Tower or Rackmount?

to deploy a home server environment, before we consider even the basics of the hardware we are going to buy, we must first ask ourselves the question, “where am i going to put it?” this is what separates us from the animals.

having done homelab environments with both rackmount equipment as well as stand-alone towers, i will tell you there is a correct answer here. and that answer, for the run-of-the-mill homelabber, is stand alone towers. that may sound hypocritical because i am currently running a rackmount setup, but hear me out.

unless you have serious server need, the ease of use argument for towers is overwhelming in almost all aspects. for one thing, in order to rackmount anything, you first need a rack, which is expensive and does take up more space than a tower. especially since it cant be tucked away under a desk.

rackmount equipment, despite being exactly the same as tower components, are more expensive. its almost as if turning your computer 90 degrees to either side immediately doubles its price and makes it harder to find.

working on servers which are rackmounted is also a pain. if you go in for the rails, it gets way better but purchasing components is hundreds of dollars and many people dont want to add money to the bottom line for equipment like rails which are used once in a blue moon. u know how easy it is to work on towers? just pop off the side panel and youre good. you dont need 2 people to lift stuff out of a rack after its unscrewed from the posts.

the saving grace argument for rackmount servers is the complete joy that it is to work with hot-swap hard drive bays. now, you can get those on towers as well, but its harder to find, while in rack chassis, its fairly common. if you are frequently swapping drives, this argument for rackmount should probably outweigh all others against it.

if you are someone who works around racks all the time then you are already used to it and know what you are getting yourself into. however, if this would be your first rack setup, i would recommend against it and instead to stick with what you know. your life will be far easier in the future, believe me.