Hanging Garden, Jr.

[blakex]

Based on the original Hanging Garden, I got my order from Gruber today and I absolutely love it. I got a 4 foot tall rack, 4 center weighted shelves and a keyboard/mouse tray.

I am absolutely blown away by the quality of these parts. They are all extremely heavy duty - so much so that the original idea for installation in my room was scrapped since I was going to have it on a shelf...but the shelf would have never supported that weight.

I'll be getting up pictures tomorrow as I'm currently setting up computer #4 to fill up the fourth shelf on the rack. I think I'll just need to get one more shelf to finish it off.

My 8-port KVM is coming on Thursday from Newegg (had to ship from NJ, so three day shipping times rather than the 1 day I'm used to - thanks to the 1 day, I'm setting up my new Sempron 3100 with a nice Arctic Cooler 64 and 512 MB RAM).

I then need to drop a CAT6 cable into the closet as all my computers are currently on wireless cards. Though that's not a big problem - they don't need much bandwidth and the wireless cards work (thanks to Fry's and their $8 Airlink cards).

But a change does need to happen with my setup. I put the keyboard/mouse tray on the topmost space on the rack, however, I need to move it down one or two pegs so I have some clearance between the top of the shelf and the top of the rack to run a monitor cable as I'm going to put my LCD on top once I replace it with a new LCD for my main rig.

It all went together quite nicely and I only sustained one injury in the process and it had nothing to do with the rack. I was trying to stabilize the shelf above the rack and was cutting a 2x4 to prop it up and pinched my pinky finger (gonna be a nice shade of black or blue tomorrow). I guess using hand tools at 9pm in the dark isn't a great idea.

But like I said, pictures coming tomorrow and many thanks to PhantomLimb for the inspiration. The main difference between his and mine - the computers just sit on the shelves rather than being epoxied down since I need the rack to be portable and I don't want to be taking the shelves off over and over again.

This should do it for my Folding spending for a while though...we'll see how long I can hold off peck22 for now with these two new Sempron3100's online and the Athlon1100 being repaired soon.

 

[rayman2k2]

bump cant wait to see

 

[blakex]

bump cant wait to see

Patching Win2k took until past midnight, so I didn't have a chance to move it into the Jr. Garden. But it is up and running and should make it into the garden late tonight (have to work late and then we have our office basketball game).

But again, like I said, I'm duly impressed with the quality of the parts. It looks awesome and once I get the KVM installed, I just need to add a power strip and it will be all self-contained and I can get to work on cable management.

 

[Duster]

so lets see some pics

 

[blakex]

so lets see some pics

Patience, grasshopper. Late tonight (Pacific time) they'll be up.

 

[Imitation]

***We interrupt this thread for an important overclocking news bulletin.***

My roomie's 3800+ X2 made it up to 2.64 under a sexy AC freezer 64 pro. It's loading at 46C at 1.45v which made me sick considering my 170 took 1.525 for the same speed. Oh well, 1.3ghz more for the horde than we had before!

Keep adding to that farm, you're about the only copetition around this area of the rankings!

 

[blakex]

***We interrupt this thread for an important overclocking news bulletin.***

My roomie's 3800+ X2 made it up to 2.64 under a sexy AC freezer 64 pro. It's loading at 46C at 1.45v which made me sick considering my 170 took 1.525 for the same speed. Oh well, 1.3ghz more for the horde than we had before!

Keep adding to that farm, you're about the only copetition around this area of the rankings!

Doh! Perhaps my Opty needs to get a bit of OC'ing in...

 

[blakex]

Monitor on top shelf in closet - will be replaced with LCD monitor on top keyboard/mouse shelf. You can also see the piece of wood I had to cut to prop up the monitor on the top shelf since it needed extra support. It was during the cutting of this piece of wood that I sustained my only injury...pinched pinky. Hurt like a bitch and gonna be pretty darn black and blue tomorrow (not too much today...but it's coming).

All four center weighted shelves.

