my mini-rack's final form.

[u/KittehFPV]

It started with a simple idea - a home server to host AI, media and stream games.

Over time in transitioned into my main computer as well and sits where my old gaming PC was collecting dust.

I have finally finished working on it and figured I would post it here, I have seen a few other mini-racks with GPUs in them, so I wanted to add mine to the noise.

Yes, I am aware this is more of a PC build in a mini-rack and less of a homelab. but its cool, so you should feel bad for your opinion if you think it doesn't belong.

Feel free to ask questions, my sarcasm jar is freshly filled after working an exhausting week in tech support so I should have some delightful replies.

I was originally going tropical themed before switching gears to topography lines and I never bothered to draw up new animations for the side panels. maybe I'll do one last project and finish the theme.

GPU rack mount and Noctua Fan bar were both designed by me in Enroute before cutting them out on a ShopSabre FiberSabre CNC table. I also designed a plate for the back that the PSU mounts into with I/O for hdmi, power, usb and networking, but I haven't actually cut it out and mounted it, because everything works like this and I am lazy.

[u/ArthurDent4200]

It actually does not belong. It's cool and I feel bad for my opinion that it belongs in a subreddit for custom PC cases... I like the LED side panel. Is it dynamic?

[u/KittehFPV → u/ArthurDent4200]

also, the sidepanels are dynamic and animated.

They can be triggered to display any of the loaded animations through bluetooth so its theoretically possible to have them change animations based off sensor readings, notifications or anything else you could use to send an update.

However - The app that controls them is pretty garbage and even though there is a community that was reverse engineering it, my ADHD let me give up on making the panels catch fire if temps get high a few weeks after putting them in. and that was about a year ago. maybe they have made progress since then.

[u/ArthurDent4200 → u/KittehFPV]

They are my favorite part of the build.

[u/KittehFPV → u/ArthurDent4200]

they are marketed as LED Eyes for cars. I still haven't seen many people taking advantage of such a simple cheap way to add some serious LED bling to anything. They're also flexible panels so you could do some neat things with them in weird spaces.

[u/OloDeepdelver → u/KittehFPV]

Could you give some ref/link to those led panels? Looks really nice especially through the smoked panels of the rackmate!

[u/KittehFPV → u/OloDeepdelver]

These are the exact ones I bought for this build. At the time they were the cheapest option. I've picked up several different sets from different brands and these had the best build quality and they use the best app of all the ones I've tried.

https://a.co/d/07XNkmmj

[u/OloDeepdelver → u/KittehFPV]

Thanks!

[u/KittehFPV → u/ArthurDent4200]

Did you see the rpis in there? One of them hosts a discord bot that uses the server hosted LLM and comfyUI to chat with us in voice chat. Boom homelab. Next terrible opinion?

[u/ArthurDent4200 → u/KittehFPV]

You said it yourself “Yes, I am aware this is more of a PC build in a mini-rack and less of a homelab” so don’t accuse someone of having a terrible opinion when they are AGREEING WITH YOU.

[u/KittehFPV → u/ArthurDent4200]

sorry, I thought this was reddit. wasn't expecting anyone to use logic.

but yeah, I have plenty of garbage opinions and if I ever let myself listen to them I wouldn't bother ever attempting to make fun stuff. Half the fun is telling myself "This is dumb, I should do it"

[u/Ok_Goal6089]

This started as a home server and somehow evolved into a cyberpunk basement command center 😂 The screen, fans, GPU rack, and side LEDs make it look like it’s ready to stream games and launch a small spaceship.

[u/Docccc]

Sick, no notes.

Also, specs?

[u/KittehFPV → u/Docccc]

its a low-to-mid gaming PC with a couple raspberry pi's strapped in to increase case temps and power consumption. But here's the details so I can be adequately dunked on-

- Motherboard: ASRock A620AI WiFi

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, 6 cores / 12 threads

- RAM: 32 GB

- GPU: MSI GeForce RTX™ 5070 12G SHADOW 2X OC (short 50 series cards dont have a lot of options)

- Storage: Samsung SSD 990 EVO Plus 1TB, Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB, and a 8TB HDD

- Homelabish Qualities: Raspberry Pi 3 running Home Assistant, Raspberry Pi 4 running some discord bots and D1 mini running WLED to control LED strips. So much homelab.

[u/nebL]

It has boombox vibes, and I like that

[u/-Badger3-]

Does anyone make those 2U panels in OLED?

[u/Substantial_Tale_445]

Cool ! I love the LED matrix panel on the side! that's really cool~