Do you have a home "server closet"?
 

I have three computers in my office, and it gets hot as hell in here. Air-conditioning is on, multiple fans? It's just too much. My computers are going to die or I am.

I've been thinking about how to build a home server closet and am trying to find some good information about doing it.

I envision insulating the closet, setting up some sort of exhaust and also climate control unit. Some kind of rack to hold all of my computer equipment. And then run cables into my office and throughout the house.

Has anyone done this? Any advice or tips? Right now I am just in the "thought" stage but would like to get as much information as possible so that I can build this right once I am ready.

I don't have one, but sounds like a good idea.

Why build when you can buy for under $200 on Amazon?

$157 - Server wall mount rack
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

$25 - Server ultra quiet cabinet fan
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...vL._SS400_.jpg








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That looks like a cage and a fairly simple fan. I don't see how that would solve my heat problem.

ehm, did ya consider heat pipes?

had one under the kitchen table once .......

I have a server and my security system , modem, router, etc. in a locked closet. I cut holes in the top and bought some fans from http://hometheatercooling.com

There is also a cold air return that runs directly below the closet so I was able to tap into that as an air source as well. Basically sucks fresh air in the bottom of the closet and exhausts the hot air out the top. Works great and my PC temps are stable.

They also sell a thermostat for those fans, but I just keep mine running 24/7. You can't really hear it at all.

THERMALTAKE ARMOR + WATER COOLING SYSTEM is what I use. You can also install a giant fan on that case, I don't use it, because it's enough with that.

I have a second computer with THERMALTAKE SOPRANO, not that good as the ARMOR, but still I really like THERMALTAKE cases.

Typical of GFY hardly anyone understood what you said Sly.

I've built server rooms, but my little home wiring closet doesn't have much heat generating equipment in it to worry about.

I've had your same issue though, where my equipment was heating up the area it was in too much. Here's a few tips -

1) Reduce the heat the equipment puts out. Sleep idle hard disks, turn on processor power management, see if you've got any 'green' features on your video card - better yet use hibernate or deep sleep for as little heat generation as possible. This depends on what you use your boxes for though.

2) An upgrade might actually be cheaper if you've got one component that is confirmed to be generating a larger percentage of the heat. When I lived in a small apartment I used to have a PC that heated the whole place year round. Not fun. You can get an idea by checking the wattage for your processor/video card.

3) If the above doesn't work, then the question becomes, can your equipment live in your server closet without cooling. If its going to generate too much heat to cool passively or with just air circulation and/or increase failures of the equipment, then you are into installing AC and all that entails - piping in a drain, etc. A hassle IMO.

4) If 3) then why not consider adding more A/C to your office or living space to deal with the heat. Simpler than moving everything and THEN adding AC in a room without a window. There may be other factors, such as noise, aesthetics, but this is a consideration.

Good luck

Thre's a good thread on this topic on slashdot. Because of heat, we didn't put the servers in the closet, but in a back room. We do have a switch and patch panel in the closet.

On the topic of heat, heat out is exactly equal to power in. So to reduce heat issues, foklow exactly the same steps you use to ninimize power usage.

Aside from referring you to the slashdot discussion, if you are likely have more than three computers, you may want to get a real rack, which are cheap from surplus. Check your city, county, and local school districts, or craigslist.

A wall mount rack is okay for things that don't have connectors in the rear.

Run plenty of cable. Running one cat5e to a room? Run a pair while you're at it. Two isn't much harder to run than one.

Cat5e is WAY better than wireless. Wireless is for mobile devices.

If you do decide to ventilate a closet, look.at the vents used for clothes dryers. You'll likely want a BIG closet or small room, though, so you can work in there, plugging stuff in, adding drives, etc.

Consider a portable air conditioner (not the same as a window unit) - dual vented units start from around $400 at Home Depot.

Advantages are: no unsightly outdoor condenser, can be easily moved, and in some instances is more energy efficient.

Condensation water is discharged automatically through the venting hose, so, except in very rare instances, no water to deal with.

"Dual venting" is very important, to avoid a negative pressure situation - is worth spending the extra $100 or so premium; will save money in the long-run in energy savings.

http://www.homedepot.com/Appliances-...z0ze64=1z0ze64

You could use a small portable refrigerator to house your modem, switch, server, and anything else.

No worries about dirt/dust, or smoke (if you smoke). The noise is minimal depending upon the condition of the unit you buy.

Mine was $20 at the Salvation Army store and was wide enough to mount a 1U rack resting on the bottom.

