Server Cabinet

[Disenchanterx]

This is my server cabinet!

I needed a cabinet to hide some of my unsightly equipment and help me control dust. I also need the cabinet to keep my equipment cool without sounding like a 747.
The original cabinet was an antique china cabinet that was passed down a few generations to me. I hate china cabinets so……… I turned it into a gun cabinet. I became uncomfortable with my guns setting out in my house because of my children. I did not want to get rid of the cabinet (family thing and all) so I decided to make it into my computer cabinet.

I tinted the glass because I have a hatred for led lights and I did not want to see the stuff I was putting inside of it.
I made shelves to go into it. I then added some fans that would snake air thru the bottom of the cabinet and exhaust near the top. I also used weather stripping to seal most of the cracks that air could move through. I wanted the air channeled. I also installed a temp monitor. I just wanted the temp I was not worried about the high end alarm so I never changed it from the 140 F

Next I had vibrating resonance coming from the cabinet because of the fans. I isolated the fans using some weather stripping and mounted them with rubber bands. I never knew how noisy fans were until I mounted them to a wooden board.

Right now I have my server (the P180case in the cabinet), UPS, Router, and modem in the cabinet. The temps on my HDD's are really good. The server is running WHS and will be until I get a good hardware raid card. Then I will be switch over to Windows Server 2008 r2. I might use WHS2 if it comes out by then and has features that I want.

This was a Saturday project for me. It serves its purpose great keeps everything hidden, quite, and dust free. I probably should have made it more appealing but I'm lazy, and just wanted functionality and outside appearance. I wish I had a closet that I could put everything into. I'm married I will never see closet space again sigh………

 

[foothead]

why not put img tags around those pictures?

Put before it and [/ img] after (no space)

Pretty cool though.

 

[Disenchanterx]

Peeps complain about that on some forums I figured it was safer like this. Still new here. I might change it in a few

 

[foothead]

We don't mind on here. This is a computer forum, so we probably all have high speed internet.

I have always wanted to do this with an old grandfather clock. Maybe in a few years when I have my own place...

As far as your project, you could get some pvc pipe and fittings to channel air directly into and out of the case. This would help if temps become an issue.

What is the server being used for?

 

[Disenchanterx]

Mainly its just a file server for my HTPC's music and movies etc. However I'm not gonna lie when I say I have really fallen in love with the whole automated Backups on all my Pc's that are connected to it. This is a Feature of WHS

 

[foothead]

So it works like apple time machine?
If so, please tell me more. I really am sick of backing up my RAID0 array, so much that I am considering RAID10.

 

[Cabbs]

I'm not sure how it works with Windows Server Edition, but with Windows 7 I have it set to make weekly backups from one drive to another. You can select certain folders or entire drives, it's quite convenient.

Hope that helps.

 

[Disenchanterx]

I went a Looked at Apple Time Machine from what I gather from their website and what i know about WHS its the same concept on backing up data.

WHS works like this:
Its a network OS. When you connect machines to it and install the "connector software" You set up the connector software and tell it what you want backup from your systems that have the connector software. To access these backups WHS literally Mounts the backup as another drive you can access it like any other drive. I know you can re-image your drive as well. I personally have never done a re-image with it. It also does File duplication and storage drive balancing. Remote access is offered in a browser based remote access of your files etc. It has a whole host of add-ins that can be used for such things like website hosting etc. I know i'm not covering all of its features. It needs very little to operate A 1 GHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM is all that is required.

http://www.whsplus.com/ is a good website to view add-ins

Down falls of WHS
Duplication in WHS is one-one
Does not support raid in the NOS. However there are work arounds for Hardware RAIDS (its just not supported, it does work)
its based off server 2003 and is limited to 32 bit systems(WHS 2 codenamed "Vail" is in development it will be 64bit)

 

[foothead]

Any chance it could run on 800MHz?

I have a Mini ITX VIA C3 board that has been sitting around doing nothing.

 

[Disenchanterx]

It probably would. Your CPU usage might be maxed out alot of the time. WHS is a Windows 2003 server shell.

Hell I would try it. 30 day free trial on it.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/eval.mspx
Thats what I did. I had a junk PC. I put the free trial on it decided I liked it and purchased it 1 week later.

Pitiful Server:
Case: Antec P180/w 6 x Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm
Motherboard: MSI-7207PV (I think.... Not confident on this is the board)
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 939
CPU Cooler: Who cares…… OEM I think
Memory: 1Gb (4 x 256) DDR (so cheap it has no label…. Trucked it from a DELL so it's got to be good right?)
Graphics Card: onboard
Hard drives:
• 1 x 500Gb Maxtor IDE
• 1 x 320 Gb WD BLUE 8MB Cache
• 3 x 1 Tb WD Black 32MB Cache
• 4 x 1 Tb WD Green 32MB Cache
• 1 x 2 Tb WD Green 32MB Cache
Power Supply: SeaSonic 430W
OS: Windows Home Server