Full size GPU in a 3U rack mount case.

I recently built a gaming computer that sits in the media cabinet under my living room 4K Television.

I found a very nice 3U height case that is only 16 inches deep. The problem was the EVGA RTX-2070 graphics adapter power connectors were on the top of the card and there was only about 5mm between the card and the top of the case.

I added a second set of power connectors to the GPU by purchasing ten inch extension cables and cut them in half. A short piece of heat-shrink was placed on the end of the wires before soldering to prevent melting the insulation. Note that the 8-pin GPU connector is keyed differently than an 8-pin CPU connector.

Added GPU power connectors

The case is an ARK IPC-3U380D Black 3U Rackmount Server Case although the photos on ARK's web site show a slighly different case. I bought two of these cases on Newegg.com for just $54.10 each, and they both had the wider black handles.

I went with this case because it is only 16 inches deep and it has a front accessable air filter with plenty of airflow. Four reasonably quiet 2-wire fans were included with the case but I replaced them with Noctua 4-wire PWM fans.

I also modified the power supply to be exhaust rather than intake by flipping over it's fan.



This case includes two internal brackets for mounting 3.5 inch drives between the motherboard and the front fans, but that would have made things very croweded. Instead the SSD are mounted in an ICY DOCK 6-drive ExpressCage.

Front accessable air filter

I removed the fan grills that are stamped into the case because they generally cause more turbulance which means more noise. I use a standard fan grill instead. I also had to enlarge the power supply mounting holes so it could be moved over slighly do to the EVGA ECO switch.

Stamped fan grills removed and standard grills added

There are not a lot of options for cooling an Intel i7-7820X CPU in a 3U case. Most CPU fans are too tall to fit or too small to provide enough cooling. Fortunately Noctura makes the NH-D9DXi43U cooler for 3U cases.

Included 2-wire fans replaced with 4-wire PWM fans