Well folks, It’s been over a year in the making, but my “ultimate” home computing environment is finally done. If you remember my last post on this subject, I was contemplating the idea of (tastefully) integrating a 12U server rack into my living room. I had actually been thinking about this for a long time prior, but I had never heard of anyone else who had done it, so I was really hesitant to go down that road and risk wasting a lot of money and getting stuck with a horrible monstrosity. But then I saw what this guy had done, and I knew I was on the right track all along.
A typical PC mess. I couldn't live like this any longer!
The first thing I needed was a new desk, and since I live right down the road from an Ikea outlet, I started my search there. Now I should mention that I’m normally really skeptical about Ikea furniture because of their apparent love of particle board, but I was pretty impressed by their Galant Series of desks. The tabletop is particle board (of course), but I don’t care, since all the important structural components are made of aluminum. I settled on a 63″ wide Galant desk with the optional filing cabinet.
I also wanted a new chair, but that wasn’t actually part of the original plan for this project. I had pretty much been set on getting a Herman Miller Aeron Chair from the first time I ever sat in one, but since there was nothing wrong with my current chair, I couldn’t justify spending money on a new one. But then in a stoke of sheer luck, I happened across a used one in my local craigslist for $300. Obviously, I couldn’t pass up that deal.
Now that the boring furniture was out of the way, I needed to find a well-built server rack that would actually look good in my living room. As you can imagine, this was not an easy search, but I eventually settled on the Kendall Howard 12U Compact Series SOHO Server Rack. This is a really high-quality rack, and the price reflects that, but with a little patience, I was eventually able to find one on eBay for $300 (with front and rear mesh doors included).
Nice rack!
Next came the need for a couple of well-built rackmount cases that looked good and wouldn’t be as loud as an air conditioner. I considered Antec’s Take 4 Series and iStarUSA’s Silent Rackmount Chassis, but I decided they were both way too expensive for what they were. I settled on a couple of iStarUSA D-400s for about $150 each and iStarUSA 24″ TC-Rails for about $25 each. But I have to say that I was really disappointed with the rails, because they really short you on screws. If you just stick with what they give you, I can almost guarantee that your server will fall out of the rack, and I say this because it happened to me twice while I was racking the empty cases. I ended up just buying more screws at a local hardware store.
Assembling the rack
When I started researching monitors, the big question was “Two or three,” but since I’m not a hardcore computer gamer, I decided pretty quickly that three monitors would just be overkill. I eventually settled on two LG L227WTGs for about $220 each. I’m still contemplating buying a dual monitor stand, but I’m not sure if I would gain anything other than a little bit better cable management.
The rest of what I bought for this project is fairly uninteresting, but I’ll list it here for completeness:
- Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
- G.Skill 4GB DDR2-800 Kit
- EVGA GeForce GTS 250
- WD Caviar Black (1TB)
- Plextor PX-850SA Super Multi DVD±RW
Assembling my workstation and server
The other machine in my rack is a dedicated server that, among other things, hosts the website you’re looking at right now. The specs on this machine are fairly dated, as this is actually my old desktop from 2003, but I’ll list them as well for even more completeness:
- Asus A7N8X Deluxe (PCB 2.0)
- Corsair TWINX memory kit (512MB @ 333 Mhz FSB)
- Athlon XP 2500+
- WD Caviar Green (2×750GB in a RAID1 array)
The rack fully assembled
Other stuff in my environment (listed for ultimate completeness):
- Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite 2
- Logitech LX3 Optical Mouse
- Canon Pixma iP3000 Printer
- Grass Valley ADVC 110 Bidirectional Analog/Digital Video Converter
- Cambridge SoundWorks speakers from 1998
- APC Smart-UPS 1400
- Cisco PIX 501
- Linksys WAP54G
Since cabling was one of my major concerns, I really took my time and made sure all the visible cables were routed as neatly as possible, making liberal use of Velcro straps. And because everything is so tightly packed together inside the rack, I was able to further minimize the cable mess by replacing all the standard 6′ cables (power, network, USB, etc.) with 1′-3′ versions.
