Thought I'd post this as the idea generated some interest in another thread earlier this year. I've had this running for the last few months.

 

Here is my GarageRack! Air flow is in at the lower front through the mesh filters on the fan and out at the top rear. Arduino controls the PWM for the rack fans, but takes the power from a fan connector on the motherboard. Importantly, the Arduino also cuts the power to the rack fans below 16 deg C using a relay.

 

The CPU and HDD fans inside the server case are all triggered from the HDD temperatures using the IPMI plugin.

 

Temp inside the cab seems to vary between 16 and 18 deg C. Drive temps are set to centre around 30 deg C. Temp within garage has between around 0 and 15 deg C. Outside temperature has varied between -2 and 20.

 

During the warmer months I remove the back panel, so warm air goes straight out, and I still get some filtration benefit from the mesh in front of the fans. The rack rolls back into the space next to the bench. The chopsaw is then about 3m away and has a dust hood with extraction around it. Even then, sawdust particles collect on the rack filter a day after using the chopsaw.

 

There is a 750VA APC non-rack mount UPS underneath the server.

 

Even at 0 DegC in the garage the fans are still coming on regularly so this will be fine for anything reasonably forseeable on the UK South coast. The side panels are screwed to the frame, and the top, front and back panels are simply velcroed at the moment. For colder temps it would be easy enough to improve the sealing and cover up one of the fans if necessary.

 

Hopefully the small amount of heat exhausted to the garage will help to reduce any condensation forming in the garage in the winter.

 

Total power consumption within the rack is 115W

 

FRONT

 

 

 

BACK

 

 

 

 

INSIDE

 

 

 

Here are the temps inside the rack, in the garage, and outside over the last few days. Blue is the temp within the cab. I think that sensor only has a resolution of 0.5Deg C. Green is the temp in the garage, Yellow is the outside temp.

 

Temps are in Celsius.

 

Edited December 28, 20178 yr by al_uk

Nicely done!

 

I'm sure your hard drives will thank you with extended life in exchange for the consistent thermal profile.

 

Do you spin down all drives before shifting the cabinet? I'm always nervous about mobile racks, I'm scared the mechanical shock may harm the drives.

It is on rubbery castors (from Ikea) on a quite smooth plastic tiled floor surface so I have moved it without spinning down. To my mind it is less shock than moving a PC across a desk while still powered up. Ideally though yes I'd probably spin down.

I have got to say I am incredibly surprised at how constant the temperature in the rack stays despite the garage temperature! I suppose that comes from cutting the rack fans below a set temperature.

 

How high to rack temps get in your summer? I live in Northern Ohio, USA and get a month or so of 80 F outside, with 85-90F at times in my garage. I would think thats too high an ambient for my server/case.

 

Do you see dust making it in to your server at all? I used to use those style mesh filters for intake on my closet server room, but found I was still getting a ton of fine dust through. I ended up replacing my 2x 120mm fans for 2x 240mm fans and built an intake filter using a furnace filter. Dust is now near 0 into the room, though i do have to change the filter every 2 months.

Nice work.

 

I'm South East UK

It is an easy decision for me - most houses don't have or need aircon in the UK, and the garage is the coldest place I have, so that is where the server goes! I had it in the house beforehand and HDD temps were getting into the high 40s and SSD temps a few degrees C above that in the summer, which was not good.

 

I've only had this server case set up for a few months, and it has taken a while to get the SuperMicro IPMI fan control to play nicely with UnRaid. I'll report back on temps next Summer!

 

I havent seen any dust inside the server yet, but it is only a few months old. I try and do any sawing or sanding outside.

 

Tonight will be colder than yesterday, so will be interesting to see if the rack temp holds.

 

2 hours ago, al_uk said:

To my mind it is less shock than moving a PC across a desk while still powered up.

EEK! I've seen plenty of hard drives ruined that way! I treat all spinning disks as if they had nitroglycerine insides.

 

You wouldn't believe the number of laptop hard drives I've replaced for customers that "placed" them on a table a little too forcefully, and they wondered why the computer was getting much slower, or failed to boot completely. Thankfully SSD capacities are adequate for most people nowadays.

Fair enough, I guess I've been lucky!

 

Recommendation for anyone making a mobile rack then is to always spin down the drives before moving the rack.

 

For mine, I can do most of what I might need to do without moving it. The server is on rails and pulls out (after spindown)