Motherboards for 1U

[KowShak]

I've got a 1U rackmount case and need a motherboard for it.

The complication is that proper server boards are very expensive and most consumer boards have vertical audio jacks, i.e. they stick out above the 1U and won't fit into the chassis.

Does anybody know of any cheap commodity motherboards that don't have sticky up IO ports at the back?

[awm]

Well a soldering iron would remove audio jacks... Of course do this at your own risk on an old board. If it's not for you search the online retailer of your choice.

[directhex]

don't. that's my advice.

if you're building a 1U system, it's obviously going into a rack, which means it's a server

and if it's a server, you really don't want to build it yourself - you want to sell your 1u case, and buy a pre-built system with a support contract

i'm as big a fan of home building as anyone, but if i needed to have a system co-lo'd, i'd be on the phone to people like dell or dnuk - and take the 4-hour callout support option

[awm]

I guess what you choose depends of if this will be a personal home server for file/print/game/whatever serving or if it will be for thousands of people a day. For the latter ignore everything I said and worship what directhex said about support. If it's just for fun and personal use mod away and make it a fun project. Make sure you use a lower power chip since you will need a time heatsink. Thermal issues may also require modding if you go homebuilt so really make sure your path matches your target use.

[KowShak]

I don't want to start desoldering parts from a motherboard, for one it makes the boards difficult to RMA if they develop faults and two, there will be quite a few to do and I've got better things to do with my time.

Its for a "cheap as possible" server. Buying a "proper" server with support contracts takes the server into a whole different ball park in terms of cost and thats before you start talking about redundant power supplies, SCSI drives and RAID.

If the server was going to contain any sort of irreplacable data or going into colo I wouldn't want to mess around, but cost is the most important factor here and I'll have easy access to the rack its going into.

[awm]

Larger cases (3/4U) might be easier to build into. I know the 1U cases I've oppen have left me amazed that things fit in there. My take on it is you would need a lower power processor, a very low profile heatsink and crazy numbers of 40mm fans(I assume in your case already). Guess the cases are kind of expensive, but a cheepish case would stil be much better than a more expensive mobo or a fired processor. Sorry that my previous suggestion was so riddiculous, it was for someone who just wanted a case to have fun with at home, not for serious serving. Best of luck.

[directhex]

Larger cases (3/4U) might be easier to build into. I know the 1U cases I've oppen have left me amazed that things fit in there. My take on it is you would need a lower power processor, a very low profile heatsink and crazy numbers of 40mm fans(I assume in your case already). Guess the cases are kind of expensive, but a cheepish case would stil be much better than a more expensive mobo or a fired processor. Sorry that my previous suggestion was so riddiculous, it was for someone who just wanted a case to have fun with at home, not for serious serving. Best of luck.

You really can't stick a "normal" board into a 1U rackmount case, without attacking it with a soldering iron. 4U, fine, but not 1U. For a 1U-capable motherboard, you're looking at about £330 for Opteron (Tyan S2891); £310 for Xeon (Tyan S5360). Add on the cost of 1 or more processors - and you're not looking at a cheap option compared to a £500 Dell Poweredge sc1425.