[HN Gopher] How to Turn an IKEA Coffee Table into a DIY Server Rack
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How to Turn an IKEA Coffee Table into a DIY Server Rack
Author : thejokersthief
Score : 377 points
Date : 2021-01-31 11:26 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (wiki.eth0.nl)
(TXT) w3m dump (wiki.eth0.nl)
| SeanLuke wrote:
| I am spooked about LACK as a rack: its legs are far from made of
| strong material, and wood screws are very likely to tear out with
| a sufficiently heavy rackmount item. I'm not talking big servers;
| just small music synthesizers would be sufficient.
| hateful wrote:
| For my music rack I had used the discontinued RAST end table:
| https://us.amazon.com/IKEA-Ikea-Rast-Nightstand/dp/B01GUHPVK...
|
| End table: $15 rails: $8 screws: $1
|
| It's too bad they don't make it anymore.
| delgaudm wrote:
| I was lucky enough to grab two RASTs coincidentally the week
| they were discontinued. The RAST rack is extremely sturdy and
| inexpensive. I really wish I could get more. I used mending
| straps to mount them atop each other so I have a nice desk
| height rack for my studio equipment.
| mongol wrote:
| I think the space behind the tv is ideal to hide hideous tech
| equipment. The problem is to reach it. Have not figured it out
| yet.
| willis936 wrote:
| If I ever have a house and it's large enough and I have enough
| time and money to do house projects, I plan on making a wiring
| closet behind the media center.
| gregmac wrote:
| If it's connected to the tv, sure, but otherwise.. what's the
| benefit?
|
| Wireless APs/routers are not great there, the TV will block
| signal.
|
| Everything else I can think of (home server, switches, smart
| hubs, etc) is IMHO better in a hidden but more accessible spot.
| I say this as someone with a _lot_ of this type of gear in my
| house and an obsession with neat /hidden cables and just
| generally making things like this as invisible as possible.
| rcarmo wrote:
| The LACK series is pretty flexible. I have two of the "TV
| stand/media" version, one under my main desk holding a switch,
| subwoofer and a couple of small machines off the floor and
| another as a standing desk:
|
| https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2020/07/19/1630
| bodhi_mind wrote:
| I've been wanting to get into hpc, or just learning mpi. Does
| anyone think getting two of these refurbished HP Proliant DL360
| G7 Servers would be a good value/performance compromise? I like
| to tinker so the thought of administrating as well as programming
| some openmpi stuff is interesting.
|
| https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Proliant-DL360-G7-Server-2x-L564...
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| check labgopher -> https://labgopher.com/
| _underfl0w_ wrote:
| Installation advice from TFA:
|
| > If you mount the first item, it is recommended to install it
| against the table top for good fit. This happens automatically if
| you have the LackRack upside down, except in zero gravity
| environments.
| noxvilleza wrote:
| I use my Lack to keep my desktop off the ground but also not be
| on my table. It's a reasonable height next to my desk, and
| there's space for a multiplug. The value!
| apelapan wrote:
| I do the same with my Lack! But with two tower PC:s
| (wfh/private) and a USB switch on top and a switch and surge
| protector mounted underneath.
|
| One tidy braid of network/power from the wall and one thick but
| tidy braid of usb/power/dp/hdmi to dual screens and USB hub on
| the desk.
| amelius wrote:
| You probably don't want to do this because of noise.
| rtkwe wrote:
| If you put 4U stuff in it you'll have way better noise levels.
| You can also shove it in an out of the way corner like the
| garage or basement if you have those.
| dhab wrote:
| ok, but isn't this a fire hazard?
| rtkwe wrote:
| How? Nothing in a server should get up to or near the auto-
| ignition temperature of wood.
| philistine wrote:
| As a fun alternative, one of these tables is used for my dogs'
| food and water bowl.
| ibaikov wrote:
| We built esports broadcast studios and I don't remember exactly
| why, but the rack we ordered didn't arrive or was damaged, and we
| needed our stuff to be more organized because it was a mess, just
| a few RUs, and still. We needed better access, and one of our
| guys ordered that table and we just screwed the equipment in, was
| so funny that it fit perfectly, we even canceled the order and
| just used this solution for like 2 years
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| The best idea is to turn it upside down, put casters on the
| bottom through the "top of the table" and then you can load it
| upwards. You have about 9U of space available but you can line
| up one table on top of each and connect them.
| dogma1138 wrote:
| It's a nice DIY project but why? Racks cost next to nothing open
| frame racks that are more stable and better suited cost <$50 new
| on Amazon and you can buy them often for the price of scrap on
| auction sites.
|
| If you want / need a DIY rack i also recommend using cheap
| aluminum extrusions those cost next to nothing from China (well
| pre pandemic at least) and since you aren't building anything
| that requires high precision you don't need to pay a premium for
| them.
| jstanley wrote:
| > It's a nice DIY project but why?
|
| I think you answered your own question.
| dogma1138 wrote:
| Well I was being nice, this probably creates more waste than
| it reduces since a rack can be reused many times and the
| metal can be fully recycled.
|
| Lack is essentially made out of paper and resin, there are
| more environmentally conscious ways to reuse a table...
| detaro wrote:
| > _It's a nice DIY project but why?_
|
| Because it's extremely cheap and easily discardable if not
| required anymore or something more permanent comes around. It's
| an alternative to having a switch/machine sit on the floor, not
| "nobody needs to buy racks anymore". (And at least around here,
| "racks for scrap value" isn't exactly common, or if it is it's
| full-height ones with pickup only (or understandably expensive
| shipping))
| freedomben wrote:
| This is super neat, although for $200 I got a really great rack
| from Amazon that I'm super pleased with. It's really well built,
| and the wheels make it easy to move around which is important for
| a house where I don't have a ton of space and need to be able to
| move it to access storage:
| https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B076VVY212/
| spydum wrote:
| wow havent seen that hardware (baystack 350T!) in a really long
| time! maybe even an extreme networks switch in there. Must have
| been mid-late 90s photos I'd guess
| designium wrote:
| How do you deal with the noise?