Bottom shelf. The bottom two shelves house the nekkid boxen which are mounted on motherboard trays - motherboard, hard drive & PSU.

Bottom two computers. Very good use of 2 Antec NeoPowers dontcha think?

Top 2 computers - in mini-ATX cases - the mini-ATX power supplies were just too loud, so I've got both PSUs outside the cases on the side here. Perfect fitting.

A look up - there's going to be one more shelf here topped off with a 8-port KVM switch just under the keyboard/mouse tray which will be moved down a peg or two to allow spacing for cables beneath the top supports.

A quick look down.

Temporary spacing for keyboard/mouse & KVM. The keyboard is too small to fit in the tray, but I'll get a mini-keyboard at Fry's this weekend. Then everything will fit perfectly once the KVM comes (tomorrow from Newegg).

 

[Duster]

nice looks good

what are those cases? self built systems or something else?

 

[blakex]

nice looks good

what are those cases? self built systems or something else?

Yeah - both self built - named TIPHYS and ATLAS. (The computers, not the cases. I can't remember where I got the cases from exactly - but they were $50 with a 150W PSU, so I bought 2 280W PSUs at Frys which can now be seen sitting next to the monitor on the top shelf collecting dust).

TIPHYS: Athlon XP2200, 512 MB RAM, ECS KM400-M2 mobo, Arctic AACL Cooler.
ATLAS: Sempron 3000, 512 MB RAM, PC Chips K861G mobo, Stock Sempron Cooler

So the rack has 2xSempron 3100, Sempron 3000, XP2200 and an XP2800 or Athlon1200 to be added to the fifth shelf.

Also, once I get the KVM and a rack mounted power/extension thing, everything will be self-contained on the rack and I can properly wire it all and I'll get some pictures from the back.

 

[PhantomLimb]

That looks sweet Blakex. How much did all the Gruber stuff set you back? Gruber's stuff is high quality, and I plan to get a few more trays from them in the future for expansion.

I have that same case for my old server, but mine doesn't have the vent on the top. I think Athenatech is the manufacturer.

Excellent job!!!

 

[blakex]

That looks sweet Blakex. How much did all the Gruber stuff set you back? Gruber's stuff is high quality, and I plan to get a few more trays from them in the future for expansion.

I have that same case for my old server, but mine doesn't have the vent on the top. I think Athenatech is the manufacturer.

Excellent job!!!

$320.36

4x 34-105400 @ 32.47 each (center-weighted shelves)
1x 32-105035 @ 71.62 each (keyboard and mouse drawer)
1x 34-100804 @ 85.06 each (4 foot equipment rack)

129.88
71.62
85.06
------------
286.56 + shipping (so I guess about $34 shipping which is amazing considering how extremely heavy everything is and how fast it got here - Greg at Gruber estimated $25-$30 for shipping - he was extremely responsive, and worked with me despite all my stupid questions).

I bit much I guess for a rack, but I love it and it'll fit in anywhere.

And yes, now that you mention it, Athenatech sounds exactly right. And it would look pretty sweet to get two more of those cases. The power supplies are useless, but the NeoPowers EASILY have enough length in the cables to sit outside of the cases like the two above. I think the new motherboard I got off eBay for the Athlon 1200 is mini-ATX, so I could concievably have 5 of the cases sitting on five shelves and that would look pretty damn awesome now that I think about it.

Fold on!!

 

[PhantomLimb]

And yes, now that you mention it, Athenatech sounds exactly right. And it would look pretty sweet to get two more of those cases. The power supplies are useless, but the NeoPowers EASILY have enough length in the cables to sit outside of the cases like the two above. I think the new motherboard I got off eBay for the Athlon 1200 is mini-ATX, so I could concievably have 5 of the cases sitting on five shelves and that would look pretty damn awesome now that I think about it.

Fold on!!

I got mine from the Egg, and they are about $40-45. I loved the way the hard drives load on the trays (Gives me an idea for later...), but yeah, the power supply is a bit weak for the firepower we're used to. Nice little case to get the job done.

