Jim Shaw, EVP of Engineering at Crystal Group, breaks down the chassis construction of a 5U server.
Video Transcript: Episode 23 – “Chassis Assembly”
Hi, Jim Shaw here again at Crystal Group. Just wanted to show you one of our 5U chassis and talk a little bit about some of the things to consider when looking at a chassis for a server. This one is 5U, a U in server talk is 1.75 inches. If you wanted to know the height of your server is, multiple the 5 rack units, or 5U, times 1.75, and you can come up with the overall height of the system. This one is a billet construction, so essentially all of these pieces are machined and then put together. We typically have around twenty-five thousandths clearance on each side of the unit.
You can do that with this type of construction because it is billet, so the tolerances are much than say a sheet metal construction. A lot of box in box type architecture for this particular design. One of the things you notice on the design is that it has a tremendous amount of airflow, so we have fans and back up fans, essentially redundant systems for thermal. This particular unit has essentially a floor in it, so you can put your components in and then there is another floor, so you can mount additional circuit cards and circuitry. This is just a brief summary of what this particular 5U looks like.