| polskibus wrote:
| Slightly off topic, but I find it interesting that LACK is
| cheaper in Denmark than in Poland
| Symbiote wrote:
| The page is incorrect (or out of date), it's 39 DKK (EUR5.23),
| and 24PLN (EUR5.27).
|
| Still cheaper, but only just. It might be to try and attract
| people to the Ikea shops in Denmark, which are generally
| significantly less conveniently located than their closest
| competitor here, Jysk.
| e-brake wrote:
| Nice! A single-use server rack, as seen on Airbnb Plus!
| toyg wrote:
| TL; DR: the LACK ikea table is the exact same size as server
| racks. You can just stack'em and add rails.
| IgorPartola wrote:
| They are also perfect for making an enclosure for the Ender 3
| series of 3D printers. I think you need two of them stacked but
| the price is right and it is a popular solution for when you
| need to shield your prints from drafts.
|
| http://www.tmproductions.com/projects-blog/2019/11/24/buildi...
| drivers99 wrote:
| That is exactly what made me buy some Lack tables originally
| (for my Ender 3). I was wondering if it was going to be Lack
| before I clicked on the main link (regarding server racks),
| and it was. :) I've found them super useful at home because
| of their flexibility. I'm planning on buying a bunch more and
| replacing some other furniture I have with them because I
| believe I can make them work better than the specific-purpose
| ones I have now.
| hkmurakami wrote:
| You'd miss out on the great writing in the article though :)
| jk7tarYZAQNpTQa wrote:
| Which begs the question: did Ikea name it "Lack" because they
| knew this, or even designed it on purpose? To me it looks like
| word play.
| rzzzt wrote:
| The names are pretty straightforward. It would be fun to see
| the localized version alongside the original name, though --
| Point, Rock, Clean, Cliff, Colorful, Carry?
| vidarh wrote:
| As a Scandinavian, it always feels like being part of an
| inside joke to walk through IKEA in London and realise most
| people have no idea how many of the names refers directly
| or tongue in cheek to the purpose of the product.
| unwind wrote:
| I always thought it was due to the glossy lacquer-like finish
| (lack means lacquer, as in the wood finish). Also there are
| more pieces in the series, not just the tables.
|
| It also means "annoyed", which I always found amusing. :)
|
| Source: am Swedish.
| kreeben wrote:
| Came here to say exactly this. I'm so LACK with you.
| slightwinder wrote:
| LACK is a whole series of furnitures and only one desk seem
| to be useable for this rack-hack.
| sigio wrote:
| There's also a 3 slot wide tv/media cupboard, which I
| recently found out is 3x 19" ... I did have to take of the
| rack-ears of my switch, since that was just 1-2 mm too
| wide.
| is0tope wrote:
| https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack#Enterprise_Edition
|
| My favourite bit on this site re. The long version of the LACK
| table or "enterprise edition":
|
| "Following ICT tradition, the Enterprise Edition is more than
| three times as expensive, while providing less stability than two
| of the regular products combined."
| asddubs wrote:
| but does ICT stand for "information and communications
| technology" or "Ikea coffee table"?
| geek_at wrote:
| Also don't forget there are more IKEA things that can host
| computers. I used a Kallax shelf for a beautiful home server.
|
| https://blog.haschek.at/2014/07/ikea-server-rack-nope-not-th...
| johnklos wrote:
| Their HEJNE shelves are particularly good if you have longer
| rackmount gear.
|
| https://www.klos.com/~john/hejne.jpg
| jannes wrote:
| Wow, aren't you scared of accidents when refilling the water?
|
| I personally never had a water/coffee accident, but Louis
| Rossmann's YouTube channel is full of laptop board repair
| videos due to water damage.
| emayljames wrote:
| I am sure everyone who saw that picture immediately thought
| of natural selection.
| geek_at wrote:
| Had it for 7 years, never had a spill. Now I do have a
| proper rack for all my servers
| emayljames wrote:
| Fair play. I'd have been too nervous to ever get a
| coffee.
| angrais wrote:
| But what a great way to beat the coffee addiction!
| shreddit wrote:
| "enter image description here"
| dheera wrote:
| LACK tables are also popular in the 3D printing community as
| well for enclosures:
|
| https://all3dp.com/2/ikea-3d-printer-enclosure-tutorial/
| [deleted]
| willswire wrote:
| DIY solutions are affordable and fun, but my wife would NEVER be
| cool with some rack pc's chilling under the coffee table.
|
| Just now starting to set up my homelab, and found this LM Cases
| wooden rack that has the MRS approval:
| https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LM4URack--lm-cases-4...
| wintermutestwin wrote:
| For that price, you can get a custom version on Reverb covered
| in your choice of tolex.
| hrktb wrote:
| TBF it is not the best coffee table, I think it's such a
| popular product for all the other uses.
|
| The use cases for us was to shove 10cm off the feet and use it
| as a ground table (e.g. a kid can do homework on it while
| sitting on the floor), it's also light enough to be easily
| moved from one room to the other. The other one supports the
| printer with the paper stock under it.
| sircastor wrote:
| I did this with a 1U LaCie case I picked up at surplus about 12
| years ago. I was running a version of FreeNAS on it with grand
| visions of having both my media center storage at hand in the
| living room and a place for our backups.
|
| I did not appreciate how loud rackmount case fans. I found it
| totally unacceptable, and abandoned the whole thing.
| bloopernova wrote:
| Nowadays you'd be able to shove a couple of raspberry pi 4s and
| a bunch of big HDDs on a rack shelf and get something similar
| with far less noise.
| znpy wrote:
| I recently got an HP Microserver Gen8 for that. It's quite
| quiet, yet it delivers a reasonable amount of power and i/o
| throughput.
|
| I've got one with a 17W-tdp xeon processor though.
|
| It's a awesome little machine because it has a lot of
| enterprise-level management functions (including ILO) yet
| it's very small and quite cheap to buy (used).
| 411111111111111 wrote:
| I have one as well for 4 yrs now. I like how you get the 4
| enclosures for hdds and an internal usb slot for a thumb
| drive to put the OS on... And even a fifth internal sata
| slot you can use to add ssd cache to the raid (as long as
| you use Software RAID with lvm). There is even a second
| DDR3 non-registered ECC RAM slot so you can get up to 16gb
| memory.
