My custom made open air server


Recommended Posts

After months of fine tuning my design and sourcing parts I have finally finished building my much anticipated (by me at least) open air server frame. It's very versatile, configurable, and can fit any size motherboard and at least 20 hard drives. You can adjust the distance between hard drives so it really just depends on how close you want them. They stay very cool without any fans due to the spacing between them and the fact that the vertical mounting allows the heat to dissipate more efficiently than horizontal mounting. Were I to cram them close together, I could mount fans underneath them to blow heat straight up. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and might even consider selling them, or at least open sourcing the plans if no one is interested. Let me know what you think, especially if you have any tips or ideas for improvements.

20180115_172447.jpg

20180115_172457.jpg

20180115_172502.jpg

20180115_172509.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment

Pretty insane build, i did the same framing with a build and put in a IKEA besta living room storage.

But the disk mounting is a neat idea, quite hard to see on the photo's but did u make custom brackets?

Metal backets look pretty stiff. Still wondering about disk vibrations, are the under control?

 

Link to comment

Nice workbench concept. Well executed. But ...

 

If its like my basement, there is storage stuff coming and going, dog winds up down there from time to time, xmas decorations moving in and out once a year, looking for tools, rummaging through old boxes of junk. This is too open and easily knocked by an unsteady human with awkward load. One steadying hand lands on one of those drives and it is going down, getting twisted and mangled due to the screws trying to hold it vertical against an adult body weight. And then crashing into its neighbor with metal grinding against metal and a spark or two as the electrical cords get pulled out violently and cables rip from their connectors. Mangled fingers, cuts, screams of pain, emergency room, fire department, law suit, wife on the warpath (understatement). Massive data loss. Who knows! And if it is you that did it, no one else to blame! I can see no happy endings with one accident.

 

Maybe if the top would flip over and drives dangle down. That would help. 

 

I'd like giant cover for this thing with fans blowing in and out that could be removed when you wanted to work on it. Would block balls, pets, kids and other humans - generally make it a lot safer. But leaving it like this 24x7 is a liability concern and puts the data at risk. No way!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
7 minutes ago, SSD said:

Maybe if the top would flip over and drives dangle down. That would help.

 

That's just how I decided to have them but I can easily do it that way as well. There is plenty of room to just flip them over. It's in the corner of an unfinished room that is just a computer room and some storage so there isn't much risk.

Link to comment

 

15 minutes ago, bobbintb said:

 

That's just how I decided to have them but I can easily do it that way as well. There is plenty of room to just flip them over. It's in the corner of an unfinished room that is just a computer room and some storage so there isn't much risk.

 

An advantage with hanging drives is that it's much easier to free-float them - using rubber grommets to isolate them from the vibration of the other drives.

Link to comment
4 hours ago, pwm said:

 

 

An advantage with hanging drives is that it's much easier to free-float them - using rubber grommets to isolate them from the vibration of the other drives.

 

Good point. I'll have to look at that. It might make it a little harder to deal with the cables, but probably worth the temporary hassle.

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...

I did a lot of extreme benching years back, use to have motherboards on tables all the time or screwed to timber i chopped together. then some clever sod with more time than me made a bench table, then life become easier.

 

When you think about it the actual case for your build is the room in which you put the frame.

 

Nice touch with the screen and i love the concept.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

A bit of an update. I changed the way the drives are attached. You can see it in the new photo. A few other minor improvements. I am thinking about making it a bit taller and putting fans under the drives to cool them by blowing straight up but to be honest the orientation of the drives, the spacing and the open concept seem to be doing a good enough job without fans. It would be cooler though, no pun intended. I have decided to start selling these so if anyone is interested let me know.

IMG_20190603_143407.jpg

Edited by bobbintb
  • Like 1
Link to comment
5 hours ago, mrbilky said:

I'd be interested in the thermals as an open bench does not seem to me to be ideal for passing large amounts of channeled air through that rig the AIO helps I guess

It's been a while since I reguarly paid attention to the temps but they usually stay in the low to mid 30's range. I rarely see one spike above 40. The reason I built the case in the first place was because I had drives overheating in my 4U server rack, of course since it was in my basement and not really in a lower temperature server room. I haven't had a problem since with this. As I mentioned, I'm considering buying 8  140mm PWM fans and mounting four on each row under the drives. I might do it just to see how much better is but they stay plenty cool how they are. There is plenty of space between them to let each one "breath" and being vertical the heat just radiates out and up. Of course, this is just my personal experience. It's not like I have any data points.

Edited by bobbintb
Link to comment
  • 2 years later...
  • 4 weeks later...
On 9/3/2021 at 5:41 PM, piyper said:

I know it has been a while since your post, but I would be interested in these plans.

 

Let me know.

Sure, I can try and write something up. I tend to overcommit myself however so if you don't hear back from me soon, just PM me. Sorry for the late reply. I must have missed the notification for your post.

Edited by bobbintb
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.