Wow, how am I the first person to comment on this project?! This is phenomenal and gives me some inspiration to do something similar, although I have a meagre 7 machines ranging from a 486 through to my daily driver dual 10 core 192gb ram workstation.

Great job! Do you have any videos of it in operation?

Holy moly ...

I'd be quite interested to know what hardware is being used! Especially whats being used to handle signal conversion to DVI-D - I've heard very few off-the-shelf widgets do the job properly often not properly supporting the various weird resolutions older PCs tend to put out.

Love the rack setup.

Man I love over the top projects like these , I second the notion that we need to see a video detailing the setup and operation.

Videos are planned for sure! :-) So much to show and explain on this... Will be a whole series I guess.

I'm using two different VGA to DVI-D converters in the signal chain at the moment, the OSSC for the old and weird stuff, and an Extron converter for the newer computers and of course a switch to select one of them depending on the situation. I'm nailed to converters which can be remote controlled for automation purposes.

There will be a list of all hardware I'm using, plans of how it is connected to each other etc. once it is all setup and confirmed working okay.

Looks like my original post needs to be updated! A lot of things have changed since then, so luckily I can remove the planned sign from many points!

This is insane in the best possible way! I also find it very inspiring, it has been somewhat of a dream of mine to have every system of mine rackmounted and controlled from a single point. If you ever end up making that video, I'd love to see it!

Very impressive. I once had 8 old PCs connected to a kvm made out of a serial switcher box. Had to wire my own cables. Thought that was nuts. I got 4 16port KVMs cheap a while back so have planned something like this before but not at this level.

Since my original post was more than a year old, I did a quick edit update it to the current status. Photos will be updated later.

“Holy moly” being a previous comment I require to ditto!

This is incredible, i love complex projects like this that actually solve a bespoke problem. Kudos to you and I look forward to the updates !

Love this! What video cards did you use in each box?

SteveC wrote on 2022-06-06, 22:50:

Love this! What video cards did you use in each box?

The computers are still work in progress. This is what I want to use as video cards in each machine (*planned):

• 8086-2: Hercules Graphics Card Clone (TTL, came with the machine, I prefer it over MGA anyhow because of the graphics mode)
• *80286 class: EGA Clone (TTL, maybe outdated for a late 80286, but I want to have TTL color graphics)
• *80386 class: Tseng Labs ET300o (VGA)
• *80486 class: Tseng Labs ET4000 (VGA, unfortunately the ATI Mach64 VLB I own seems to be dead)
• *Pentium class: S3 ViRGE + 3dfx Voodoo (VGA)
• Pentium MMX 233 MHz: Matrox Mystique + 3dfx Voodoo (VGA)
• *Pentium II 400+ MHz: nVidia Riva TNT/TNT2 + 2x (SLI) 3dfx Voodoo II (VGA)
• *Pentium III 1000+ MHz: An early DVI AGP card, no choice yet (DVI)
• AMD Athlon XP 1833 MHz: ATI Radeon 9800XT (DVI)
• AMD Athlon64 2400 MHz: ATI Radeon X1950XTX (DVI)
• AMD Ryzen 7 1800X: nVidia Geforce GTX 1080 (HDMI)

Suggestions welcome! Most choices are not final. I am trying to cover the most important technologies and most widespread video cards of each generation.

I just wanted to note my project is not dead. But since I've become dad, time has become a very rare resource.

The whole signal routing has received a major update allowing me to do some more cool things (IMHO), notably audio mixing from various sources, 2.0/4.0/5.1/7.1 analog HDMI audio embedding up to 1920x1200 @ 60 Hz and full audio and video capturing. The 36 U cabinets will be replaced by 42 U cabinets soon, leaving more space for things like MIDI Expanders (how could I ever forget?!). Once the cabinets are replaced, I'll update the photos too.

Not sure how I missed this for so long, I've a rack mount plan in my head for when I get a long term home.
but this is at another level. I was thinking of just a rack with shelves to put the PC's kind of like my currant setup.

My requirements are also not as demanding. Don't need remote access.
I run 3 screens for my main PC and happy to have a KVM per screen. That way I can play network games (mostly against myself) 3 sets of keyboards is annoying though I'll admit.
I'll keep the tower cases but those desktops in the rack do look damn impressive.

Currently I'm using toslink and small switchbox for some of the PC's but EAX only supports surround sound if using analogue cables, haven't given this much thought yet as since having kids I'm mostly using headphones now anyway.

How is your power and network wired up?
For power I currently have a power strip per shelf but that includes a few power strips plugged into another power strips. I'm not worried about overloading. typically, no more than 3 PC's are on at any 1 time but still it's not ideal.
I was thinking of something like a rack mount PDU that runs top to bottom of the rack.

