Absolutely, rackmount servers tend to be very loud and often power-hungry. But if you think of rackmount as a form factor, it can make some practical and aesthetic sense.
The IKEA CORRAS Birch Effect "rack cabinet" in my living room currently has a nice virtually silent GPU compute server based on a consumer/gaming PC in a 4U short-depth rackmount case, a mostly passively-cooled Supermicro Atom server in which I've replaced the PSU fan with a Noctua, and a sinewave UPS. (There's an ongoing evolution of gear over time, including more exotic stuff, and most toys I might play with in the future will also fit this form factor.)
Aesthetically, those stack on the bottom of the cabinet, a Birch Effect shelf sits on top, and the plastic OpenWrt WiFi router with all the pokey antennae sits safely in the shelf cubbyhole. (Once I need detached WiFi APs, I'll probably build a 1U or 2U router with opnSense/Linux/*BSD. And I have a discreet slide-out rackmount console for if I ever get a deeper cabinet.) I like to think it looks like understated black home AV that's not out of place in a living room, which is better than a tangle of assorted non-rackmount PCs and UPS.
Practically, besides the tidy organizing and uniform cooling airflow, I have some rack posts I can use if the stack of gear gets too large/tricky for pulling individual boxes without disturbing the others too much. Also, when I lived in a dodgier student apartment, fastening a bunch of rackmount gear together with security-head screws seemed a good way to discourage a burglar from walking off with my data.
The IKEA CORRAS Birch Effect "rack cabinet" in my living room currently has a nice virtually silent GPU compute server based on a consumer/gaming PC in a 4U short-depth rackmount case, a mostly passively-cooled Supermicro Atom server in which I've replaced the PSU fan with a Noctua, and a sinewave UPS. (There's an ongoing evolution of gear over time, including more exotic stuff, and most toys I might play with in the future will also fit this form factor.)
Aesthetically, those stack on the bottom of the cabinet, a Birch Effect shelf sits on top, and the plastic OpenWrt WiFi router with all the pokey antennae sits safely in the shelf cubbyhole. (Once I need detached WiFi APs, I'll probably build a 1U or 2U router with opnSense/Linux/*BSD. And I have a discreet slide-out rackmount console for if I ever get a deeper cabinet.) I like to think it looks like understated black home AV that's not out of place in a living room, which is better than a tangle of assorted non-rackmount PCs and UPS.
Practically, besides the tidy organizing and uniform cooling airflow, I have some rack posts I can use if the stack of gear gets too large/tricky for pulling individual boxes without disturbing the others too much. Also, when I lived in a dodgier student apartment, fastening a bunch of rackmount gear together with security-head screws seemed a good way to discourage a burglar from walking off with my data.