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The Hanging Garden

I don't know if you noticed it, but you have a great opportunity with the location of your hanging garden. Since it's right by your furnace, you could just pump all the hot air from the boxen into the heater, and forget your gas bill!

 
Since it's right by your furnace, you could just pump all the hot air from the boxen into the heater, and forget your gas bill!

Yes, I imagine ducts, in octopus fashion, going into the "cold air return" system, and sucking cpu heat. :D

Nice project!

 
PhantomLimb said:
And the test - 50+ pounds of paint and joint compound. It held, and no warpage to the trays or rails.
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Nice Rack!
:cool:

 
KieferMonkey said:
Nice Rack!
:cool:


It lifts, and separates. :D

Mohonri, Celerator: I didn't think about that, would be a bear to mess with my heating/cooling. Since my basement is cooler, the heat from the machines should make it 'comfortable' down there, and hopefully my pipes will never freeze :rolleyes:

 
Yes.... but with more boxen, the downstairs would heat up..... you could vent the hot air from the CPUs into the ducts and let the north and south bridges do the room heating ;) of course, you'd need more boxen! :D


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
KieferMonkey said:
Nice Rack!
:cool:



PhantomLimb said:
It lifts, and separates. :D

Mohonri, Celerator: I didn't think about that, would be a bear to mess with my heating/cooling. Since my basement is cooler, the heat from the machines should make it 'comfortable' down there, and hopefully my pipes will never freeze :rolleyes:


:D Oh man, that made me lol. Good stuff, seems damn sturdy guy.

Full Folding Ahead!

 
PhantomLimb said:
Mohonri, Celerator: I didn't think about that, would be a bear to mess with my heating/cooling. Since my basement is cooler, the heat from the machines should make it 'comfortable' down there, and hopefully my pipes will never freeze :rolleyes:
Good point--I was joking about modding your heating, but using the folders to heat your basement is probably a pretty good idea--you'll minimize the heat loss going through the basement ceiling. Of course, to make any significant difference, you'll need a lot more boxen...

 
Update: Been busy and haven't had time to work except on the weekends. I've ran into a little snag I'm gonna remedy today.

powar.jpg


All my outlets are tapped out. In an older home like mine they liked to piggyback things, where one breaker kills half the house and do other goofy stuff. I checked my panel and the pipe on the left going up only runs to an outlet in my kitchen (I don't use anymore since I remodeled my kitchen) and to the porch light, and the circuit is 20 amps (??) I have a friend who does electrical, and will help me route the circuit to the machines. I don't expect to have more than 15A draw there, but would want the extra capacity if needed.

I'm kinda torn between using a power/surge strip or a UPS unit for distribution. I don't really think the boxen are mission critical, but would want the UPS to properly shut them down if the power goes out.

What would you guys suggest?

I'll post more later.

 
Sorry, been hectic the last few days.

I assembled my items needed to route power to the rack.
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My friend did the work inside the box making the connections. I got bit by 220 real good, and have a fear of messing with electric. I helped with the conduit bending and mounting.
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Connected the conduit to the panel, and ran fishtape to pull the wires through. The inside of the box looks scary, but I had it checked a while back. Ah, the joys of old wiring...
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Ran it to the outlet, and made my connections. Buttoned everything down, and flipped the breaker...
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It didn't go BOOM!! Tester says everything is Okee Dokee, new 20 amp circut not shared by anything else = teh win!!
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<Sidebar>
When I was thinking of doing this, I met in my travels people who became victim the very diseases we're folding to help eliminate. Some fought valiantly and overcame the scourge, while others were decimated and fell, crossing over to a better place.

With the parts my packrat self collected over the years, I wanted to do something to help. I would name each boxen in the garden for someone I've met who battled the diseases, in the hopes that someting would come to prevent/save others from what they have gone through.

Recently one of our own is starting a battle of his own. As I just finished a box in the last few days, if I may with his permission, wish to name this box BakedON.

I will keep you in my thoughts for a speedy and total recovery.

47.JPG


</sidebar>

I'm waiting for more stuff to come in to continue progress. What boxen I do have done I mounted them running timeless to put them to work, and to show off some light DC pr0n...
48.JPG

49.JPG

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The box is for my cousin who won't be around until March, so I figure I'll make sure it's well tested for her. :D

More later...

 
Looking great!!!

