Rack Servers and Tower Servers are fundamentally the same – the immediate differences visually are the form factors - one is housed in an upright/vertical case and the other in a horizontal case.
But with these differences in form factors, there are a number of internal component considerations that should not be overlooked.
Read on to get the advice your business deserves!
So why should you choose one over the other for your business?
Both types can usually accommodate similar components – they can all have a single or dual socket motherboard – all can have a single or redundant PSU and all have various cooling options to suit the components that go within.
The benefit of a tower system though is they are compact and thought has been put into the cooling of them for quiet operation as most tower systems are used within an open office – not very often in a cupboard or out of sight. Tower systems often have a lockable door, too, to help reduce unwanted access - usually again due to being located in an open office environment.
The benefit of a rack system is density. Tower systems are generally all the same width, height and length. However, a rack system while the same width, can often be much less tall – but fit the same number of components within.
In fact, when it comes to the number of hot-swap drive bays, a rack system comes up tramps over the towers.
Tower systems generally only have a small number of hot-swap bays - usually up to 8 bays. However, in a rack system, in the same physical size (but horizontal orientation), you can have up to 36 bays (24x at the front and 12x at the rear).
It should also be noted that rack systems are generally not installed in an office where others work – they are usually housed in a server cabinet in another room to keep them both physically and audibly isolated.
Rack server builds usually don’t include any design considerations in relation to keeping them quiet, as a result of their typical isolation from those who could hear them. This is done to maximise the cooling efficiency.
So as you can see, both can be an ideal solution for your business – and it really comes down to your individual business objectives, environmental working spaces and component efficiency demands.
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