|
| ... But quiet is not how I'd call it. My Synology NAS
| (718+) is not only more powerful but also requires
| significantly less cooling.
|
| I just hate that I need two ssd's (read&write separately)
| and need to use the hdd enclosures, so it reduces the
| potential raid size to an awkward/uneven number: 5... I
| wouldn't buy the NAS again because of that.
| robotmay wrote:
| I'd love to see a 6 bay HP MicroServer. I too have a Gen8
| and my only real complaints are: max 16GB of RAM, and
| only 4 drive bays which sorta limits you to RAID10 as a
| best compromise. In the newest model they've rotated the
| bays to be horizontal and made it half the height; but
| I'd love to see that same idea at the original height
| with a few more bays. It'd be a cracking little machine
| that way.
|
| My MicroServer has the E3 Xeon (which was a pain to find
| in the UK, had to buy the chip off eBay in the end) and
| for a home server it's pretty stellar. I do want
| something more powerful for a headless workstation
| though.
| 411111111111111 wrote:
| You probably want to use raid10 anyway though. Parity
| raids are dangerous if you don't have a full backup of
| all data, as recovery stresses all disks, increasing the
| likelihood of a second and consequently full failure
| significantly.
| znpy wrote:
| Not sure what CPU you had in your microserver, but mine
| has a Xeon CPU, which is fast enough for nas-like
| workloads.
| wolfgang42 wrote:
| At least on my Gen8, most of the noise comes from the
| 1U-size power supply. I swapped that out for a PicoPSU
| with an external solid-state power brick and now you
| can't hear it at all unless you put your ear right up
| next to it. (Well, the power brick that comes with the
| kit has a high-pitched coil whine that you can hear when
| it's quiet, but it's just an ordinary 12v supply so you
| can replace it with a better one if that's a problem.)
| bloopernova wrote:
| This is hilarious!
|
| Serious face: You'd have to replace the very lightweight
| particleboard legs with solid wooden ones for better stability
| and safety.
| corty wrote:
| For "real" servers and anything containing HDDs, definitely.
| But for a switch, some 1U el cheapo half-depth server and a
| power rail, the particleboard is sufficient. But one-time use
| only, the holes you drill into it wear out when reused.
| smiley1437 wrote:
| You can use molly bolts to mount stuff into the hollow legs
| with reasonable stability (the article calls them 'cavity
| plugs' which isn't a term I recognized, might be a regional
| thing)
| Ensorceled wrote:
| Thye are different things. Cavity plugs are the plastic plugs
| that go into the hole and expand once you screw into them.
| Molly bolts would definitely be better in this case.
| smiley1437 wrote:
| See that's the weird thing, the link to a 'cavity plug' in
| the article (about halfway down) takes you to this page:
|
| https://www.fischer-international.com/en/products/cavity-
| fix...
|
| That looks a lot like what I'd call a molly bolt
|
| I just googled a cavity plug and I'm not sure I'd use it in
| this application
| Bluestrike2 wrote:
| While I wouldn't choose to use particleboard for a piece of
| furniture myself (that's my inner woodworker rebelling at the
| thought), the bigger concern is how it's used. For the LACK
| side tables, the legs are attached with a single double-ended
| dowel stud that sits the middle of the leg. I suppose you could
| add some glue during assembly, but you're really just gluing
| exposed particleboard to a veneer, with very little--if any--
| added strength. It's truly ridiculous example of joinery, even
| by cheap knock-down furniture standards. Amusingly, the server
| mounts will do more to help stabilize the legs they're attached
| to.
|
| You can also use threaded inserts epoxied when attaching the
| racks to the legs, which will have still have significant
| holding power in particleboard. Just make sure to use inserts
| with coarser threads (depending on where you buy them, they may
| be labeled as softwood inserts), which will have greater
| holding power in particleboard. Just remember to drill a very
| _slightly_ oversized hole (both in terms of depth and diameter,
| so it 's just a hair wider than the exterior threads so the
| epoxy can fully surround the insert) for your inserts.
|
| To make install easier, cut a piece of tape around the end of
| the insert to keep the epoxy from covering the internal
| threads.[0] And if you have a file, file a groove vertically
| across the insert from the top to the bottom. The epoxy will
| get pushed up through those grooves, locking the insert down so
| it can't twist. Scrape off the squeeze-out, let the epoxy set,
| and you're good to go. There are also tapping inserts you can
| use without having to break out a file.[1]
|
| 0. https://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-
| guide/fasteners/tips-...
|
| 1. https://www.mcmaster.com/threaded-inserts/tapping-inserts-
| fo...
| ulzeraj wrote:
| - Oh hello there. Welcome to my home. Please have a sit while I
| grab some coffee.
|
| _whilrling noises_
| Quequau wrote:
| I have long wished for a standard which was like half the scale
| of 20" rack-mount. I have a home lab and I work for a boutique
| engineering firm. Neither of those use cases can justify a full
| height rack but both would benefit from the design mindset that
| exists for the standardized rack-mount ecosystem.
| [deleted]
| Inhibit wrote:
| Now that you mention I do have some half width server boards
| kicking around on steel trays. I always assumed they went in
| some two-up side by side, but the trays are a little odd for
| that.
| detaro wrote:
| Some vendors have systems where multiple nodes go into one
| case, e.g. Supermicro BigTwin or Dell PowerEdge C-series.
| bloopernova wrote:
| You're talking about half the height _and_ width? That would be
| pretty useful, you 're right. Maybe be able to put 4 of these
| halfracks in a normal rack.
|
| Apple used to sell (or recommend, I forget) a half-height rack
| for academic use of XServes. I know one faculty who got one and
| didn't realize it would turn his office into a noisy
| datacentre. He had it moved to a spare office.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Half depth servers and half depth + width ones for higher
| density mounting exists, though performance is kind of
| limited, blade servers are also a thing.
|
| But what I've heard about blades is they're too dense for
| multi story building datacenters and that sharing blade
| chassis creates SPoF, and those points aren't ideal.
| Quequau wrote:
| Yeah... I'm talking something that would be shorter in width
| and length... so less volume.
