When you don’t have any extra cash but you want a lab like everyone else

[gigatexal]

I got tired of the noise my desktop grade stuff was making and wanted a lab of sorts to tinker with seeing everyone’s labs here I came up with this.

Contains:
Power line networking because I haven’t gotten the courage to hack into the solid wood flooring of the main floors (the “lab” is in the garage).

Supermicro board and 3380 HE from @Patrick
32GB of desktop ram that didn’t sell
90GB ocz ability 2
Etc

Fx6300
Asus mobo
16 GB ddr3 assorted sticks
960GB refurb micron SSD
3TB WD red
2 port intel gigabit addon

Local Ethernet to each machine
10.1.1.2 to 10.1.1.3

Then hooked up to gigabit switch sharing power line network connection

All fans at full bore

House fan blowing air out through somewhat ajar door to vent air

 

[nthu9280]

+1 for powerline network. Working fine for my homelab (URDC - utility room data center) needs. I've been building my lab for last year and half bit by bit.

I was thinking of a similar setup with metal wirerack shelf but came across a almost new Tripp-Lite half rack for $150 from an oil business that was downsizing last year here in San Antonio.

Setup Craigslist alert in your area for a rack and be patient. It could be months.

Just after I got mine another one came up couple of hours north of here and would have been worth the trip and even the trouble of driving thru Austin to get to Georgetown. It was one of those soundproof 12 or 14u and full of gear for $500. Almost wet my pants when that alert came.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[gigatexal]

+1 for powerline network. Working fine for my homelab (URDC - utility room data center) needs. I've been building my lab for last year and half bit by bit.

I was thinking of a similar setup with metal wirerack shelf but came across a almost new Tripp-Lite half rack for $150 from an oil business that was downsizing last year here in San Antonio.

Setup Craigslist alert in your area for a rack and be patient. It could be months.

Just after I got mine another one came up couple of hours north of here and would have been worth the trip and even the trouble of driving thru Austin to get to Georgetown. It was one of those soundproof 12 or 14u and full of gear for $500. Almost wet my pants when that alert came.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Will do. I’ve definitely found my new hobby: rack building. I’m going to get some more switches to learn how to do networking properly at the different layers.

 

[Klee]

My little server corner, I have more pc's elsewhere but I finally stepped up and bought a shelf from Lowes that is perfect for "casual" server usage.

Perfect for a couple of open compute servers with the 250V PDU mounted in between them. Yes those are 3.5" floppy's, the 5.25" floppy's are stored away for safe keeping.

Its a pretty heavy duty shelf and really overkill but I was acually wanting to get a cheap plastic shelf but this was on sale for only about $30 more.

 

[cheezehead]

Craiglist works pretty everywhere, but if your near a major metro area then ebay possibly vi local pickup or publicsurplus.com.

 

[mackle]

I picked up a compaq 42u cabinet for $50 off Facebook marketplace of all places.

 

[Hank C]

does those rack prevent the backside of the rack server cooling?

 

[nthu9280]

My little server corner, I have more pc's elsewhere but I finally stepped up and bought a shelf from Lowes that is perfect for "casual" server usage.

Perfect for a couple of open compute servers with the 250V PDU mounted in between them. Yes those are 3.5" floppy's, the 5.25" floppy's are stored away for safe keeping.

Its a pretty heavy duty shelf and really overkill but I was acually wanting to get a cheap plastic shelf but this was on sale for only about $30 more.

Pretty neatly organized. Is computer in the bottom shelf XT or before? Def collectors items.

I was planning on similiar rack before I found the full depth 24u rack.

I got tired of heat and noise from the Intel P4000 chassis ( which is fairly quiet ) and moved them in to my utility room after I got the rack.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Klee]

The pc on the lower right is a Compaq Deskpro 8086 with a 8087 co-processor, 640k ram, 2 MB addin RAM card, 3com 8bit nic, 360k and a 1.4k floppy drives , 20mb hard drive.

Back in the day it was the top of the line as for as pc's.

Built in 1986 still runs great.

I scooped up the last new power supplys I could find for it about 7-8 years ago so I have a couple of spares.

Currently running Xenix 8086.

I also have a XT-ide card that lets me run newer hard drives running MSDOS 3.31 to 6.22, DRDOS, IBM Dos or PCDOS that I swap out every now and then.

 

[freebsdrules]

It is addicting, for sure. Be careful, you can go from nothing to this pretty fast Craigslist can definitely be your friend. I picked up the DELL half height rack here for $100 along with a few of the servers.

 

[Marsh]

@Klee

we had similar equipment.
Back in 1985, brought a similar PC, borrowed a copy SCO Unix on 5-1/4" floppy. Self taught Unix and C.
When the economy went south, found a job with Oracle.

Your place is so neat.

 

[Klee]

@Klee

we had similar equipment.
Back in 1985, brought a similar PC, borrowed a copy SCO Unix on 5-1/4" floppy. Self taught Unix and C.
When the economy went south, found a job with Oracle.

Your place is so neat.

Good thing I did not post any before pics.

 

[nthu9280]

Will do. I’ve definitely found my new hobby: rack building. I’m going to get some more switches to learn how to do networking properly at the different layers.

Another one bites the dust...

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[gigatexal]

It is addicting, for sure. Be careful, you can go from nothing to this pretty fast Craigslist can definitely be your friend. I picked up the DELL half height rack here for $100 along with a few of the servers.

Wow

 

[Joel]

I'm surprised I haven't seen any LACK racks here yet.

LackRack - Eth0Wiki

 

[gigatexal]

That’s a great idea.

 

[poto]

I'm surprised I haven't seen any LACK racks here yet.

LackRack - Eth0Wiki

 

[gigatexal]

Damn they’re 10 bucks?!!!

LACK Side table, black-brown - black-brown - 21 5/8x21 5/8 " - IKEA

 

[Joel]

Yup. Keep in mind though if you have deep servers you'll want the $25 LACK coffee table.

 

[gigatexal]

This is perfect. I can tell the wife “let’s go to ikea” and then I leave with a coffee table to use as a rack haha