Lots of people asked me about the rack.
Here is a a detailed article how I built it, including parts list. https://x.com/i/article/2115055582038118400
How I built my 10-inch rack for 4 GB10 boxes and a Mac Studio
> At a glance
Cabinet: DSIT DS10-3415, 10 inch, 15U, glass door, 370 × 450 × 752 mm.
Inside: four GB10 boxes on 1U shelves, a switch, a patch panel and a Mac Studio on the floor.
Cooling: five fans on one PWM controller. Push at the bottom, pull at the top.
Network: the four boxes talk over a QSFP ring, no switch in between.
Only four cables go into the rack: one power, one network, two Thunderbolt.
Free files: my roof fan mount is on GitHub.
I run local AI at home on four GB10 boxes and a Mac Studio. They all live in one 10-inch rack.
This is how I built it, step by step: every part, where it sits and why.
This is how it looked at the start: the Mac Studio on the cabinet floor, nothing in front of it.
The fan panel at the bottom came a bit later. More on that in step 6.
The rack today, door open, with the fan panel in front of the Mac Studio.
Step 1: The cabinet
10 inch, 15U, with a slot in the roof.
I went with the DSIT DS10-3415. GrokBot looked it up for me. I gave him the dimensions of the Mac and the GB10s and told him to search for a rack that would fit all of them.
15U holds four boxes on shelves, the network gear and a fan panel. It's 450 mm deep, and the Mac Studio fits on the cabinet floor. There is still enough room to work inside. Anything smaller and I'd hate it, it would get way too tight.
The roof has an opening for a 120 mm fan and a cable slot right next to it. That slot became my second exhaust, more on that in step 6.
Step 2: Plan the layout
Network on top, the boxes in the middle, cooling and the Mac at the bottom.
Front, top to bottom:
U15 patch panel, 12 ports, 8 keystones fitted
U14 switch in a 3D-printed holder
U6 to U13 the four GB10 boxes, each on its own 1U shelf
U4 and U5 blank panels
U3 open
U1 and U2 a fan panel with two 80 mm fans, the Mac Studio behind it on the floor
Back: three PDUs at roughly U13, U10 and U4, and two cable management panels at roughly U9 and U3.
Why this order:
Patch panel and switch sit right on top of each other, so 0.25 m cables are enough between them.
The boxes are not rack devices, so each one stands on a shelf.
The fan panel sits at the very bottom, right in front of the Mac Studio.
Power and cable management go on the back rails, out of the way.
Front and rear of the rack. The PDU heights are approximate.
Step 3: Shelves and boxes
Four 1U shelves, one box on each.
The shelves are HMF 63399, 254 × 150 mm. On them, from top to bottom: Lenovo ThinkStation PGX, Gigabyte AI TOP ATOM and two ASUS Ascent GX10. They fit the GB10 boxes very nicely. GX10s are my favorite here, because they literally stick to the shelves due to their magnetic bottom.
Each box gets two units, the shelf plus the space above it. Below the boxes, two HMF blank panels close the front at U5 and U4.
The M6 cage nuts and screws came with the cabinet or the rest of the parts.
Step 4: Network
Router, patch panel, switch, patch panel, devices.
The only network cable from outside goes into the patch panel at the top. Short 0.25 m cables connect the front of the patch panel with the switch. From the back of the patch panel, cables run to the Mac Studio and the four boxes.
The switch is a SODOLA with 4× 2.5G and 2× 10G SFP+. Both SFP+ ports have an SFP+ to RJ45 module in them.
It sits in a 3D-printed holder. You can find it here: https://github.com/Nipale-ai/sodola-sl902-10inch-switch-mount
The four boxes talk to each other over a QSFP ring. Four DAC cables, two ports per box, no switch in between.
Left: the QSFP ring between the four boxes. Right: how the five fans are wired.
Step 5: Power
One power cable in, three PDUs at the back.
Three Digitus 10-inch PDUs, 1U each, with 4 Schuko sockets. The power bricks of the four boxes, the Mac Studio and the 12 V fan supply all plug in there.
Two Digitus cable management panels sit right under the two lower PDUs. Good cable management helps a lot.
Step 6: Cooling
Push at the bottom, pull at the top.