Do you have the shelves spaced that far apart for heat reasons? or is that just a temporary spot while other boxen are prepped?

if it's for heat reasons, I'd suggest installing a near-silent 120mm fan on each shelf.... that way it would move air across the boards and help keep things cool..... then you could put the shelves closer, and fit moar boxen :D....


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
OSUguy98 said:
Looking great!!!

Do you have the shelves spaced that far apart for heat reasons? or is that just a temporary spot while other boxen are prepped?

if it's for heat reasons, I'd suggest installing a near-silent 120mm fan on each shelf.... that way it would move air across the boards and help keep things cool..... then you could put the shelves closer, and fit moar boxen :D....


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!


It's mostly temporary, kinda wanted to get a visual of what it's gonna look like and clear a space to work upstairs. The boxen will be "stacked" on top of each other taking a 2U space. It's a little tight at times, with the bottom on one tray resting on top of the power supply below it. I'm watching for anything bumping into each other that shouldn't, and will tidy it up when they get their final spots.

For the cooling, I already got that covered.

25.JPG

26.JPG


I only have about 3 1/2" height on each tray, and found an 80mm fan works perfectly (Kinda hidden by the wires. I've been using it on the P4 2.66 box and haven't had any issues (Except it's a dust magnet. :rolleyes: ) I've been using the .99 Masscool fans Newegg has and they are not loud and move a decent amount of air. I will keep an eye on it just in case, and move stuff around if needed.

Now if the guys would just ship my stuff, I can keep working on it... Doh!

 
Do you have that 80mm fan bolted down in some way? I didn't see any screws/etc (which could be on the other side).... seems like it'd be pretty loud if it wasn't bolted down

*sighs* I need a better job lol


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
The fan is just sitting there. I haven't had any rattling or 'dancing' of the fan.

If I need to, I figure something out. So far, so good.

 
I see you bolted the rack to a wall so center-weighted shelves wouldn't really matter, but if someone were considering a free standing shelf, do you think the center-weighted shelves would work sufficiently?

This is what I'm looking at (though they don't have any listed right now...so I'm unsure of the price):

http://www.gruber.com/images/ebay/200/34-105400_White200x200Text.gif[/

However, the ventilated center-weighted shelves go for $42/each whereas you can get two "regular" shelves for the same price...

[img]http://www.gruber.com/images/ebay/200/34-105500_White200x200Text.gif[/

I've got a couple nekkid boxen that I'd like to rack up similar to the way you did it and I've got two others in mini-ATX cases that make way too much noise because of the mini-ATX PSUs that I could quiet down with a pair of Antec NeoPower 480s I've got lying around once I remove them from the mini-ATX cases.

[URL=http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=8650][IMG]http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/8650.png[/URL]


EDIT: Please don't be ganking bandwidth by hotlinking images. - Lethal
 
On that note, you can order direct from gruber.com. I called them and asked how they took orders and it was stated "over the phone". The guy I talked to didn't have much information on the ebay store. He also stated that if you live near the phoenix location you can pickup the stuff vs. shipping. This could save some money for people here in the valley. Just ask to have it as a "will call" order or something like that. I didn't get prices from the guy so I don't know how much you might save by ordering direct. :confused:
 
Blakex: I would guess it would work fine. IIRC, EIA spec says trays must be able to support 50lbs. weight to "free hang" by their flange, otherwise it must be supported by rails. All I have on the trays are mobo, PS, and hard drive, and that weighs in (Including tray) at around 15-20 lbs., way within the limits. I guess it would also depend on the capacity of the rack. The rails are screwed tightly into the studs, and short of a sledgehammer or a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick, they're going nowhere.

The cantilver trays I'm using are 14" deep, and fit a MATX board, regular size PS, and hard drive (And the cables and stuff) quite nicely. I tried a ATX board, but have to get creative with the arrangement of the items. I may get one of the center weights to try placement, but like the flush look better.

One thing I noticed about the Gruber trays, they have a slight texture to the finish and the JB Weld didn't take as well. I had to use my Dremel to grind down to bare metal on the places I wanted to mount the standoffs then it worked fine. There is about a 3/4" lip in the back and front and may interfere if you are going to have cables connected. They are excellent trays nonetheless.

Also I forgot to add this earlier, but for anyone interested Here is where I got the rack rails from. I bought 2 sets from him, and had no problems. He also has some 'clearance' rails that have scratched and chipped finishes, but no difference in quality you can get for a song.

 
Awesome thread, A+ for effort!