|
| Anyway rack-mount equipment is so loud because it all uses
| tiny fans that are driven at very high RPMs. Using fewer
| larger fans that spun slower would be much quieter. I would
| guess that using water cooling might be still quieter but I
| suspect that would be a lot of effort. Having a single very
| large fan at the top of the rack, that ran on mains AC, might
| work fine, assuming the right heat sinks and ducting.
| jansan wrote:
| I really wish 10 inch racks and equipment were more common. I
| installed a 10 inch rack in my house (only with a switch and a
| few patch panels), but it the choice for components was really
| limited. Anyways, I am glad smaller size racks exist at all.
| Symbiote wrote:
| Possibly something along the lines of Eurocards (as people who
| make synthesizers call them), which is based around Eurocards
| -- still used in industry.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurorack
|
| (Unless you just meant a less-than-42U 19" rack, which is
| easily available. You can buy 19" racks as small as 6U.)
| jackhalford wrote:
| My current setup is a desktop chassis, does anyone have a
| ressource about transferring components into a rackmount chassis?
| I'm afraid of buying a chassis that is incompatible with my
| current motherboard/cpu.
| saalweachter wrote:
| It's mostly your motherboard form factor -- ATX, ITX, etc etc.
| Check what the rack mount case supports, same as any other
| case. Some very giant desktop motherboards are ~impossible to
| find rack mount cases for. (Eg, old EVGA motherboards that were
| some sort of mega-ATX.)
|
| A 4U case should fit desktop cards and cooling components, but
| you should probably double check that too.
| franzwong wrote:
| Is it called a deskbottom?
| smiley1437 wrote:
| I used to desire putting rack mounted equipment in my homelab and
| actually filled a lackrack with decommissioned servers and
| switches but quickly found that rackmounted equipment tends to
| have loud, high speed fans which are quite unpleasant to spend
| any time with.
| GordonS wrote:
| With the likes of AMD Threadripper around now, I guess there is
| even less reason now to have a home rack - a single
| Threadripper in a standard tower case likely has more compute
| capability than most home racks from just a few years ago.
| jowsie wrote:
| The main reason now is cost, however it's hard to hit the
| sweet spot between initial investment and on going
| electricity costs.
| stevievee wrote:
| On decommissioned servers, if there is no variable speed
| control you can solder resistors to the fans and just monitor
| temps.
| high_density wrote:
| what about upgrading fans to silent fans? Has anyone tried
| noctua fans?
| pmlnr wrote:
| Doesn't work; the 1U fans are a different format, than any
| noctua I was able to locate. Regardless I tried putting
| noctua in a 1U rack, ended up with horrible hack like this:
| https://petermolnar.net/article/home-server-
| downsizing/inwin...
| nippoo wrote:
| This is a typical 1U server fan. https://youtu.be/YrU1D4bgn78
|
| There's not a lot of space left in a 1U server, and to get
| the right airflow, the airspeed has to be much much higher as
| what you'd get in a normal ATX case.
|
| Can you replace it with quieter small fans, while maintaining
| good airflow? Sure sometimes. Is it ever going to be "quiet"?
| Not a chance.
| detaro wrote:
| Of course 1U servers are the most extreme case. Having
| rackmount equipment at home is fine if you can put it out
| of the way and pay a bit of attention to what you buy -
| i.e. a 3U or 4U machine will usually have much more normal
| fans you can swap to quiet ones. Some people also swap fans
| on 1U switches.
| MasterScrat wrote:
| Pro-tip: removing the fans from switches make them much
| quieter!
|
| More seriously: most switches will survive fine without
| fans if you don't use them too intensely (see eg https://
| www.reddit.com/r/Cisco/comments/3iu57s/home_lab_swit...)
| bitcharmer wrote:
| Not sure how relevant my case is for the discussion because I
| have a dual socket Xeon workstation in a tower case. I built
| my rig with the big noctua coolers with brown fans. They are
| super quiet and highly recommend them.
| ezconnect wrote:
| The fan will be more expensive than the one it is cooling and
| it wont make much difference in sound and it might even
| overheat because the silent fan run slower less air flow.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Server fans are like 12V 1A, Noctua don't make that kind of
| fans.
|
| Fan diameter actually corresponds to server thickness. 1U use
| 4cm, 3U and 4U use 8 or 12cm. Power consumption stays the
| same, which means monsters like 1U Xeons come with like
| horizontal 8-unit array of a pair of contra-rotating 4cm
| 12V/0.5A(12V x 0.5A x 2 in series = 12W per unit) fans.
|
| Noctua don't make that kind of jet engines.
| tumaal wrote:
| Contrary to what some sibling comments suggest, I am
| currently using an older HPE-2530-48G-PoEP switch with the 3
| builtin fans swapped for Noctua nf-a4x20-pwm (installation
| went very smoothly). They are actually less audible than the
| disks of my NAS next to it. Admittedly, I am only using about
| third to half the ports and the load is only moderate most of
| the times but this setup has been working flawlessly for over
| a year now.
|
| I guess it depends on your workload and the specific hardware
| involved but using server hardware with quiet fans in a
| living room environment can certainly be achieved.
| IshKebab wrote:
| There aren't any silent server fans. They're small high speed
| ones (they have to be because of the height restriction) so
| there's no way you can put a large low speed fan in like you
| can with a desktop. Plus servers run hotter precisely because
| they can have loud fans with lots of airflow.
| GordonS wrote:
| Aren't Noctua fans quite large, like 12cm in diameter? In a
| 1U chassis, your fan can only be around 4cm in diameter,
| because they have to be mounted at the back. You can't mount
| them horizontally, because of course rack units are meant to
| be stacked close together.
| cecja wrote:
| I guess you are right the only fans noctua produces are
| 12cm diameter. /s
| jowsie wrote:
| They start small enough for cooling VRM's and go up to iirc
| 20cm
| Macha wrote:
| Note that small noctuas are not magic, like other small
| fans they're noticeably louder than larger fans.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Servers people are talking here are like 5cm thick and
| like 125W per CPU
| alexpotato wrote:
| I did something similar with an old server a friend of mine
| acquired from a internet company that had gone out of business.
