TLDR: Planning on building a insulated server room box in the attic.
Ok, so I've been in my new house for 3 months and I just can't find a good spot in the house I am able to put a server rack/room/area.
Nothing has an option to beef up cooling/add a duct or is in a large enough area the heat is negated by central air. (I also would prefer not to have to buy a dedicated a/c unit).
I do however have a large attic space (about 600sq ft), and as of a few weeks ago now layered with plyboard instead of just open ceiling joists.
So on the semi unused 8'x8' landing area (the rest is for storage of crap), I'm gonna build a server box however being in Texas ~ summers suck.
This week it's a high of 106 so in the 130s in the attic ~ I have good ventilation and radiant barriers so it could be worse, but still hot hot hot.
That said I've got to build a really well insulated box or I'm gonna be leaking conditioned air like a mofo and the hard drives are gonna run hot or my electric bill is gonna sizzle during the summer.
Below is my initial brainstorm plan for just the box which should yield a 30" x 30" x 30" internally usable cube after sheet rock finishing with 8" of insulation rated at R30 on the top and sides. The bottom will be 6" of insulation plus the base at roughly R25, the 28"x28" door panel I'm still trying to figure out how to seal it really well, but probably will attach a insulation board over it to seal as best I can when not being accessed so im hoping will get R10-15 on that side.
I'm planning a negative air pressure run with a 6" vent intake from the house (white board on the left of the picture is wall access to the house) to the bottom front of the box (with a filter) and the exhaust in the top rear of the box opposite to the intake with a metal inline fan pulling about 120 CFM to the central air return ~ I'm not looking for massive flow just enough to get fresh flow for the 350w or so of compute I'm generating which should be sufficient.
Lastly I'll be running 2x cat 6a ports, 2x 25 ft SFP+ cables (to the inbound gateway in my master closet), and 2x dedicated 20a circuits to it, one for each box (which is overkill, but I prefer the separate circuit/breaker redundancy).
Would love any input or suggestions, I'll be posting updates as the build goes along (but make take several weeks as its probably nearly 1k in materials and as I noted hot AF right now up there, so not sure I particularly want to build it ASAP during peak heat.
Stay tuned though! ~ also BEHOLD MY SUPERIOR MS PAINT SKILLS
Ok, so I've been in my new house for 3 months and I just can't find a good spot in the house I am able to put a server rack/room/area.
Nothing has an option to beef up cooling/add a duct or is in a large enough area the heat is negated by central air. (I also would prefer not to have to buy a dedicated a/c unit).
I do however have a large attic space (about 600sq ft), and as of a few weeks ago now layered with plyboard instead of just open ceiling joists.
So on the semi unused 8'x8' landing area (the rest is for storage of crap), I'm gonna build a server box however being in Texas ~ summers suck.
This week it's a high of 106 so in the 130s in the attic ~ I have good ventilation and radiant barriers so it could be worse, but still hot hot hot.
That said I've got to build a really well insulated box or I'm gonna be leaking conditioned air like a mofo and the hard drives are gonna run hot or my electric bill is gonna sizzle during the summer.
Below is my initial brainstorm plan for just the box which should yield a 30" x 30" x 30" internally usable cube after sheet rock finishing with 8" of insulation rated at R30 on the top and sides. The bottom will be 6" of insulation plus the base at roughly R25, the 28"x28" door panel I'm still trying to figure out how to seal it really well, but probably will attach a insulation board over it to seal as best I can when not being accessed so im hoping will get R10-15 on that side.
I'm planning a negative air pressure run with a 6" vent intake from the house (white board on the left of the picture is wall access to the house) to the bottom front of the box (with a filter) and the exhaust in the top rear of the box opposite to the intake with a metal inline fan pulling about 120 CFM to the central air return ~ I'm not looking for massive flow just enough to get fresh flow for the 350w or so of compute I'm generating which should be sufficient.
Lastly I'll be running 2x cat 6a ports, 2x 25 ft SFP+ cables (to the inbound gateway in my master closet), and 2x dedicated 20a circuits to it, one for each box (which is overkill, but I prefer the separate circuit/breaker redundancy).
Would love any input or suggestions, I'll be posting updates as the build goes along (but make take several weeks as its probably nearly 1k in materials and as I noted hot AF right now up there, so not sure I particularly want to build it ASAP during peak heat.
Stay tuned though! ~ also BEHOLD MY SUPERIOR MS PAINT SKILLS
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