How to prettify an homelab into a rack? - eviltoast

I’ve turned a couple of old desktop computers into my homelab. They are currently “stacked” on top of each other with a Raspy, router and switch on top and a UPS on the side.

To my eye this looks “pretty enough” but it doesn’t score high on the Wife Approval Rating and I would really like to turn it into a “pretty” little rack. Hence, the question: how to do it? Which parts should I get?
I’m mainly having a hard time finding some kind of “rack case” so that I can insert my desktop HW into it; should I buy a server and strip it out?

Just a few more info:

  • My homelab is extremely silent (since it sits close to my desk) and I would very much like to keep it this way. I absolutely don’t want server fans screaming at me all the time.
  • It would be cool to have a “NAS like” enclosure for the NAS drives that currently sit inside a normal desktop case.
  • I’m UK based, I know in the US might be easier to get all this stuff, but any tip or help is highly appreciated anyway.
  • GreatBlue@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m happy to help.

    SAS has its own connector. You would need a mainboard or PCI card with it, special cables and drives. For SATA you should be fine with the “consumer” power and data sockets. There is a SATA sockets witch combines 4 ordinary SATA interfaces. I’m not sure how its officially called, but you can get adapters for it.