|
| I remember taking out ALL of the fans AND trying to put it
| under an arm chair and it was still the loudest thing in my
| apartment. Needless to say, I got rid of it not long after
| that.
| progman32 wrote:
| Unfortunately true. I stuck a water cooling system in my home
| lab machines. Not plug and play as many components expect
| airflow anyway...
| z3t4 wrote:
| Servers are optimized for small size. If the rental space cost
| is not the biggest cost you can build a quiet server that also
| performs better! eg. something like a noctua nh on the cpu.
| allenu wrote:
| In the late '90s I had an internship at IBM. Sometimes you'd
| need to go into the server room to do your work and I remember
| the white noise from all the fans in there being perfect for
| falling asleep to. Granted, that wasn't the goal, but if you
| went in there in the afternoon to get work done, it took all of
| your willpower to not fall asleep at a terminal.
| noneeeed wrote:
| Likewise. I did one at Hursley in 2000 and had to go down
| there when one of the Linux boxes would freeze up during
| performance testing and would need a physical reboot. So loud
| down in that basement.
| DrBazza wrote:
| I had a colleague back in the very late 90s that lived in a
| typical British semi-detached house. Under the stairs was a
| cupboard against the external wall. He decided to make that his
| server room with a rack and "cheap" second hand kit.
|
| To cool it, he drilled through the external brick wall several
| times and fitted exhaust fans.
|
| His hall sounded like standing behind a 747.
|
| If it rained, he often ended up tripping the fuses.
|
| </end of anecdote>
| nathancahill wrote:
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of CPUs
| ashtonkem wrote:
| Harry Potter and the Mysterious Case of Tinnitus.
| xwdv wrote:
| Harry Potter and the Enormous Electric Bill.
| fouc wrote:
| Harry Potter and Reddit Style Responses on HN
| D2187645 wrote:
| Harry Potter and the Fun Police
| icefrakker wrote:
| Harry Potter and the comment threads like this are the
| worst parts of reddit, please shut the fuck up.
| riedel wrote:
| In our dorm all CS student closets rather resembled server
| racks. A friend overdid it though as he additionally used 4
| workstations as bedposts. In summer he regularly slept in the
| shared kitchen because in addition to noise the temperature
| would also be of concern. I don't think the WAF would have
| been measurable.
| noxvilleza wrote:
| Not a full server-rack but had 4 desktops (2-side by side
| on either side of my small desk) running a variety of stuff
| in my first two years of university (CS1.6 servers, WoW emu
| server, network bridge, teamspeak, DC server) - one was my
| personal computer. In 3rd year it went up to 5 since my
| room was slightly bigger and my friend would often come
| play games in my room (he didn't have internet).
| MasterScrat wrote:
| I have a 14U rack next to my desk.
|
| It's doable, but you need to spend time to optimize the noise
| factor:
|
| - If you need many cores but can live with lower clock speeds,
| you can underclock.
|
| - 1U servers will be noisy no matter what. 2U is already more
| manageable. 4Us are the best.
|
| - GPUs will be noisy, no real solution around that. High heat
| production, and they hinder the air flow, so the front fans
| will have to spin faster. I physically remove GPUs from chassis
| when I'm not actively using them.
|
| - There are small-size soundproof server cabinets that can
| easily solve this problem. They're very expensive though.
|
| - Depending on the server, you can directly control fan speed
| at the firmware level. This needs careful control if you don't
| want to destroy your hardware and/or burn down your place.
|
| - The pandemic makes all this much harder. I used to keep
| things running lightly during the night and full blast during
| the day when everyone was out of the house. I saved tons of
| money, compared to what I would have paid on any cloud
| platform. Now that we're home 24/7 it's not so worth it
| anymore.
|
| Also this is all worth it if you actually enjoy playing with
| the hardware, in that case the money you put into this brings
| you both fun and cheap compute. If the setup is a chore for
| you, don't do it, it probably won't be worth your hourly rate.
|
| Fun fact: the noise/space/aesthetics factors are referred to in
| the community as the "WAF" - Wife Acceptance Factor ;-)
| na85 wrote:
| >Fun fact: the noise/space/aesthetics factors are referred to
| in the community as the "WAF" - Wife Acceptance Factor ;-)
|
| I work in Aerospace so I spend entirely too much time around
| pilots, amongst whom it's a common thing to refer to Wife
| Acceptance as Tower Clearance. E.g.:
|
| >I'm thinking about getting one of those big green eggs
|
| >Nice. Do you think Tower will let you?
|
| >I won't let her see it until it's too late
|
| Etc
| neilv wrote:
| I could use a more flexible/scalable term. SOAF (Significant
| Other Acceptance Factor)? SOA? SOFA? SOC (SO Compliance)?
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25067485
| lostlogin wrote:
| I'm a proponent of using Intel NUCs as headless servers. I'd
| be happier if the psu brick was incorporated and there was
| another nic, but they quiet, small and powerful in the NUC8
| and NUC10 flavours. They can fit 2 drives when in the larger
| sized case, and so a NAS or similar is probably needed.
|
| They can be stacked, are readily available and seem very
| reliable.
| 1996 wrote:
| To scale, I prefer tablets with a wwan port and a shattered
| screen: on ebay, for less than $100 each, I can fit 2x m2
| NVMe (one 2242 in the wwan port), they are small, and each
| come with their own UPS (battery) and standardized power
| connector (USB-c) while supporting KVM (AMT if you know
| which models to buy)
| lostlogin wrote:
| Nice. What are you running on them?
|
| ESXi runs nicely on a Nuc, and it'll do a load of VMs
| with plenty of resources (the Nucs will take 64gb). But
| the price for that is probably 5-10x what you are
| describing.
| 1996 wrote:
| > the price for that is probably 5-10x what you are
| describing.
|
| Indeed the reason why I do what I do!
|
| I can have 10x of them for the cost of 1 of your Nucs.
|
| For example, my latest purchase was $15 per tablet with
| 8Gb of RAM, delivered. Add 2x brand new M2 2230 drives
| which cost about $20 apiece, and each node costs about
| $55.
|
| > What are you running on them?