The results
As you can see, my new computing environment takes up about the same amount of space as the old one, but it looks way nicer and is much easier to work on (since everything is mounted on sliding rails that can be fully extended when necessary). It’s also semi-portable now, thanks to the casters on the rack itself.
Very nice! I’ve got a very small house atm (1200 sq ft) and I love the compactness.
how about getting a 4u rack mount draw for the bottom shelf to finish the look?
Good Job btw!
This looks great. What was the overall cost in the end? It looks like something I could do but, I’m in the UK, knowing our prices on hardware it would cost 1.5x more.
Mike, you did an awesome job. I also love the compactness of the design. You may want to look into getting some wire tube to cover it up, but still….awesome
Very nice. I like that you were able to get the rack and the desk the same height. Big plus!
Just wondering what your running for OS’s and if one is a server and the other servers as a desktop, or what the need for 2 is ect.
Looks super sweet! I am not sure the wife would approve of the expense but I know she sure would love to see the cables and clutter disappear. Thanks for the idea.
@sainty: unfortunately, the UPS just barely fits in there as it is, so i cant do much down there at the moment.
@gy it: i spread the cost over the course of about a year, so i never really added it all up. to be honest, i don’t want to know. ;)
@jeff: yes, that’s because the legs on my desk i bought are adjustable!
@erin: the top one is my desktop, and the bottom is a dedicated server (hosting this website and my email). both run ubuntu, but i sometimes boot into vista on my desktop to play the occasional game.
-both run ubuntu
Good man =)
You know, I did something just like this in my living room years ago. It looked really cool, but had some design shortcomings.
Mainly, it generated a lot of heat, and it was noisy.
For the heat, you have to carefully ensure that you have a good airflow through this thing. Server Racks are designed for good airflow. The best designed racks sit over a raised floor, and there are holes in the floorboard directly beneath the rack that force air conditioned air up through it.
My setup tended to run a little warm. I remember one summer night when it was warm that I woke up to alarm sounds. The systems had hit a thermal limit and were shutting down. So on hot days, it would run very hot. Since hard disk lifetimes are directly related to running temperature, keep this in mind.
The noise problem was a little difficult too. I had to spend a lot of extra money on silence. I used very large almost passive cpu heatsink/fans, and used large 120mm quiet case fans. Unfortunately they tended to wear out and fail. The best fans had ball bearings in them, but unfortunately they weren’t quiet. The silent fans I found I believe had sleeve bearings, which would eventually make noise and sieze. I just bought new fans from time to time.
I think my final solution was to put the machines in a room on the other side of the wall, then feed the keyboard/video/audio cables through a small cutout. That was absolutely the best — decent system, but since I had no machine noise, I could hear the quietest sounds on the speakers.
I just love what you did here … how noisy is this setup? As GY IT I’m also in the UK, but will be travelling to the US soon and been thinking about maybe bringing some of the goods from there to do something similar but mine is not a very big house so I want to make sure a similar project won’t be too noisy.
oh, it’s not noisy at all. besides the cases and the rack itself, everything is just standard pc components, so all that’s needed is to replace the stock fans. my server has an old antec power supply with that smart fan technology, so it’s basically dead silent. the desktop is noisier (still not bad), but that’s because i haven’t spent any time quieting it yet.
and regarding heat, i’ve kept a thermometer in the rack since i started putting this together in the summer, and i haven’t had a problem at all. its only about 5 degrees hotter in the back part of the rack.
That’s a nice cubby you’ve got set up there. I especially like how the rack’s height lines up with the desk’s height and the all-black finish where the rack and its innards come together. I have a full 42U rack in my living room, and it gets in the way most of the time: http://www.zi255.com/Post.aspx?Title=home+computer+lab+pictures
There’s some excellent info here I will be able to actually take note