 

[KieferMonkey]

Not criticizing, but curious... why did you mount the shelf upside down? Wouldn't it be easier to maintain a box without lifting it over the lip? I'm also thinking you could squeeze another 2-3 shelves in there.
Nice setup

 

[sandmanx]

Are you running 2k on all those machines? It looks like a good stack for a fold server. It looks like a clean setup, and something I'd do if power wasn't so damn high right now.

Also, where are pics of the smashed pinky? We have to see the injury from this project!

 

[AtomicMoose]

Not criticizing, but curious... why did you mount the shelf upside down?

For the lip on the bottom of the shelf, no doubt. Keeps stuff from hitting the floor.

 

[unhappy_mage]

Subscribed Have you posted specs for all those machines, and I just missed it?

 

[AtomicMoose]

Subscribed Have you posted specs for all those machines, and I just missed it?

Indeed, he did.

Yeah - both self built - named TIPHYS and ATLAS. (The computers, not the cases. I can't remember where I got the cases from exactly - but they were $50 with a 150W PSU, so I bought 2 280W PSUs at Frys which can now be seen sitting next to the monitor on the top shelf collecting dust).

TIPHYS: Athlon XP2200, 512 MB RAM, ECS KM400-M2 mobo, Arctic AACL Cooler.
ATLAS: Sempron 3000, 512 MB RAM, PC Chips K861G mobo, Stock Sempron Cooler

So the rack has 2xSempron 3100, Sempron 3000, XP2200 and an XP2800 or Athlon1200 to be added to the fifth shelf.

Also, once I get the KVM and a rack mounted power/extension thing, everything will be self-contained on the rack and I can properly wire it all and I'll get some pictures from the back.

 

[blakex]

Not criticizing, but curious... why did you mount the shelf upside down? Wouldn't it be easier to maintain a box without lifting it over the lip? I'm also thinking you could squeeze another 2-3 shelves in there.
Nice setup

Even though the Gruber sticker is upside down, they are meant to be mounted either way. With the lip facing up, you don't have to worry about things sliding off the front or back. As for "lifting" it over the lip, these things don't weigh much and the lip just makes it easy to keep things in place.

The KVM just went in and now I'm searching for the screwdriver I misplaced so I can move the keyboard/mouse tray down two steps. And I think I could have spaced the shelves just one more peg closer, but everything seems to fit just perfectly right now. Though when I get the fifth shelf, I do think I'll need to move the top shelf down one peg or maybe move the top two shelves each down a peg.

More pics coming later tonight. Pinky doesn't look as bad as I thought it would - it's dark, but not as black and blue as I thought it would get - I iced it quickly after the injury and that combined with some neosporin kept it under control me thinks.

 

[blakex]

Well, I'm going to try Fry's again tomorrow to see if they have the rack-mounted power outlets - they were out of stock last time there - their rack-mounted stuff selection sucks quite frankly.

Hopefully I can stay away from any goodies in the Friday ad...just need a "small" keyboard for the tray (e.g. 18" or smaller) and the power outlets...

Here's some more picturey goodness.

And Imitation/peck22, it doesn't look like I'll be able to hold you off for long. But it was a good race and I'll try and catch back up to ya at some point!!

Ahhh...glowing goodness. Trendmount 8-port KVM lighting up some purty red and green colors. With a full 4 ports ready to be expanded into.

Temporary power cable routing down the side until the rack-mounted power outlets arrive (I left room at the bottom of the shelf to mount them. I had planned to put a network switch down there, but the outlets will fit much better. And yes...that is a power squid providing power for the time being (no outlet in my closet)...

KVM cabling down the side. Actually turned out pretty clean - much cleaner than I expected it to.

KVM cabling to the computers. All of them are tied off perfectly except the bottom one since there wasn't enough slack to really do anything with it other than letting it hang there. Plus, it's on the bottom...so who cares if it hangs off of the ledge.