|
| Sharded databases and Ceph clusters mostly. Each shard
| uses very little power (and does not run hot) but has 2x
| nvme in mirror. With raid10 f2 on linux or zfs mirror on
| bsd you gain in read speed on top of the raid1 safety.
|
| Sometimes I add USB external storage: tablets often have
| 2 USBC ports, so $100 gives an extra 8Tb for warm
| storage. For HDD, USBC is not a restricting factor
| anymore.
|
| Now I am trying VMs: with a dedicated NVMe, IO
| performance is good, but there is not enough RAM yet.
| When 16Gb becomes the new normal, that will be much
| easier.
| weeboid wrote:
| Threadripper and 10 SSD RAID array, everything liquid cooled
| with one large slow fan. Throw in some LED edge RAM
| unixhero wrote:
| You must acquire a HP Z series Z620 machine for your server
| needs. Potentially also the Z840 and newer versions Z series
| (must verify noise emissions from all subsequent models above
| Z620). I have had a huge success with my Z620. Considering
| expanding to buy more nodes. It has a very low accoustic
| footprint. My girlfriend instantly approved :)
|
| edit: yes, get the version with the Xeon E5 series.
| Preferably already with the double CPU configuration.
|
| edit2: yes, and also don't get the first version that has
| Xeon X-series. It will not perform well enough for semi-
| modern homelab workloads.
| fencepost wrote:
| There are at least 2 generations of the motherboard, make
| sure you get the second (z620). Also if it still has the
| original workstation Nvidia card, toss it and replace it.
| Pissed off the cat that settles on top of the machine since
| it was no longer so warm, but definitely cheaper to run and
| the new cheap card is faster too.
| KaiserPro wrote:
| Just to back this up, the HP z series is rack mountable,
| but also stackable.
|
| They can be used for structural purposes as well, its
| perfectly possible to make a sturdy set of bookshelves with
| 4x z620s and 4 scaffold planks.
| 127 wrote:
| You can always water-cool the GPU, with big radiators. I have
| no idea about how to do it in 4U, I personally just use off
| the shelf consumer hardware (mini-ITX, small PSUs, short GPU,
| etc.) and 3D print the cases. ~10 cm height is perfectly
| achievable with custom cases and PCI riser cables.
| eptcyka wrote:
| There are no riser cables that are stable for PCI-Ev4.
| MichaelBurge wrote:
| LINKUP sells them - I have 7 for a home server. Up to
| 50cm for v4 and I have a couple v3 because they go up to
| 1 meter.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0898QMCLS
| colejohnson66 wrote:
| I've never heard of this. Can you explain why?
|
| (I don't use riser cables FWIW)
| 1996 wrote:
| Higher frequencies are more susceptible to interference,
| especially if you have long cables.
|
| A short 2 inches riser, surrounded by a grounded metal
| sheet, might work.
| davemp wrote:
| I'd imagine the parasitic capacitance becomes more of an
| issue at the higher frequencies of v4.
| damagednoob wrote:
| > There are small-size soundproof server cabinets that can
| easily solve this problem.
|
| I would have thought anything that restricts sound would also
| impede air flow.
| MasterScrat wrote:
| See eg this demo: https://youtu.be/NfTP3yhTybc?t=150
|
| I could never afford one (they're also super heavy so you
| have to be careful your floor can take it) but I assume the
| idea is to replace the airflow noise of many small fans
| with a few much larger ones.
| Lex-2008 wrote:
| > "WAF" - Wife Acceptance Factor ;-)
|
| You made my day! That's the primarily limiting factor in my
| "bedroom datacenter" expansion :D
| pbronez wrote:
| Honestly it's a brilliant term. I've seen it in the
| Audiophile, DIY Audio, and Synthesizer communities as well.
|
| While WAF capacity tends to be fairly constant over time,
| careful strategic planning can ensure sufficient WAF
| capacity to avoid significant restrictions on side project
| activity.
| seized wrote:
| Old hardware yes, newer generations are quite quiet when not
| under high load. But people buy old hardware and then find out
| the hard way...
| jansan wrote:
| This. You don't want to keep that stuff around you. It should
| be locked up in a server room or at least a closet.
| Tade0 wrote:
| And a well ventilated closet at that.
| kreeben wrote:
| Indeed. My rule of thumb is, if you can grow weed in your
| closet, then it's a good closet for servers.
| kgermino wrote:
| Can you explain that? I'm not understanding the
| connection?
| jacob019 wrote:
| You need good ventillation in a closet for both
| activities.
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| and lots of power.
| [deleted]
| JoBrad wrote:
| And how do you know if you can grow weed in your closet?
|
| Well, if you can put a few servers in there, you're good!
| mnky9800n wrote:
| I had a roommate who did this. He did computational
| neuroscience back before gpus were a thing. It was great for
| heating the house. Terrible for actually being in the house.
| dmd wrote:
| Hah. I did computational neuroscience back before GPUs were a
| thing. It's astounding really. Jobs I ran back in 2005 that I
| waited days for take, literally, minutes now.
| bayindirh wrote:
| To my surprise, All the Dell servers we have try to keep the
| noise at a minimum unless they're pushed to their max.
|
| I'm not aware of the any other servers, switches or actively
| cooled equipment tried to do that.
|
| IBM BladeCenter H is the worst offender: "Is acoustic
| management enabled? No? OK, everything is at full speed, then".
| MasterScrat wrote:
| Recent HP servers do the same, and are actually quieter in my
| experience.
|
| But yeah as soon as you put an unsupported HDD or extension
| card in there, it'll assume the worst and spin everything
| full blast.
| bayindirh wrote:
| Trying to keep the noise is at minimum is a noble thing to
| pursue I think. Otherwise it's deafening when it's working
| in the system room.
|
| In an HPC environment that doesn't matter much, anyway.
| Heh.
| [deleted]
| ashtonkem wrote:
| I think that small businesses and home buyers have begun to
| make noisier (heh) demands for quieter servers. I assume that
| a sizable percentage of the 1U market is going to small
| businesses that don't want their printer closet sounding like
| it's trying to take off.
| detaro wrote:
| The more usual small business form factor is less-deep 3-4U
| cases that can be used as a tower or rackmount (once we go
| past small NAS boxes). Or shallow 1U with low-power parts
| for routers/small appliances.
|
| "Proper" 1U servers feel more like a thing for larger
| places, where density starts to matter more. Not sure why
| so many comments here focus on 1U.
