put together the other day/week It may already be fixed They just filmed 3 (at least) videos at once that day
This is like the 5th video I've seen on this server rack/fiber home computer setup. This seems such a massive headache to setup and maintain. Plus, if anyone else in the home has an issue that requires troubleshooting (which i'm sure there has to be SO MANY), there is no way anyone else in that house would be able to easily solve it themselves. You'd constantly have to be acting as IT support for even the most basic of issues.
@@altokers sure. But let's say one of his kids computers has a blue screen crash and the system needs to be power cycled. That's not super uncommon. And if his kid had a computer tower, then they could probably solve that themselves. But because this is so overly complex, any future issues would basically require Linus to be on hand to solve it.
Exact same thought. I have had the option to move my computer far enough away that I couldn't hear it both in my current and previous apartment. If that setup was maybe 200$, I'd think about it. The thunderbolt hub alone is 200$.
I love it that you showed who exactly came up with the idea for the case. As a company grows, the individuals in it tend to fade back and everything becomes a "we", so it's refreshing to finally see something different.
what do you mean? the pool is already built and the house is wired up for ethernet. getting the house after he did all the annoying work would be so much better. and if he moves... it's always a massive headache. unless you live with a single chair and table and your mattress on the floor...
I love that all of the problems he’s trying to solve aren’t even real problems. It seems like everything is planned around having to redo everything in 6 months
Yeah the 1U constraint is wild. He's got a 42U cabinet for crying out loud. I'm sure 10U ain't a biggie to lose to 5 gaming machines. Not like he doesn't have room for a 24U cab under a desk or something.
A really nifty trick with key fobs is that you can get a huge increase in range when you put the key fob against your chin and press the button. On a brand new battery, the range jumps from 30 feet to up to half a mile away. Your head and body becomes an antenna. Great solution for locating your car in a crowded parking lot by pressing the lock button a bunch of times to get your car to honk. In this case, it would allow you to reach all areas of your house.
It still blows my mind that he has that entire server rack sitting next to a wet wall and then in addition, points out the flimsy 1 inch flexible tubing that’s full of water and dangling above it. He needs an additional cabinet for his rack to prevent water intrusion for when a pipe eventually ruptures.
@@deepblue812 but the pool itself isn't connected to the room whatsoever just the piping under the pool which is completely separate from the pool water
Love that the silverstone key fob thing got a bit of a spotlight. not exactly what I would ever think to use it for but I can say that its great for HTPC applications and if you keep your PC either in another room or just far enough under your desk that reaching to hit the power button is a bit inconvenient.
I'd really like to see a bit more planning go into these kinds of projects. The last several have felt extremely rushed. I have no problems with jank, but would prefer it to be planned jank versus "Oh we thought this was going to work, but we didn't test it enough so now we need to switch gears to complete the video." Makes it feel like the end result doesn't matter as long as you get a video out of it.
Seems that's a big complaint with the employees as well judging by that video they released a while back. It's always rush rush rush to get new videos out.
I agree I feel like they should’ve planned this out a lot more than they did. Also they went over the budget multiple times even though the whole point was to reduce the cost of making these server rack case units since he has to make like 5 of them. At the same time this reminds me of the level of jank and poor planning they had in the old days 😂
@@randomstuff508 I don't think it matters whether it was before or after LTX. They should put in the time necessary to make an acceptable video prior to releasing it. If they didn't have time to do that before LTX, they should have put off the video until they could.
I'm actually completely on the other side of the argument. Having jank on one-off projects is realistic, and hiding all the testing and planning off-camera is just not how most amateur's projects go (or at least - how my projects go). The only thing I mind is the starting choice of motherboard and chassis - most people wouldn't plan for the expensive option from the start, and would switch to it only if there was no other option. I kinda appreciate Linus going against the initial choice of the MOBO, since the entire point of this video was to go cheap-ish.
It's nice to see that, even though Linus has money now, he hasn't forgotten his broke roots. Reminds me of the time I was on my last day in Cancun at the airport with literally $3000 to spend, and telling myself "Nah, I can't get that, $20 is a lot of money."
@@ssl3546 Dude bought a whole new house and paid for a bunch of contractor work like installing a cooling loop in his pool and running tons of cable through the house. He's doing fine.
Those Silverstone remote starters are awesome until a week later the battery in the fob dies, you replace it and its the same next week again. The remote chews through the battery.
Ive used many of those Silverstone remotes before and found theres a limited amount of unique signals the remotes use and would find one remote would turn on multiple nearby systems.
