Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

wiki.eth0.nl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 250 posts

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#211

Post by skykooler »

bombcar wrote: post #199
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every American kitchen has measuring cups, few have scales. There's no reason Americans can't buy scales. I got mine for $15 at Costco 10+ years ago. You can still get them from Amazon or Walmart for less than that. > It may also be that US measuring cups are "more convenient" sizes than the equivalent metric ones would be. When measuring out flour, I don't use a measuring cup at all. I put a bowl on my scale, hit…

The problem is recipe book authors want to sell to all Americans (especially that group that always buys recipe books but never actually uses them) and so they aim at the widest possible market.

And as a result, most Americans never get scales since their recipes don't call for them.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#213

Post by jerrysievert »

I bought a couple of used lack's as I was planning on mixing eurorack with other equipment. I ended up keeping the lack's, but instead putting 16u free-standing racks on the top of each one - ended up working perfectly: 1u power supply, with 5 3u enclosures for eurorack on each.

ended up working out much better than my plan.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#214

Post by ThePowerOfFuet »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #158

I prefer the minimalism of a "vertical rack" which, for some reason, I tend to never see. If you don't have more than 6U or so of equipment, it's really the way to go because of its minimal profile and amazing load-bearing ability: it is load-bearing parallel to the direction of gravitational pull (vs regular rack cabinets where the load is perpendicular to the posts), and then that weight is all redirected towards t…

Tracking-free link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001YHYVEY

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#215

Post by shard »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #168
bombcar wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every American kitchen has measuring cups, few have scales. And people learn that method and continue to use it (most people don't even know about zeroing a scale after you add each ingredient). It may also be that US measuring cups are "more convenient" sizes than the equivalent metric ones would be. For flour, they often specify "sifted" which removes some of the variability.

> Every American kitchen has measuring cups, few have scales. There's no reason Americans can't buy scales. I got mine for $15 at Costco 10+ years ago. You can still get them from Amazon or Walmart for less than that. > It may also be that US measuring cups are "more convenient" sizes than the equivalent metric ones would be. When measuring out flour, I don't use a measuring cup at all. I put a bowl on my scale, hit…

The reason is momentum. Switching to measuring flour by weight will require households to have both measuring cups and scales, require recipes to be rewritten, require cooks with an intuition based on volume to relearn the intuition based on weight. None of this is insurmountable, just like none of the reasons for switching from imperial to metric are insurmountable, but for people getting things done, it's not enough of an issue to worth making the switch, so this kind of switch would require an institution or coalition with enough clout to make the switch and pull everyone else along. For cooking, I don't believe such an institution or coalition exists.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#216

Post by [deleted] »

_jal wrote: post #50
actually_a_dog wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not even sure I'd trust it to hold more than a single 1U server as depicted in the article, for that matter.

Adding more kit increases rigidity. A "full rack" would be a stack of servers on the floor, with the table keeping them stacked. The least-stable arrangement would be a very heavy 1u device at the top.

[deleted]

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#217

Post by troebr »

bombcar wrote: post #84
whalesalad wrote: post #24

I have been really happy with the HEJNE shelf as a rack. Here are some 2U's here at home: https://s3.whalesalad.com/lab/rack.jpg The shelf: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/hejne-shelf-unit-softwood-s7903... I keep seeing full height Dell racks for sale on FB marketplace in the $200 range but haven't encountered the right manic episode to actually go for it.

HEJNE is "ok" but really REALLY add the cross bracing, and perhaps even add plywood to one side. I have a HEJNE that is just holding LEGO with cross bracing and it is visibly leaning. I don't expect it to fall down but I'm also not loading thousands of pounds into it.

I was wondering about this, I had a bunch of these screwed in together as a cheap kitchen cabinet when I was younger. They can be get pretty wobbly even with the braces.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#218

Post by Bud »

gregmac wrote: post #139
sircastor wrote: post #19

I naively put an old LaCie 1U server under a Lack table 13 years ago, thinking it would be a great media server in my living room. I had no idea how loud rackmount fans were. It was obviously unusable for watching any kind of media.

For all the effort (and money) put into making a media server as quiet as possible (which is still not silent), I think you're way further ahead to just not put the server in your living room. Instead, put it in the basement/closet/garage/utility room -- somewhere you won't hear it. Then, broadly speaking, you have three options: A commercial box, like NVidia shield, Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire stick or AppleTV. Th…

I put a rack/cabinet in the laundry room, with a QNAP NAS in there, Plex server is running on the QNAP, then an Apple TV 4K connects to that and feeds the TV.

I like this better than trying to do some sort of long HDMI cable setup, because the HDMI ports on most NAS units out there get old rapidly, don't support HDR and high bitrates reliably, etc. This way, it doesn't matter if the server is brand-new and fast enough and all updated for the latest video standards. As long as it can push the data out fast enough via Ethernet, you're good. Updating an Apple TV every 3-5 years is a lot cheaper and easier than getting a new server every time. And a good NAS is a lot cheaper than a full-out server would be.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#219

Post by m463 »

jacquesm wrote: post #170
whalesalad wrote: post #24

I have been really happy with the HEJNE shelf as a rack. Here are some 2U's here at home: https://s3.whalesalad.com/lab/rack.jpg The shelf: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/hejne-shelf-unit-softwood-s7903... I keep seeing full height Dell racks for sale on FB marketplace in the $200 range but haven't encountered the right manic episode to actually go for it.

It's not the rack that's the problem, it's the fans. Most industrial gear requires a ton of airflow and the noise is something like having a model jet engine sitting in your closet. This from someone who actually did go for it and later recanted.

I remember doing that years ago when I was younger... so I tried using a stereo rack system. Which immediately heated up and set off in-machine alarms.

My eventual solution was to put the machines under the sink in the bathroom and run a cables through the wall to the bedroom :)

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#220

Post by m463 »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #214
ComputerGuru wrote: post #158

I prefer the minimalism of a "vertical rack" which, for some reason, I tend to never see. If you don't have more than 6U or so of equipment, it's really the way to go because of its minimal profile and amazing load-bearing ability: it is load-bearing parallel to the direction of gravitational pull (vs regular rack cabinets where the load is perpendicular to the posts), and then that weight is all redirected towards t…

Tracking-free link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001YHYVEY

you used to be able to say amzn.com/ like amzn.com/B001YHYVEY but that seems to have stopped working.

hmm... seems https://amzn.com/dp/B001YHYVEY works

Post reply on HN