The roof: a 120 mm Noctua sits in the fan opening. Next to it is the cable slot. I designed a mount that puts two Arctic P8 fans under that slot. It uses the two screws of the slot cover, so no drilling.
STL and STEP are free on GitHub: https://github.com/Nipale-ai/10inch-rack-dual-80mm-fan-mount
The roof from above: two Arctic P8 in the slot, the 120 mm fan below.
The boxes pull air in at the front and blow it out the back. The warm air rises to the roof fans.
Without the Mac Studio, the roof fans were enough. With it, they weren't. The Mac runs a lot warmer than one GB10 box. It feels more like three of them together.
So I quickly ordered a fan panel for the bottom. It does two jobs. It blows straight onto the Mac Studio, and it pushes cool air in from below. The roof fans pull air out at the top. Push at the bottom, pull at the top, and the air actually circulates through the whole rack.
All five fans run on one PWM controller. Its temperature sensor sits at the top rear. The warmer it gets up there, the faster the fans spin. A 12 V / 2 A power supply feeds the controller. The Arctic fans have a pass-through plug, so the second fan of each pair plugs into the first. Extension cables get them to the controller.
Now I can keep the glass door closed with all five machines running, and temperatures stay in range. That's with all four GB10 boxes capped at 2200 MHz.
Cool air in at the front and bottom, warm air out through the roof.
Step 7: The Mac Studio
On the cabinet floor, behind the fan panel.
You can see it in the first photo, before the fan panel went in. It stands on the floor of the cabinet, below U1.
One Thunderbolt cable goes from the Mac Studio to a dock outside the rack, the other one straight to my monitor. So I don't need a separate cable into the rack for every device.
So only four cables go into the rack from outside: one power cable, one network cable and two Thunderbolt cables.
The back: the cables leave the rack at the bottom, the dock sits outside.
What I'd still change
A 10G switch, that's it.
The only upgrade I still want is a 10G switch. Maybe a second fan panel with two fans too, because you can never have enough cooling. But it's not really needed.
Parts list
Prices from my receipts incl. VAT, where I have one. Without the four GB10 boxes and the Mac Studio.
Cabinet
DSIT DS10-3415, 15U, glass door · 1 · €186.77 (whole DSIT order)
Mounting
HMF 63399 1U shelf · 4 · €9.49 each
HMF 63370 blank panel · 4 (2 in use) · €3.99 each
M6 cage nuts and screws · came with the cabinet
Network
HMF 63346 keystone patch panel, 12 ports · 1 · €9.99
deleyCON CAT6a keystone couplers · 8 · €21.99 for 8
deleyCON CAT6 patch cables 0.25 m (10 pack) · €10.19
deleyCON CAT6 patch cables 0.5 m (10 pack) · €13.99
deleyCON CAT6 patch cable 1 m · €9.99
deleyCON CAT6 patch cables 2 m (5 pack) · €10.19
SODOLA switch, 4× 2.5G + 2× 10G SFP+ · 1
SFP+ to RJ45 10GBase-T module · 2 (SODOLA, XZSNET) · XZSNET €29.99
Switch holder, 3D print in black PETG · 1 · €27.44 (Craftcloud)
QSFP ring
QSFP112 DAC 0.4 m, Amphenol NJAAKK-N911 · 2
QSFP56 DAC 0.5 m, FS QSFP-200G-PC005 · 1 · €84.73 incl. shipping
QSFP56 DAC 1 m, NADDOD Q56-200G-CU1 · 1 · €93.45 incl. shipping
Power
Digitus PDU, 10 inch, 1U, 4× Schuko · 3 · €15.29 each
Digitus cable management panel, 10 inch · 2 · €8.89 each
Cooling
Noctua NF-P12 redux-1300 PWM, 120 mm (roof) · 1
Arctic P8 PWM PST CO, 80 mm · 4 (2 roof, 2 front) · €10.49 each on my last order
Roof fan mount, 3D print in black PETG · 1 · €23.13 (Craftcloud)
Delock 67432 2U fan panel for 2× 80 mm · 1 · €17.96 incl. shipping
APKLVSR PWM fan controller with temperature sensor · 1
Gonew21 12 V / 2 A power supply · 1
Gebildet 4-pin PWM extension (6 pack) · 1 · €5.99
Everything I measure on this rack ends up on niklaslenz.com: https://niklaslenz.com