Maybe when I move out and can afford to buy 10 Opterons, I'll do something similar. :)
 
Some of my stuff finally got here, so back to work...

Mounted another stud into the wall and set up the mounts.
51.JPG


Used scraps as spacers / mounting blocks and drilled it on both sides with 3" screws, shimming as needed.
52.JPG


Another set of rails mounted into place. This set is 12U, and will hold the "backbone" items, the 20U set will be for the boxen.
53.JPG


Got the PDU in yesterday from Ebay for $20. It was new open box item, but came with the rack ears and cable holders.
54.JPG


10 outlets, 20A in a tidy little box.
55.JPG


Welcome to your new home.
56.JPG


There's one thing I forgot about the PDU - the plug. It has a twistlock connector, and I wired the outlet for regular plugs, oops. Time to swing by Home Depot tomorrow and find the right outlet. I hate when that happens...
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In the meantime, another box is getting ready for it's place the Garden .
58.JPG


Little combo mentioned here. The XP-M chip performs quite nicely folding. I made the mistake of setting the -advmethods flag and it grabbed a 667 pointer, taking 100 hours to chew through it. Maybe I should give it a Snickers bar...

Haven't tried pushing the board, maybe I can get a little out of it. The stock heatsink is OK, but damn that fan sounds like a hair dryer!!! Definately got to get another HSF for this one...
59.JPG


Thanks again for the comments - more later...

 
Sweet!

must.... resist... urge... to... buy.... more.... hardware........


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
The sad thing is that I just cashed in most of my "Loose Change" collection..... $210...... I'm trying VERY hard to stay away from the online stores :D


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
I'm expecting to hear back from Gruber today with a quote on the center-weighted shelves - hopefully they have some in stock - also, I really like their 7' free standing rack, however, I just made some measurements and 7' is too tall and I don't really want to hack the thing up. I checked out that other link for racks, but didn't see any free-standing ones.

Anyone know of any 5'-6' free standing 19" racks?

 
Here's one (6'), but for $160 it's a little steep... I would expect a 7' rack to be about the same (checked, yeah it's $166) price.

 
I found a 6 foot elsewhere for $75+$45 shipping, but probably will end up going with a 4" from Gruber. I don't have to move as much stuff around to fit a 4' whereas a 6' would fit but would require quite a bit of modifications and the 7' is not an option at all.

I'm just hoping shipping isn't too much for the Gruber items. They have the shelves listed on eBay for just $9 shipping + $5 per piece thereafter and since I'm planning on getting three shelves, a keyboard/mouse tray and the 4' rack, I'm hoping it can all be combined into one order for easy shipment.

And many thanks to the OP for buildling this first - a great idea. Now...just have to run an ethernet cable where the rack is going to be to finally get all my little boxen off wireless (of course, then I'd need a rack-mountable switch (don't need gigabit, but might as well get it since my network can handle it) which I priced today at about $95...

 
blakex said:
And many thanks to the OP for buildling this first - a great idea. Now...just have to run an ethernet cable where the rack is going to be to finally get all my little boxen off wireless (of course, then I'd need a rack-mountable switch (don't need gigabit, but might as well get it since my network can handle it) which I priced today at about $95...


I got my 8 port switch from Fry's electronics for 30 bucks one time. Watch both ads if you live near them.
 
ICE_9 said:
I got my 8 port switch from Fry's electronics for 30 bucks one time. Watch both ads if you live near them.
Oh, I live near them. I almost live in one....my home away from home ;)

Never seen a rack-mount gigabit switch on sale there though. I hopped on that Gateway for $40 recently posted in [H]ot Deals and love it, however, not rack-mountable without modding.

Of course, I've got time to wait - all my boxen have wireless and work fine for now.

 
Got the outlet changed over and the boxes there are running off the PDU. The first part is done, now I move to the next task of connecting everything.

The plan is to get all the equipment connected into the rack and run cables to several places in the house. I plan to run 2 cables of cat5e to each bedroom upstairs, living room, and dining room for connection points, as well as phone jacks and terminate them at the garden and phone junction. I will run from the basement to the locations I figure would be best.

So with that in mind, I went shopping and got what I think I'll need.
60.JPG


One problem I notice is the way the previous guy did the framing.
62.JPG


It looks like he attached the false wall somehow to the floor joist. I've checked the same area in my neighbor's basement, and there is a small gap behind one of the joists that kinda allows access to the wall from below, but my guy sealed it up. It looks like they routed the conduit through the joist to get into the wall. None of it is load-bearing, so cutting is not a problem, but I wish I could see what they did so I don't go carving up more than I have to.