Alphacool has Serverrack Cases from 1U to 4U which already are prepared for Watercooling and even has fitting watercooling kits for them ready to purchase.... I got a 4U one and I am really happy with it.
Alphacool fittings like that usually come with a metal collar that has 'teeth' that goes just over the end of the tubing and when you put the rest together the pressure causes the teeth on the collar to dig in to the rubber of the tubing and hold it securely in place, they're not quite like the regular water cooled barbs so use that metal collar.
13:40 Those quick disconnects are Koolance QD3s if anyone's wondering - expensive, but you only get a single tiny drop when disconnecting them. Edit: On my system, I placed the part with the collar on the hose's side and the solid part on the PC's side - makes disconnecting and reconnecting a bit easier.
They're definitely nice. I have multiple M.2 in the garbage position of being directly under my GPU, so I have some QD3's on my GPU so that I can easily take the GPU out to access the M.2s. Realistically, most of the time I literally don't even get a single drop, at least, none that drips out. Collar side on tube, solid part on GPU water block here(For both inlet and outlet)
All of my computers use the Koolance QD3s as well, but mine are installed in such a way that I cannot accidentally get the flow backwards. Male connectors are always on the pressure side of the loop.
@@michaelmiller3012 ...oh. Well apparently it works just fine with one fitting reversed, been working for a good six years now, but I will definitely fix it next time maintenance comes up. Thank you for that info! Edit ooooh wait I'm stupid - you mean on your particular system, right? That's clever - in my case it doesn't matter since I'm only using them to connect the radiator.
@@fredwupkensoppel8949 In my system, the CPU, GPU and 10G NIC are all water cooled and each have their own set of QDCs. I had it set up this way years ago to facilitate easy upgrades and it has been a god send. Swapping parts in and out is not much more difficult than with a traditional air cooled system. It was a bit more expensive to set up that way since those QDCs are definitely $$$, but it has saved me a LOT of time and effort over the years. Totally worth it. Since the wife and kids are all set up the same way, it also makes trickle-down upgrades super easy as well.
Build his gaming pc in a 1U chassis, so that it doesnt take up as much space, while his other 3U gaming pc is in the rack aswell lol:D I´m really wondering how he filled up the rack so easily
I used a 90° USB 3 header adapter for a while but they’re hard AF to get the cable in and out of, so you better be sure it’s the right direction and you’re going to leave it permanently (or are okay with breaking it to get it off if you’re not extremely delicate)
Yeah ... I had read about that glitch so just shaved down the little nubs on the connector till they still gripped the header but I can still remove them. Seems like it's a really common manufacturing spec bork.
Oh man, that ending! Like a bloody TV series! Side note you probably have looked at this but I have a small rack at home with two gaming systems installed and it's a 3u pc case that holds 2 itx systems. Still uses a little more than 5 1u systems but it gives you much more flexibility on options 👍🏻
One of the things they talked about was that Linus didn't want more than one computer in each chassi. This way it's possible to take down one machine while the remaining four are all operational. Now if he were to go full professional server parts it would be possible to build 2U chassis with two systems where they can be unplugged individually. But then we are talking server class money again.
Some people just like to stay busy. I know a bunch of people like that, who can't just take a day off and relax and are constantly searching for tasks, even during their free time.
I have so much respect for Linus!!! I am appalled with the shortcuts that this man takes when money shouldn't be an issue for him, but he has stated time and time again that LTT is for the benefit of his TEAM and the viewers and not for him... and he would probably say that janky is more entertaining as a more humble defense than "despite how successful my company and I have become; I'm still cheap." This video had me laughing out loud. Great work
He's just an obsessive narcissist. It's not that the $1700 1U case was too expensive, it's that he just didn't want to pay for it, he always has to feel like he's "winning" against the big computer parts company or whatever.
@@davefish2280That, and he knows he'll make a few thousand dollars making this video. Linus looks for any, and every way to turn anything into content.
Good old Wake on LAN would be better for powering up remote PCs. It's supported on all motherboards. And you can make a hardware panel with buttons and network connection to power on those PCs with Arduino (or Raspberry, OpenWrt router, etc.), or a software variant from a cheap tablet with indication which PCs are on.
WOL is only useful for powering on your PC when it's off. I'm looking for a solution to reboot my server in case of crashes when I'm away from home, and that little device looks super intriguing!