Depending on the freezer unit, you can just break off the 'container' or unscrew it.

Turn up the thermostat to a reasonable temperature and your running costs are not noticable.

You only need to drill a large enough hole where you want the cables run and use any plumbing or electrical gromet to protect the cable insulators from the metal hole and minimize any temperature leak.

I wouldn't recommend storing your favorite beverage in it as any container of liquid will condense at some point depending on the temperature setting.

Missing the point.. the heat still has to go somewhere. No matter how efficient the case or cooling system is, the heat is still getting pushed out, into his room and cooking him where he sits. Whether its evaporated from a water system evaporator, pulled more efficiently from the cpu with thermaltake hardware of the case providing good ventilation, the room heats up.

I just turn mine off every night because it gets so damn hot.

http://www.custom-consoles.com/Rackmount-Mac-g5.php

http://www.custom-consoles.com/image...e_tray_001.jpg

if it get's too hot just open a window and buy some really cool fans at target

Cue MrPheer's server closet pic

I have 4 motherboards mounted to a shelf in a closet. I have two 1000 watt power supplies(attached under the shelf) split between the four. Two power supplies was better, just to keep the overall hardware footprint smaller. The hard drive for each board is mounted to a drive stack, also attached under the shelf.

All boards are using Corsair h50 water coolers.

It looks ghetto, but it's a fast renderfarm.

without outlaying a pretty decent amount of cash, its probably easiest to do some type of water cooling on your computers, and as bigluv pointed out, minimize heatout put. if you do a lot of video processing or the likes, that wont help much.

but to answer your question with a finite answer; these will do exactly what you are looking for: http://www.blackbox.com/Store/Result...s/n-4294954894 <full size
http://www.blackbox.com/Store/Result...d/n-4294954891 <small sized.

doing it in a closet would probably require some kind of permanent changes to your house and would probably end up costing about the same without the ability to take it with you when you leave.

been there, learned about that.

Seriously? what do you think industrial people do with their 'puters (CPU's) in an intense production environment? They use small insulated air tight cabinets with sub-mini AC's and dehumidifiers. Been there, done that.

With 5-6 computers on 24/7 I have a similar problem in my home office. In winter it's great as the waste heat keeps the room warm: I have the central heating vent CLOSED most days, and I can switch off the house heating completely when no one else is here... but in summer it's a real killer.

Slightly wild idea: if you contain all of the devices inside a rack with a defined exhaust point (like the upper fan), you could place a radiator over it to sink the heat, with a pump and tubing run outside leading to another radiator, moving heat from the indoors to outdoors. Even on a hot day your exhaust temp should be higher than the outside temp, so it will still shed heat from inside. The other advantage is that you don't need to duct air in and out. Remember to insulate your tubing so it doesn't radiate all the heat on the way out.

No, I don't :pimp

I have a home server room.. and it gets so hot in the summer time.. .it is just a normal closet.. but it has a huge xeon dell poweredge with a raid.. a mac pro.. and like 3 other older dell computers ( not power edges).. an apple air port.. cisco l3 switch.. and a few other things.. i have to keep the door open all the time or the dell will make loudest noise because of the fans.. but I don't know what else to do.. there is no room for an a/c units because anything infront of the closet would block access to the laundry machine and the cars. My old house I had some server racks and some sun ultra computers ( my ex made me sell them)

If you don't cool it you are going to dramatically shorten the life of the components.

I couldnt fit 30 in a closet, they had their own dedicated bedroom. It was quite warm in there, but in the winter I did not have to run the upstairs heat at all.

All of that was replaced by two quad-core servers, new software, and offshore hosting :)

use only laptops ;)

we have our stuff in a separate room - in the winter we leave the window and doors open and it still heats the upper floor of our office.

the rest of the year a good sized air condition is necessary, otherwise it turns into a sauna. but there are 2 servers, 2 encoding computers and about 20 NAS in there

Brad Gosse maybe of help here, I think he has some serious home units:2 cents:

I have all my NAS devices and network equipment stacked in a cabinet. All the PC's in total 28 are divided over 600 square meter (3 levels). I personally work on a laptop and remote access all the computers from here

Do any of you guys worry about your house electrical system being able to support the number of computers you need to run? I get fear sometimes of blowing out something.

While a typical home circuit is good for about twenty devices, when I lived in an old house I ran a new 30 amp circuit with 5-20R receptacles. I was lucky in that the breaker box was on the same wall as that room, just outside, so the wiring from the breaker box to the first receptacle was about a foot long.