I gotta think about this one. Ah, the joys of retrofitting an older house...

 
Only thing I see missing from the CAT5 supplies is a good 110 punchdown tool for the keystone jacks, and you are going to HATE those crimpers by the time you're through. The frame warps just enough that it takes too damned much pressure to make a good connection in the cable ends. The "Eclipse" tool is a reasonable compromise between the palm killer you have, and the $150 pro-grade Paladin or Ideal multijaw frames.

If you're going to pull the CAT5 stuff, you might think of yanking some RG-6 coax along and tie all the house video and data wiring to one central location.
 
Strikemaster said:
Only thing I see missing from the CAT5 supplies is a good 110 punchdown tool for the keystone jacks, and you are going to HATE those crimpers by the time you're through. The frame warps just enough that it takes too damned much pressure to make a good connection in the cable ends.
I have crimpers very similar to his, and they aren't that bad, as long as you're not doing hundreds of connectors. Just make sure they're adjusted so the "teeth" on the crimper line up real well with the contacts on the connector. I've also found that it helps if you crimp it normally, then insert the connector partially from the "wrong" side and crimp again--it helps seat the contacts into the cable ends a bit better.

 
Mohonri said:
I have crimpers very similar to his, and they aren't that bad, as long as you're not doing hundreds of connectors. Just make sure they're adjusted so the "teeth" on the crimper line up real well with the contacts on the connector. I've also found that it helps if you crimp it normally, then insert the connector partially from the "wrong" side and crimp again--it helps seat the contacts into the cable ends a bit better.

That's about what I do with the pair like those in the pics, when I'm forced to use them. They've been placed in reserve, for emergency use only. My boss called 'em "Harry Homeowner Hackers", and after dealing with them on two jobsites, I have to agree.

If you're doing about 3 cables a day, they'll do... :)

If you're doing 30 a day, forget it! :eek:

PhantomLimb, this project is cooler than peppermint ice! I'm taking notes; there's a kneewall upstairs that's just begging for an installation like this...

 
Thanks for the tip on the crimpers. So far they seem to be doing well for what I want them to do. I only plan to make maybe 10-20 crimps, but I will be looking later for a 'good' set of tools for my toolbox. They came with the cable from Geeks, so I might as well get my money's worth outta them.

What I found was once you get the cable prepped, you squeeze once til the plastic cable holder 'pops', then back off then crimp the connectors in place and that works. It took me a few tries but I made a few cables.

I only plan to run Cat5e and 'update' my phone runs for now (I'll show you later what my phone wiring looks like.) Cable I only need in my living room, so I will pass on that. I'm trying to make it look decent and somewhat professional looking, and not a hackjob.

Thanks again for the props.

 
Well good luck with that!! I had the "pleasure" of cabling my new room as we added on to the house. A pain in the ass to learn crimping for the first time (my fingers were sore from cutting, stripping, etc.), but it was a good learning experience. And my room is the only room in the house cabled with CAT6 (of course, I'm the only one that will use it...and when you think you have enough ports, add more. I've got 6 cabled ports and three of them are in use and the fourth goes to a 8 port switch and I plan on drilling a hole in my closet ceiling to drop in another cable which will go to another 8 port switch.

 
PhantomLimb said:

Just noticed how close we are. For the last 7 months, I'm 9,000 points ahead of you (slow climbing), but ramped down this week as the Opty was encoding DivX and my Athlon 1100 was fried. However, my dad's Sempron 3000 came back online (part-time folder) and my media server is staying active more often than it used to. So good luck with your garden - I'll post pics of mine when the shipment from Gruber gets here! :)

 
PhantomLimb said:
They came with the cable from Geeks, so I might as well get my money's worth outta them.
Heh. That's where I got mine, too. Did you also get the ethernet cable tester in the kit? I've used mine quite a bit, and I can tell you, it is a lifesaver!


 
Blakex: I definately want to see pics of your setup when you get it done. So far I've got the hang of making cable, I kinda designed it so if I goof something up, I can replace it with little trouble. I hope I don't screw up and make too many goofs. I know what it's like to downsize, a PS blew on one box and I need repairs, so down one box til I get a replacement. Doh!

Mohonri: Just got the 300 foot kit, no tester. I just plug 'em in and hope it lights up, and fix if needed. o_O.

More later tonight...

 
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