@@Shaflugi For your use case you need a hardware watchdog. A similar looking device, that would reboot your server automatically if operating system is not responding for some time. You don't need to press any buttons. Also there are WiFi or cellular controlled power outlets, you can power your PC through them without integrating anything inside. But watchdog is better anyway, it doesn't require taking you from your vacation to work.
16:42 This happens because a normal push button essentially works by just shorting out the PWR pin to GND, also known as ground. The ILO/KVM works by sinking the pin to ground, so its ground must be connected to the PC's ground, and the other must be connected to the PWR pin. If you reverse the pins, the ground of the device will now always be connected to the PWR pin, so it simulates a push button always being pressed. One solution to fix this is to use a small relay that would actually emulate a button being pressed, however, this is not needed since the correct connection will do the job just fine. That is why connecting a normal push button doesn't have any orientation while these devices do.
Instead of the remote control (which I have used in the past) I used an esp8266 micro controller as part of my smart home to turn a relay on and off. I was able to control it via an alexa voice command (developer account shenanigans) I imagine you could have a big ol' wifi/zigbee button on the desk which uses Home Assistant to turn on and off the computer
When Linus sells this house, I hope he has mountains of documentations for all this crazy shit he is doing. Or at least point them to this channel. Like good luck to who ever ends up buying this house after Linus.
I would gut the whole thing if I bought it. rip the rats nest of HDMI cables and fiber optic from the walls and start again. I would have ethernet and only ethernet. The only thing I'd keep would be the underfloor heating, that was lit. And professionals installed it.
I used a similar power system for a media center, except I actually connected it to an IR receiver that 100% works to turn on the computer from completely off. As well as works as an RC6 remote the rest of the time.
A freestanding heat pump water heater would've been perfect for this job just soaking up all the heat into the hot water you use at near-400% efficiency. It's more efficient than gas and I've seen flow-through options that are placed before a tankless unit so the tankless only kicks on when you've burnt through all the cheaply-heated water with return-from-event mass-showertime, large tub filling, or power outages where powering a tankless is downright easy.
Interesting idea, but also challenging because 1u is not very high for gaming hardware. Made me think: why not make a 5u case with 5 motherboards in it. That would give the option of using componets that are higher than 1u. Because not all space is used, 5 mothersboard would probably even fit in a 4u case. And if using vm's is an option, then you could safe space by using more powerfull hardware and share it.....I might try that :)
It never fails to impress me that Linus finds the craziest uses for 1U rack mounted server case and water cools it. Keep it up with the jankiness Linus.
This seems like the perfect real world used for the 8 gamers 1 PC builds from several years ago. A single 4U chassis would do the business and be a lot easier to work with.
Those optical display port cables wont work via (most) extensions because they require pin20 on both ends to power the convertor(s) (copper>fibre and back again). Most COTs cables don't include pin 20 (pwr) (might be to adhere to DP standard), so find some extensions that do and they'll work (:
The silverstone accessories are always a treat. I remember the fob design one appearing in a really old CES video, and I think someone mentioned this was a stupid idea (hoping it still sees use)
I really like that you Stay with your Focus to Budget oriented Systems. That really helps to rebuild that for the everyday man. After the last video i thought: Wow that such a beautiful case and while looking at the pricing for the custom Build i nearly fell from my seat 😵💫. So nice that we actually get the chance to reproduce this.. its still far from cheap but its not over 8k lol. Please keep such videos up. You have really often such great ideas but there nearly everytime far from realistic for a normal working person. That does not mean that you should stop with making crazy and crazy expensive Projects... they are still very interesting and fun to watch.
LTT water cooling videos are the best possible advertisement for air coolers that could ever exist. They always have problems/ruined equipment in every video dealing with water cooling.
Powering those rack mounted computers can be done with Wake on LAN. There is an app for smartphones which will be more convenient than this remote control. Also it can be improved with a simple NFC tag that is placed on the desk and programed to power on the computer when a phone is placed on it. Shutting down the computer can be done by the shutdown menu in the computer's OS. @dm1i mentioned an Arduino powered control panel, that seems complicated to produce but it will be more convenient in the long run. Since phones and apps change, also there are occasions when you don't have phone on you, or your buddy needs to power your PC and their phone is not configured, my idea seem a bit dumb. But it can be modified and tweaked to be more suitable for many more situations. For example NFC tags can be programmed to power the PC with any NFC enabled phone, that can be security issue if it wasn't for home use. In a smart home with voice assistants (depending on the openness of the system) there can be added a Wake on LAN as well excluding the need for phone interaction. And many more "smarter" solutions.