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| Because decommissioned 1U is the cheapest entry into
| homelabbing (check labgopher)
| detaro wrote:
| The usual recommendations are R720 and DL380 though?
| neither of which are 1U.
| bayindirh wrote:
| R720 and DL380 are old, very ubiquitous servers. They are
| good workhorses and parts are plenty. Also they're not
| very closed platforms. They're not very silent though.
|
| However with an iLO or iDRAC license, they're joy to
| administer and use. They're also very reliable too.
| ashtonkem wrote:
| I think instinctually it feels like 1U is what you should
| buy if you don't need top of the line. That was my
| assumption as a non-hardware guy considering a home rack.
| I changed my mind once I found out about the noise issue.
| [deleted]
| bayindirh wrote:
| You can get many top-of-line servers for various
| scenarios in 1U configuration. It can be quite packed up
| to a point (including GPUs).
|
| For home use servers, if you want 1U form factor, you can
| take a look at Dell's shallow 1U servers. They're pretty
| modestly powered but small, I think relatively silent and
| easy to maintain.
|
| Higher end servers have some fun features like advanced
| BMCs and such, but they come with relevant price tags,
| power consumption and noise.
|
| You can also look at SME tower servers.
| Symbiote wrote:
| Less fan noise is less airflow, which means less cold-side
| air wasted.
| colejohnson66 wrote:
| I thought fan noise was also affected by the fan's
| mechanics? Like, the bearings and such? Sure, you're not
| going to get the same performance out of a silent fan as a
| jet engine, but the noise gains (heh) are worth it in most
| cases.
| bayindirh wrote:
| > I thought fan noise was also affected by the fan's
| mechanics?
|
| In a 1U server, you're running 5-7 tandem mounted,
| counter rotating Delta fans which can spin up to 18KRPM.
| They're in a confined space, have big cores to drive them
| and they need to supply a blanket of airflow to get
| things cool.
|
| Higher efficiency components and a good implicit airflow
| design affects much more than the fans themselves, since
| there's not much space to optimize the fan design itself
| compared to the airflow as a whole inside the server.
|
| Moreover, more intelligent system management solutions
| with more sensors both inside the chips and on the
| motherboard allows the BMC to see the whole picture and
| manage these fans in a more informed manner.
| smiley1437 wrote:
| I remember going to a Bladecenter demo at an IBM facility
| when they first came out, and the demonstrator pulled
| something that triggered the fans to go on HIGH and the way
| it wound up like a jet engine was so comically loud the
| entire room of 30 guests all broke out laughing
|
| Here's an idea of what it was like:
|
| https://youtu.be/pS8h8z1c0bI?t=106
| bayindirh wrote:
| In the video you can hear only one of the two. Other one is
| connected to other power supply.
|
| We had a lot of them, with full configuration, at full
| load. Go, figure.
|
| They can generate a lot of heat though.
| smiley1437 wrote:
| Good lord, must have been like a wind tunnel in the back
| of the rack!
|
| To be fair, they ARE impressively CPU dense
| gbil wrote:
| About 10 years ago I tried to built my own rack in the basement
| so noise was not the issue _but_ power consumption was the
| issue. After connecting a few Cisco switches on my UPS I
| realized that each one was consuming at least 60-80W being idle
| which would sum up to a considerable amount of money running 24
| /7 together with the rest of my planned to be equipment. As I
| was only going to run this setup for the fun of it, after a
| couple of months I decided to give the majority of the network
| hardware away and use gns3 for the limited work I wanted to do
| bombcar wrote:
| Mikrotik sells an amazing line of high-speed low power
| switches, but most of the server gear still draws a lot of
| wattage.
| AstroJetson wrote:
| Server stack sits in a closet just off the floor. There is a
| heater duct opening behind it. At the top of that cavity is a 4"
| elbow turning up, a temp controlled fan an a pipe up through the
| ceiling and into the attic. Open end has screen to keep any
| rodents out. Door has a small vent to let air in. Works well, I
| don't hear the noise unless I'm right next to the door. Closet
| also has the wifi and other stuff in it.
| webmobdev wrote:
| Hmm ... Wood being a bad conductor of heat, wouldn't this
| slightly heat up the internals of the server?
| IshKebab wrote:
| No. Heat isn't expelled out of the top of a server because
| there's usually another server in the way. Heat comes out of
| the back.
| HenryBemis wrote:
| And if/when there is a smoke alarm in your kitchen (or the
| building), and a fireman will walk through that guy's door,
| and sees THAT, I would like be a fly on the wall for the
| explanations he will give.
|
| I also enjoy the IKEAHackers, but home-made wooden racks on
| servers is 'reckless' (I am being super polite here).
| webmobdev wrote:
| Yes, it is largely expelled from the back due to the fan and
| ventilation holes, but the metal body also absorbs and expels
| some heat. It is the latter part that I am talking about (for
| the topmost rack in contact with the wood in this DIY).
| boboche wrote:
| Lol @FAQ - does the lackrack provides redundant power supply.
| systemvoltage wrote:
| Fire risk? I don't think it's a good idea to put high power
| electronics in a highly combustible dry compressed wood frame.
| dawnerd wrote:
| They used to have a lack with casters and a bottom shelf which
| made it perfect for heavy storage servers. I just retired my
| storinator for a proper rack, but the lack was able to support a
| ~70lb (maybe more, its a beast) server without issue. The Casters
| made it really easy to work with given how heavy this server is
| fully loaded.
|
| https://www.ikeaddict.com/ikeapedia/en/Product/10198411-2/ca...
| eternalban wrote:
| No mention of temperature, heat, hot server, and its expected
| long term effects, including potentially harmful fumes.
| tex0 wrote:
| Yeah, just don't do it. It's hilarious. But that's about it.
| louwrentius wrote:
| This is an older picture of my 'Lack Rack' setup:
|
| https://louwrentius.com/static/images/lackrack01.jpg
|
| https://louwrentius.com/static/images/lackrack02.jpg
|
| I recently discovered that a single Lack table is only rated for
| 20 Kg or so, which I'm violating quite a bit.
