Server in Loft - How?

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Hi,

I'm currently building a WHS to eventually reside in my loft, when completed it will serve several devices throughout the house. My loft thankfully doesn't suffer from damp but it does get warm up there in summer and cold in winter. I was planning on putting together a DIY rack to mount the server, external disks, etc, and enclose this whole thing, put in some fans and in theory regulate the temperature.

Has anyone done this that might have some advice on what is the best way to go about it, or can you advise if I'm just making things over complicated?

This is my first foray into building my Media Center so I could do with some guidance.

Cheers
A

[elootos]

(06-10-2010 12:56 PM)ads Wrote:  Hi,

I'm currently building a WHS to eventually reside in my loft, when completed it will serve several devices throughout the house. My loft thankfully doesn't suffer from damp but it does get warm up there in summer and cold in winter. I was planning on putting together a DIY rack to mount the server, external disks, etc, and enclose this whole thing, put in some fans and in theory regulate the temperature.

Has anyone done this that might have some advice on what is the best way to go about it, or can you advise if I'm just making things over complicated?

This is my first foray into building my Media Center so I could do with some guidance.

Cheers
A

My server, in a normal ATX case, with it's 6 drives reads about 47deg on a warm day (about 27deg outside), so not ideal, and if we have a hot summer then I'm definitely going to have to vent it properly with external air.

If you have some sort of airbrick in your loft, then you could draw air in from there.

I have a showerfan kit (about £20) running from the soffits feeding my lounge PC, but given that all its drives now live in the server I might move this venting to the server instead.

   

It's a tricky one, but I would have thought that if you can get a clean feed of air from outside the loft into your rack then that should be enough.

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(06-10-2010 01:38 PM)elootos Wrote:  

(06-10-2010 12:56 PM)ads Wrote:  Hi,

I'm currently building a WHS to eventually reside in my loft, when completed it will serve several devices throughout the house. My loft thankfully doesn't suffer from damp but it does get warm up there in summer and cold in winter. I was planning on putting together a DIY rack to mount the server, external disks, etc, and enclose this whole thing, put in some fans and in theory regulate the temperature.

Has anyone done this that might have some advice on what is the best way to go about it, or can you advise if I'm just making things over complicated?

This is my first foray into building my Media Center so I could do with some guidance.

Cheers
A

My server, in a normal ATX case, with it's 6 drives reads about 47deg on a warm day (about 27deg outside), so not ideal, and if we have a hot summer then I'm definitely going to have to vent it properly with external air.

If you have some sort of airbrick in your loft, then you could draw air in from there.

I have a showerfan kit (about £20) running from the soffits feeding my lounge PC, but given that all its drives now live in the server I might move this venting to the server instead.



It's a tricky one, but I would have thought that if you can get a clean feed of air from outside the loft into your rack then that should be enough.

Thanks Elootos, we had our boiler removed last year and a new one put in the loft and now have a spare vent pipe going out through the roof, I have been toying with the idea of re-using it, the one thing that worries me is what happens in winter? I'm keen not to go pumping air at -10deg (like we had in January) into the box. I've wondered about a temp sensor that turns a fan on/off depending on the heat of the air within the pc case. This is why I'm thinking of enclosing the whole thing. Hmmmm, choices, choices...........

Cheers
A

[elootos]

(06-10-2010 02:33 PM)ads Wrote:  the one thing that worries me is what happens in winter? I'm keen not to go pumping air at -10deg (like we had in January) into the box.

Around some time in mid autumn, just go up and disconnect the air supply from the equipment, then towards mid-spring reattach it. Simple

I have an intelliplug operating the fan feeding the lounge PC so it's only on when the PC is, so I just plug/unplug that twice a year.

You might want to put some gauze/mesh over the vent as well to stop any unsuspecting bugs nesting in a nice warm rack. Cosy...

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Good point, well made, thats just me trying to make things complicated again. I take it you get no moisture problems from the soffit vent?

[custardavenger]

This was going to be my first question. I want to run a PC in the loft as a server/MC but was unsure about the temps.

Is the very cold temperature not a problem as well?

I was thinking of insulating the actual roof if possible and trying to keep the loft space at a more stable temp. Not sure if this is possible/practical yet, but I need to do a fair bit of work up there anyway so it makes sense to do it all together.

[elootos]

(12-08-2010 06:47 PM)custardavenger Wrote:  This was going to be my first question. I want to run a PC in the loft as a server/MC but was unsure about the temps.

Is the very cold temperature not a problem as well?

I was thinking of insulating the actual roof if possible and trying to keep the loft space at a more stable temp. Not sure if this is possible/practical yet, but I need to do a fair bit of work up there anyway so it makes sense to do it all together.

Well, my unRAID server and lounge & bedroom HTPCs all live up there with no fuss.

Yes they do get cold (unRAID currently reading 0C on the HDDs, brrr), but as they as they stay active and spinning they keep themselves in the low tens.

I have thought of encasing them in foam sheets to keep the condensation (if any) to a minimum.