Top two computers and back of KVM. I used this velcro like stuff to keep the cables together - it's my new favorite thing. I have stopped using zip-ties since they are a pain in the ass to remove, though I just did buy 850 more of them at Fry's 2 weeks ago...The velcro stuff comes in rolls and you just cut it to the right size - I used black on the side with the KVM cables (hard to see) and used yellow on the power cables just because I had those already cut from other projects and the cabling is temporary. When I get the rack-mounted outlet, I'll use black velcro stuff to keep the power cables nice and neat.

 

[Kvothe]

That's a great setup you've got there, I like it alot!

 

[AtomicMoose]

You should have gotten one of those uber cool ethernet KVMs...

Nice looking setup. Good work!

 

[Imitation]

Yeah it seems I've got a little more firepower right now. But that's spread out over 5 borgs as well. If a couple of those go down you'd catch up in no time. The smacktalk is always more fun I definitely can't say that I've got a rack full of folding boxen though, you've definitely got me there.

 

[blakex]

Yeah it seems I've got a little more firepower right now. But that's spread out over 5 borgs as well. If a couple of those go down you'd catch up in no time. The smacktalk is always more fun I definitely can't say that I've got a rack full of folding boxen though, you've definitely got me there.

Darn borgs. I need to see if I can get a couple of those. I had held off borging computers I couldn't monitor because I was tracking every work unit. Now that I'm no longer doing that, I just want to see those points go up - doesn't really matter where they come from

 

[MN Scout]

You should have gotten one of those uber cool ethernet KVMs...

Nice looking setup. Good work!

Ethernet KVMs? Linky?

Nice work blakex! Very clean and sexy. I'd so do a setup like this if I had the money and space.

 

[Imitation]

Darn borgs. I need to see if I can get a couple of those. I had held off borging computers I couldn't monitor because I was tracking every work unit. Now that I'm no longer doing that, I just want to see those points go up - doesn't really matter where they come from

Now you're getting the idea! It's not about beating me, its really about beating the roo's and cancer! Go b0rg something!

 

[AtomicMoose]

Ethernet KVMs? Linky?

Most home users don't buy them....they are a bit pricey.

You can find 4 port units for around $300. Still a bit steep.

It was more of a joke.

 

[blakex]

Well, I ordered two more Athenatech cases and one more Gruber shelf for the rack. The shelf was supposed to come Thursday, but UPS didn't want to leave it I guess...they left the initial shipment - over $300, but wouldn't leave one box worth about $30. So I have to pick it up from their shipment center on the opposite side of town from where I work...so that should be fun.

But my two Athenatech cases from Amazon.com were delivered Friday - I opened the box today to put one together and instead of there being an Athenatech case, I received card readers. Lots and lots of card readers...

Needless to say, I printed return labels and the box is going back to Amazon on Monday.

 

[Imitation]

LOL I wonder if the person packing that box ever thought, "what idiot buys all these card readers?" Obvously not cause they would have checked the invoice and noticed you ordered cases instead. That sucks man. Are you putting the sempy's in those cases?

 

[blakex]

Well, the box for the case looks like it had been shipped somewhere before - both of the Athenatech boxes came in a larger one from Amazon.

So maybe Amazon shipped it somewhere, someone took the case out and put in card readers?? I dunno. One box had the case, the other had card readers - the packer at Amazon, just put the two Athenatech boxes in a larger one.

As for the cases, one will house my old Athlon 1200 which I got a new motherboard for after killing the K7S5A.

The other one...not sure about it yet - might put one of my nekkid Sempys in it though.

LOL I wonder if the person packing that box ever thought, "what idiot buys all these card readers?" Obvously not cause they would have checked the invoice and noticed you ordered cases instead. That sucks man. Are you putting the sempy's in those cases?

 

[blakex]

A quick update to the Hanging Garden, Jr. (technically, not hanging)...