|
| It's still standing ...
|
| ---------------------------------------------------------
|
| Also about noise of 19" gear: yes this is a real problem, this is
| why I would recommend not to go for any 1u servers, as they use
| tiny fans (as mentioned in other threads here) and they are
| extremely loud and annoying.
|
| I also have an HP DL380 Gen8 (2U server, not in the picture) and
| you need a special room for that with the door closed.
|
| The large NAS server that is pictured is actually 4U and uses
| very large fans, that are temperature controlled. This box is
| very silent. This is a custom build not an off-the-shelf server.
|
| https://github.com/louwrentius/storagefancontrol
|
| There is a whole 'cottage industry' of people modding/hacking
| their COTS server (HP/Dell) to make them more silent, but that's
| another effort, so:
|
| "bezint eer gij begint" (Dutch)
|
| Or: really consider your options and consequences before buying a
| rack server...
| neilv wrote:
| My even more favorite IKEA piece for short-depth rackmount gear
| is no longer made: CORRAS Bedside Table, in Birch Effect.
|
| https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ikea+corras+rack&t=h_&iar=images&i...
|
| Unlike the LACK, includes a floor, casters, and adjustable
| shelves.
|
| I've bought several of these, currently down to 2, and sorely
| wishing I had 1-2 more.
|
| After the CORRAS was discontinued, there was also a slightly-
| different EINA model, but not in Birch Effect. (The closest
| finish I found for EINA was best described as Pressed Sawdust
| Vomit Effect.)
|
| When I again have wood workshop access, I'm going to learn how to
| make nicely-finished solid-wood homages to the CORRAS.
| [deleted]
| Damogran6 wrote:
| "Goodies You can put food and/or drink on your rack."
|
| /internal screaming in horror intensifies
| headmelted wrote:
| I remember a while back there being an Apple implementation of
| this at MacWorld around the time of the second gen iPods.
|
| Found it!
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rw2nkoGLhrE
| second--shift wrote:
| Proud owner and runner of a lackrack here at home myself. I used
| this guide to get me started.
|
| Mine ultimately is 2 lack tables, one on top of the other, with
| poplar square dowels in the legs for structural strength. I'm
| able to run 1" furring strips from the back legs to the front
| legs - voila - rails. I get about 12U on mine, built for <$50 USD
| p0d wrote:
| I've been monitoring how much it costs to run an hp i5 6th gen
| desktop 24/7 over the last few weeks. I use it as my main server.
| The electricity cost is coming in at about PS2.50 per month
| (idles just under 20w).
|
| An old hp dual core duo box is coming in at about PS3.50 per
| month.
|
| I'm sticking with SSDs as metal disks burn about 5w per disk. My
| monitor on standby burns about 10w, so it is being powered off.
|
| I thought if you were reading about modding a desk you may find
| this interesting :-)
| fencepost wrote:
| Years ago I turned a decommissioned server into my desktop
| (when 4gb was a lot of memory). Worked fine, but when I
| switched to a laptop as primary and turned it off I think my
| power bill dropped by $20-30/month.
|
| If I'd checked the draw earlier I'd have killed it far sooner.
| otter-in-a-suit wrote:
| I run a custom 4U server with consumer hardware (older Ryzen)
| and 2 network switches, ATT Fiber Box, 1U Mikrotik Router and
| various accessories at ~100Wh, so ~$9/month. I am surprised how
| energy efficient this stuff has gotten - I do recall running a
| much smaller setup not too long ago that cost me a whole lot
| more.
| p0d wrote:
| Agreed. I used to build servers and put them in datacentres.
| It was amazing seeing how the specs went up and power usage
| went down through the years. I recollect new HP Gen9 Dl360s
| idling at about 200w.
| fest wrote:
| Lack table is also a decent frame for 3d printer enclosure:
| https://linx.wot.lv/xcwkf2rs.jpg
| Aldipower wrote:
| The price table, comparing the countries, is interesting. Why
| does this things cost around 10 Euro in Russia, but only 3 Euro
| in Denmark? I would expect the opposite, if I look at the value
| of money in those countries.
| deadbunny wrote:
| My guess would be shipping costs from the manufacturers to
| stores. I'd hazard a guess they have their man production in
| Scandinavia/western Europe rather than Russia.
| bombcar wrote:
| https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/hejne-shelf-unit-softwood-s7903...
|
| HEJNE comes in a 19 5/8 width and is much more sturdy if you
| really want to stack-rack some equipment.
|
| But if you have room for a HENJE you probably have room for a
| real rack.
|
| https://www.sweetwater.com/c685--Studio_Equipment_Racks
|
| Remember there are two kinds of racks! Those designed to mount
| equipment from the front and only to be used with LIGHT
| equipment, and those designed to take rails and full-weight
| server equipment.
| pluc wrote:
| Surprised nobody mentioned IKEAHacks, there's a community
| dedicated to specifically modifying IKEA products into other
| things: https://www.ikeahackers.net/
| js2 wrote:
| The opposite of turning an Ikea coffee table into a server rack
| has to be turning an Apple Xserve into a coffee table:
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/kig3gw/do_coffee_t...
|
| https://imgur.com/a/6TLqWks
| HelloNurse wrote:
| Using drive trays as drawers shows class, but putting a
| computer in a glass box is too easy.
|
| On the other hand, there are computers with a form factor that
| allows direct reuse as a table or sideboard, like the
| Connection Machine CM2 (smaller than it looks in most
| photographs) or the less curvy SGI Onyx and Onyx2 models (the
| perfect size for bedside use).
| yreg wrote:
| That's cool! I'm using a cheesegrater Mac Pro as a night stand:
|
| https://i.imgur.com/qZW9nkN.jpg
| roboyoshi wrote:
| Holy... that's hilarious. I turned my G5 into a Hackintosh
| before, but now it just sits in the basement. Still ove how
| it looks.
| Hamuko wrote:
| I have one as well but it's mostly gathering dust at the
| moment. It really needs some kind of a soft mat on top of it
| which I've been too lazy to procure.
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