@@anubhavsingh8197 You can't eat an LTT video. An LTT video will not fix inflation, cure cancer or stop the wars. A video about Linus' luxury home will not solve the homelessness problem that plagues Vancouver. No. No one "needs" an LTT video. That's why not.
The problem at ~16:20 is probably caused by using a simple transistor across the "button" wires. The transistor wiring makes it need to be plugged in only one way.
As an IT professional I look at that and all I can think of is the dozen potential points of failure. Even if you can get it to power on, that's going to need a lot of maintenance.
I like how even though he can afford the best components, he chooses these and shows us that the best isn’t necessary. He also sticks to his guns by using them in his own home. Rad.
I get Linus wanting a rack mount system, but I’d think the kids would rather have a cool system right next to them that they can actually see all the RGB / water cooling, etc.
At this point the better move would have been to have the plumbers run some extra pex lines through the wall and just move the machines into LAN center and dump their heat into the central water loop
I love how Linus is explaining how he was planning to water cool the computers while showing the work he did with Luke, and Adam is just staring like "Whaaaat the hell is this?"
One thing I have never done is water cooling. I dont overclock and a good heatsink like a noctua has never failed me. I dont trust water being around expensive electronics. I have four 4u standard ATX rack mount cases for my servers. Plenty of space for full ATX motherboard, power supply, RTX 4090, 8x 3.5 inch hot swap bays, and 2x 2.5 inch hot swap for ssd. I can fit whatever I want in them. Plus my rack has 3 rack UPS, 1u KVM, 2x 48port 1gb POE switches and room for a shelf for cable modem and other stuff. I still need a good cheap rack multi SFP+ 10Gb switch for fiber/DAC. 1Gb is getting to be too slow anymore.
I love how watching this channel just makes me mad because this is a luxury I can never hope to get near, yet I can't look away because I love the jank
Ikr Him saying all of his kids need pcs too... All I had to play on was a laptop older than me and it ran roblox barely which was enough for me. Don't raise your kids expectations that much or else they're gonna expect so much that when they get into the workforce and obviously start out with not am amazing wage, they could blow all their money on luxury items because that's their minimum and what they've always had
I rack mounted all my PCs with remote consoles about 16-17 years ago. Needless to say it didn't work very well, though it did work enough that I kept it for a few years.
Linus is the kind of guy that built an exceptional PC then threw it away because it’s too expensive. Also, it’s nice to see Jake’s husband and his long lost son working together in this video.
I mean truly a LTT in 2023 solution for your kid's computer room haha, but I feel like they might be deprived of the "big glowing RBG box" experience of having their PC on the desk and being able to see all of the components inside
If you plan on soldering it after, pin bending works. The plugs that are suppose to stay on the pins normally do not stay anymore once bent because they to not clip to the plastic clip. I wouldn't trust it.
I just use smartplugs to have 100% power control over my machines. Even works with "google turn on primaries/secondaries" etc automatically. Have used this to power cycle my hardware when I'm on the other side of the country. 25€ per one of those plugs and having anydesk installed and I haven't had control anxiety since I started doing this on all my work and home machines. Just note yo have to set the "turn on on AC power" from BIOS and voila. In addition I also use a special app I created to completely turn off the relays when power use goes below 5 watts to prevent windows from autostarting, updating and bricking itself (has happened), and allowing turning those machines on through google assistant which became a half-accidental feature and easier than just using the power button.
Wake on Lan home Assistant plugin and then any WiFI/Zigbee/Zwave button to wake/Turn off the computers. that is what i doo never fails. 👍👍 the best thing is home Assistant tell you when it is on or off and you get access out of your home.
I've noticed the same about the optical DP, it's really finicky. As you found out the optical cable has to be connected directly to something active, I found that a DP signal repeater works. Then on the other side because I have a lvl1techs kvm, I had to add another repeater after it again to get my monitor to accept it. Even bypassing the kvm and plugging the optical DP directly into the monitor doesn't work, it has to go through the repeater to be sable(ish). They're like 10 euros on amazon, worth a try as it makes a big difference for me.
That silverstone Wireless power button works great, I’ve used mine for a long time not, but beware. The remote devours buttoncell batteries like Its candy. They could have fixed it since I bought mine. But if they haven’t you should know it before buying
Silverstone: The maker of things you didn't know you needed until you need them. Bless the folks over at Silverstone for all the awesome and wonky things they make