Network I currently have patch leads go direct from the switch to the PC but this gets messy depending how far the switch they are.
I was thinking of a patch panel per shelf, less of a problem for you as only have 1 PC per shelf but you have multiple racks.

and finally, congratulations on becoming a father! This setup will help alot as spare time will disappear so simply been able to turn on a PC at a moments notice is woth the saved time of unplugging, moving, plugging in anther PC depending on your mood.

This is very impressive.

Those Highscreen desktops are among the best AT cases ever:
- pleasing beige color - check
- cool badge - check
- no proprietary LPX form - check
- not too bulky - check
- vertical floppy to save space - check
- keylook - check
- turbo and reset button - check
- digital MHz display - check
- exchangable HDD - extra bonus
- awesome minimalistic design - check

very nice project !

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:09:

Not sure how I missed this for so long, I've a rack mount plan in my head for when I get a long term home. but this is at anothe […]
Show full quote

Not sure how I missed this for so long, I've a rack mount plan in my head for when I get a long term home.
but this is at another level. I was thinking of just a rack with shelves to put the PC's kind of like my currant setup.

Nice setup! I don't have enough space for a setup like you and many others are showing, so I chose the KVM switching approach.

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:09:

My requirements are also not as demanding. Don't need remote access.

I don't need it too, but I am enjoying building it!

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:09:

I run 3 screens for my main PC and happy to have a KVM per screen. That way I can play network games (mostly against myself) 3 sets of keyboards is annoying though I'll admit.

Who wins when you play then? 😉

I am completely avoiding additional keyboards and mice. Maybe a mobile set would be helpful when working at the back of the cabinets when diagnosing things.

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:09:

I'll keep the tower cases but those desktops in the rack do look damn impressive.

I'm afraid I have bad news for you: I got rid of all desktop cases except the one of the XT machine, because I cannot transplant the mainboard to a 19" case due to its non-standard form factor.

The reason why I chose 19" cases is simple:

• I can extend them from the rack like a drawer which makes them much easier to handle
• They have got much more space for additional hardware and are much better to service (and I personally don't like the riser cards used in small cases)
• The air flows through filters which avoids dust in the machines

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:09:

Currently I'm using toslink and small switchbox for some of the PC's but EAX only supports surround sound if using analogue cables, haven't given this much thought yet as since having kids I'm mostly using headphones now anyway.

I am using a solution which enables me to switch all kinds of audio. I was aware of the EAX problem which won't work through S/PDIF, but it is possible to digitize the 5.1/7.1 surround audio and embed it into HDMI which enables me to extend it to the living room. Which lacks a surround receiver, haha. Future extensions...

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:09:

How is your power and network wired up?

I was starting with a central 48 port Gbit switch and wired everything to it, but I gave up this solution because I was running out of ports (yes). The current solution uses three 24 port Gbit switches, a central one and one for each cabinet using a single Gbit uplink each.

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:09:

For power I currently have a power strip per shelf but that includes a few power strips plugged into another power strips. I'm not worried about overloading. typically, no more than 3 PC's are on at any 1 time but still it's not ideal.
I was thinking of something like a rack mount PDU that runs top to bottom of the rack.

I had to cascade PDUs too, but that should be okay because I only want to run maybe a few machines at the same time.

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:09:

Network I currently have patch leads go direct from the switch to the PC but this gets messy depending how far the switch they are.
I was thinking of a patch panel per shelf, less of a problem for you as only have 1 PC per shelf but you have multiple racks.

I got rid of the mess by using a tree topology and mostly only use patch cables within the cabinets and only a few which go outside.

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:09:

and finally, congratulations on becoming a father! This setup will help alot as spare time will disappear so simply been able to turn on a PC at a moments notice is woth the saved time of unplugging, moving, plugging in anther PC depending on your mood.

Thank you!

When I count the hours I put into the project, I could have plugged cables and move machines instead for weeks or months! 😁 But anyhow, once it's fully working, it really should be just like you wrote: Select a machine and run it.

kingcake wrote on 2024-02-29, 01:39:

This is very impressive.

Thank you and all others who wrote comments like this! That really motivates me to keep working on the project.

Aui wrote on 2024-02-29, 02:48:

Those Highscreen desktops are among the best AT cases ever: - pleasing beige color - check - cool badge - check - no proprietary […]
Show full quote

Those Highscreen desktops are among the best AT cases ever:
- pleasing beige color - check
- cool badge - check
- no proprietary LPX form - check
- not too bulky - check
- vertical floppy to save space - check
- keylook - check
- turbo and reset button - check
- digital MHz display - check
- exchangable HDD - extra bonus
- awesome minimalistic design - check

I agree to all of the points, but as I wrote in my previous post, I got rid of the cases for various other reasons. I was prioritizing function over appeal. I'm still smiling when I see Highscreen cases! 😉

Aui wrote on 2024-02-29, 02:48:

very nice project !

Thank you in advance!