Today I received my new UPS from Newegg (ordered about 3pm yesterday, arrived 10am today...love IT!). It's an Opti-UPS 1500VA 980W. Got it Refurbished for $190 + $1 shipping (and it weighs a ton). Powering all five computers and the KVM without problems (or at least it was until I killed one of the 5).

After getting the UPS installed, I flipped the four shelves already installed and installed a fifth. After installing the shelves, I ran the KVM and power cables inside the rails on each side - very clean and neat install now - looks great.

After getting everything installed, all the computers powered up without problems, however, something didn't smell right and FAHmon immediately reported that TIPHYS had gone down. So...after adding an Athlon 1200 (1.2GHz), I lose an Athlon 2200 (1.8GHz). Not a fair trade me thinks. However, I also found a network problem with another one of my boxes so my Athlon 2800 is crunching again.

Pics follow - yes...that's a ghetto fan+heatsink combo, but after I opened the Arctic Cooler I got from Newegg for future use, I found out the fan didn't work. But the way it's hooked up now works fine. I'll probably have to do the same for the 2200 I killed - assuming it works - it was SO FRIGGEN HOT when I decided to touch it (yeah...stupid...). So hopefully the chip + mobo still work. If not, I'll take my two nekkid boxen and put them inside cases and just have 4 running on the rack.

 

[Imitation]

A quick update to the Hanging Garden, Jr. (technically, not hanging)...

Today I received my new UPS from Newegg (ordered about 3pm yesterday, arrived 10am today...love IT!). It's an Opti-UPS 1500VA 980W. Got it Refurbished for $190 + $1 shipping (and it weighs a ton). Powering all five computers and the KVM without problems (or at least it was until I killed one of the 5).

After getting the UPS installed, I flipped the four shelves already installed and installed a fifth. After installing the shelves, I ran the KVM and power cables inside the rails on each side - very clean and neat install now - looks great.

After getting everything installed, all the computers powered up without problems, however, something didn't smell right and FAHmon immediately reported that TIPHYS had gone down. So...after adding an Athlon 1200 (1.2GHz), I lose an Athlon 2200 (1.8GHz). Not a fair trade me thinks. However, I also found a network problem with another one of my boxes so my Athlon 2800 is crunching again.

Pics follow - yes...that's a ghetto fan+heatsink combo, but after I opened the Arctic Cooler I got from Newegg for future use, I found out the fan didn't work. But the way it's hooked up now works fine. I'll probably have to do the same for the 2200 I killed - assuming it works - it was SO FRIGGEN HOT when I decided to touch it (yeah...stupid...). So hopefully the chip + mobo still work. If not, I'll take my two nekkid boxen and put them inside cases and just have 4 running on the rack.

Very jealous right now, half my output is from borgs so I can't take care of them like you can take care of that sexy rack setup. Esp since you've got a beast of a ups. I really should buy at least a decent one for my opty, its the only one I really worry about since its worth way more than anything else I own other than my car. I'd almost like to see the 1.4 tbird die so I can replace it with an htpc type deal.




edit: took the pic links out

 

[blakex]

Very jealous right now, half my output is from borgs so I can't take care of them like you can take care of that sexy rack setup. Esp since you've got a beast of a ups. I really should buy at least a decent one for my opty, its the only one I really worry about since its worth way more than anything else I own other than my car. I'd almost like to see the 1.4 tbird die so I can replace it with an htpc type deal.



edit: took the pic links out

These days I really hate running anything without a UPS. My Opty is running on a Belkin 800VA while my server and HTPC are running on Belkin 550VA's. They make a ton of noise when power goes out, but they also work flawlessly - waiting as long as they can before shutting down the PCs automatically.

Unfortunately the rack-mount UPS was refurbished and didn't come with the cable necessary to connect it to a computer (though I could probably get it working - looks to just be serial). But even if it did - where would I run it? It could only shut down one computer automatically...so hopefully it'll just do a good job as long as it can if power goes out and just protect the machines during temporary outages.