Help needed - Suggestions on moving boxen into the garage

I

ICE_9

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 28, 2005
Messages
3,459
Later this year I will have a little one moving in around August and need to move my server rack out of his/her room. I was debating on moving them outside, but that seems to not be a good option. The garage looks to be my best option.

Details:
Two car garage.
I have two cars.
I have about a 3 foot landing right against the house to prevent water coming in when it rains.
I live in AZ. Winter is nice, summer kills. Est. temp for the garage is 110F max.
Dust is very prevelant in AZ.

Options available:
Can ditch the rack all together.
Do have metal shelves in garage.
No relatives within 2k miles.
Tradionally us mATX boards to save on space.

What recomendations can be made to get these out of the house?
 
First of all -> 110F doesn't makes much of a cooling solution...
Secondly -> Dig a shelter underground, put in an AC Unit on full blast and leave them there, should be sufficient.
 
I wish I could dig. Ground out here is rock hard. Wish I had a basement also.
 
ICE_9 said:
I wish I could dig. Ground out here is rock hard. Wish I had a basement also.
Click to expand...

And here I thought the simple answer "carry them one at a time" would do.;)

Actually KillerMob moved a bunch of his under the house a few years back, he built a nice little house for them with a fan pulling from one side and a nice filter on the other. 1 Small light, 1 webcam to monitor for problems.

Over the years I have seen a number of nice cooling ideas. Things like one big radiator and pump and a manifold feeding each water block with a common return.

Just some thoughts;)

 
ICE_9 said:
Later this year I will have a little one moving in around August and need to move my server rack .... I was debating on moving them outside, but that seems to not be a good option. The garage looks to be my best option.
Click to expand...

I think 110F in the garage will be too hot for your kid. ;)
 
Pocatello said:
I think 110F in the garage will be too hot for your kid. ;)
Click to expand...

LOL....sorry...I had to....

.....seriously though, it doesn't sound like the garage is going to be the place for your boxen. Not at those temps, anyway. Do you not have a closet or anything inside the house that would suffice?
 
110F is only 43C Celsius and it would only be during the day. As long as the systems are diskless/naked, I don't see the problem.

If your network needs storage space, put a NAS in a discreet, cooler location indoors.


 
Have you thought about maybe doing a water cooled ground source exchange solution. If you water cooled the computer, and had a reservoir that you buried on the North (shady) side of your garage, you could use the earth as a heat sink and water cool. I don't know how deep you would have to dig there to get sufficient cooling, but you may not even need a reservoir. If you got an auger and dug a deep hole you could probably bury a loop of pipe down and back. You would have to do some pretty specific research on types of pipe or reservoir to make sure it did not bio degrade or oxidize and deteriorate/leak. It would really be a pretty simple water cooling project though, with a few twists.

I am envious really. To own a house to do some of these types of things with would be great.

 
aldamon said:
110F is only 43C Celsius and it would only be during the day. As long as the systems are diskless/naked, I don't see the problem.

If your network needs storage space, put a NAS in a discreet, cooler location indoors.


Click to expand...

I lived in AZ for three years, and I can't imagine running my boxes with an ambient temperature that high to start with. Its one thing when your CPU temps reach 55C with the room temp being 75F, but a room temp of 110F is a whole different thing.

 
If nekkid, mount boxen on the walls.
If cased, use boxen as supports or legs for a table or something similar.

 
If you can get them cooled semi-passively (as this suggestion is gonna severely cut airflow :D ), mount them on the ceiling, and hook up little mobile type things to some fan blades...

"it's for the baby honey, honest!"


 
SmokeRngs said:
If nekkid, mount boxen on the walls.
If cased, use boxen as supports or legs for a table or something similar.

Click to expand...

I want you all to know...

I am folding naked as I type this.

Do you feel dirty?
 
Pocatello said:
I want you all to know...

I am folding naked as I type this.

Do you feel dirty?
Click to expand...

Filthy:)

I agree with Smoke... if their in cases now, strip them out and hang them on a wall somewhere... I'll be doing this with four of my boxen at home in the next week or two as I need the space under my desk for another file cabinet...

 
digital_exhaust said:
Filthy:)

I agree with Smoke... if their in cases now, strip them out and hang them on a wall somewhere... I'll be doing this with four of my boxen at home in the next week or two as I need the space under my desk for another file cabinet...

Click to expand...

2007 tax files :p


I'm thinking if I get another few boxen I'm going to do the naked thing.

I have them on old comp cases..... but why? And I don't want to buy any more cases. It's the shipping that will kill ya.

 
gardening.jpg


In your area you should watercool, it works for RedShred!

 
Axdrenalin said:
Are we re-defining what a F@H Farm is suppose to look like here?
Click to expand...

No, thats one of the original definitions. Although I would hope by now a more efficient means of watering has been devised.
 
Axdrenalin said:
Are we re-defining what a F@H Farm is suppose to look like here?
Click to expand...

Nope, youngster....redshred would be one of the original farmers. :)

You're looking at the first picture of an [H] water cooled farm. :D
 
I just installed a 11,500 BTU A/C in one room, moved all my boxen into this one room and it keeps everything cooled off nicely. :)
Kenmore makes a really great one for only $499. Running costs? ~ 5 crunchers worth of elec. ;)
http://www.kenmore.com/shc/s/p_10154_12604_04275123000P?vName=Kenmore&cName=Air+Conditioners
Should work just fine for us Arizona boys and their toys :)
No way can you run a pharm in the garage in the valley uninsulated.

You need to wall off and double insulate all 6 sides in that section and place a window A/C unit in there. (2x6 or better 2x8 and double insulation)
Of course you will need a door to get in and out to...
 
My original suggestion to water cool and have a geothermal heat exchanger left out some cooling to other parts of your computer. A submerged solution should fix that though. If you bought 10 gallon glass tanks instead of the acrylic ones in that video it would cost much less to run your setups. A 10 gallon glass tank should be able to be found for less than $20. If you submerged a pump to circulate this oil with a geothermal heat exchanger, or even a U shaped section of pipe in the ground, you should be able to get your cooling. Maybe insulate the first few feet you bury to keep the sun from warming the oil as it comes through the top (hottest) layer of soil.

I think some ABS plasitc would make a durable solution, and comes in big enough diameters that it would slow the flow enough to let the oil spend some time under ground to do its heat exchange thing. I would think a corkscrew shaped layout of the buried pipe would work if you did not want to dig a very deep hole.

 
ICE_9 said:
Talk about an old timer! Where have you been?
Click to expand...

Just been busy with work and school and not having time for other things. Gratz, sounds like you have a roomie now... or two!

on topic: I would not put them outside in the garage unless you water cool and keep the radiator inside the house. Its just too hot here. Best bet I think is to use them as wall decorations and call it modern art.
 
Typical geothermal (or cooling) loops go a lot deeper than a few feet--they're usually about 150-200 feet deep. That's because it's the easiest way to 1) distribute the heat load across a large volume of earth, and 2) get enough pipe surface area to get rid of the heat, since you don't have a radiator to increase your surface area, and 3) not destroy all the landscaping. The depth makes it hard to drill such a hole cheaply. However, another solution is to dig a series of trenches and bury the piping only 5-6 feet under the ground (link), looping back and forth like the condenser on the back of your fridge. That depth is enough to take advantage of the cooler temperatures.

If I were to do something along these lines, here's what I'd do: do the s-shaped trenching thing, but also run an above-ground radiator for use at night. Put in a thermostat-controlled 3-way valve (not that hard--a thermostat and a couple of sprinkler valves will do), so when it's warm outside, the warm water from the computers goes through the buried loop, but when it's cool, it goes through the radiator. (no sense in heating the ground when you don't need to) I'd enclose the rack and run the cooled water through a radiator inside the enclosure.
 
I'm guessing the point is sell all of the boxes and buy 1 quad and fit that indoors maybe where they were heading with this...
 
I am getting 1100 PPD from two boxes.

I am getting 1400 PPD from one box.

All three boxes together run at 150W total.

I cannot sell two of the chips.
 
How about a small addition to the house that houses your boxen....or your new bundle of joy :p
 
ICE_9 said:
I cannot sell two of the chips.
Click to expand...

Some of the cooling plans offered here were pretty elaborate and would probably cost more than a quad rig. How about just retiring that rack until fall and building the quad rig. When fall comes, fire them ALL up in the garage. :D





 
Do you have room somewhere in the house just to build a in-wall shelving unit that can house them? You could cover them with a curtain or a painting, like a wall safe ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top