Project: Serverama - Frame finishing - 9th Oct

inches is imperial . 1/8" = ~3mm

the 15mm fans are 20dBa and 80's are more suited as the 120's dont fit we enough to provide air flow over each drive. the opening is about 430mm... ish, whcih means that the Hd's are almost entirely covered, except for the top bay, but i may sacrifice the top bay for some sort of electronics of some kind (more on that later).

the drives are about 80mm wide so 2 rows of 5 fans give almost total coverage, whereas 120's only give partial coverage to 80% of the drives. If the fans are too loud some sort of 7V setup'll be used instead and each pair of fans will be abel to be turned on or off seperately. The 7V idea is fairly attractive because of the in/out flow rates, with 8 or 10 80mm fans at the front the airflow coming in is potentially huge, compareed to the possible extraction amounts. As with many things, this is currently going through some consideration as for fans on the back next to the mobo. More when ive though about it.

The plexi idea is great, but provides no means of getting the air into the front of the case, and the cables will get in the way and make them noisey and inefficient. so they have to be mounted in the door at the front.

I did pick up the sheet metal this afternoon and ive started work on the hinge for the door, its a pain and ive already designed, made and screwed the first one up. So, 2nd time lucky... as usual.

Its really starting to get to me that few things actually go right first time. but thers nothing i can do about it, i spent so much time planning in the past that nothing gets done as everything gets redisnged with minor tweaks but it normally does get sorted. Going to try and do more work this weekend but not hopeful. probably early next week for more progress shots.

 

actually mate better idea,

insteed of having the fans at the back, have them mounted on the sides. insteed of blowing front to back you could isolate the drive section and have the air flow going across the box. not only would that free up the front for showing off, but it would allow you to contorl the temperature a bit better. the drives could be in their own "heat zone" and have seperate fan speed controller (alla G5 style). form as well as function! free viewing area at the front with tinted plexi, and a seprate heat zone for the drives that won't boost up the heat for the cpu, gpu, etc. your design really suits this. even if you mount the fans on the front door, the cables will be very restrictive at the back, poor airflow will result. there looks to be plenty of airflow space from the sides, gaps between the drives and very little to restrict the air flow, think sideways!!!!

 

Hmm, thats actually a rather good idea, well done that man

the only problem i could see with it would be the position of the case in my room which is pressed up against the side of my case, but i am considering moving it to the living room where it'll be out of the way and not heat my room up as much.

What type of system are you suggesting? one side intake one side outlet? or both sides intake and then exhaust through the back of the case?

If both were intake i could make some kind of custom fan controller unit to fit in the top 2 bays (already pretty much whgat i was planning as they are a little tight on the drives). Then when it was in my room i could shut down one side of intakes and just run at half capacity.

Alternatly i could also have a 7V/12V switch on the main power source. both sides would run at 7V then when only one side was working run at 12V.

I'd still use the same fans (they arrived today and are rather nice) as they are 15mm and would allow for some kind of filter to be put inplace between the fan and the drives or between the side and the fan (probably the latter) with a mesh grill over the front of the fan. I'd almost be tempted to use the Zalman grills that came with them if they were on display, but im still unsure about that. have to have a think.

Cheers for the idea, i'll knock up some designs and post them later probably.

 

hi again mate

yeh i would go one side intake then the other side exhaust. if you had both sides intake then you would still have the problem of the poor airflow out the back of the drives. going side to side would run a lot nicer, and would give much smoother airflow.

i would suggest that you totaly isolate the drives into their own heat zone. cool the drives side to side, and have them cooled seperatly to the rest of the system. look at the mac g5 for example. each zone can be cooled seperatly.

not only would that reduce the amount of heat heading back to the cpu/gpu it would also allow you to spin the fans right down when there is little disk activity.

i think that having dual intakes then routing it out the back would be inefficient. you might as well just place the fans at the back again. you need an airflow that is not going to get restricted by the cables, so it would have to go one side intake, one side exhaust.

then make sure you get the dark plexi, rip all the stickers off the drives, polish them up, place some lighting, and show them off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

consider the front, that could be a big showpiece of the whole system. get the dark plexi and maybe get a frosted etch done down one side. similar to the frosted stickers used in orac. i would also put a hdd activity meter in one of the top bays (below the 2x fan controller) and you HAVE to get a lcd in one of the bays, showing the capacity of the system.

so,

1. fans blowing side to side, one intake, one exhaust
2. isolate the drives from the rest of the system, again with more dark plexi perhaps
3. get a dark plexi window for the front with a big frosted etch "serverama" down the side
4. get a bit of lighting and polish the drives
5. KICK BACK AND LAUGH AT EVERYONE WHO HAS TO CARRY A PILE OF CD's TO THE NEXT LAN

have fun

 

Yeah ive been thiking about the dual intake and came to the conclusion that it wouldnt really work to flow through the case. Im not sure about how i could go about sealing off the front rack. would i cut holes in the plexi for the cables? if not how? thats the only things which is still puzzling me. but it is a good idea

As for the LCD, i was thinking about it for the case and ive got a reaonable idea of where to put it but the main problem is that i have NO idea wtf to do with them or how to install one (!) so when i get around to it any advice is appreciated

 

there are afew things that you can do

1. mount a piece of plexi flush against the back of the drives. cut out holes for the power and ide/sata. this i think would look the best. it would look like the cables were being plugged into the plexi itself.

2. mount the plexi a couple of mm back, enough to route the cables inbetween the drives and the plexi. would look nice from the rear side as there would be no cable mess. have a large hole at the bottom where all the cables could appear and plug into the mobo, and one at the top where the power could be feed.

3. probally the best looking option. mount a sheet of plexi flush against the drives, mark holes, cut out, and plug in the cables, THEN mount another sheet behind the cables to block the mess from the rest of the case. this way from the front your seeing the plexi against the drives, and from the back your seeing a big flat sheet of plexi with a mass of cables stuffed behind it. it would look like the orac brain but on a very flat scale. your could even place another frosted etch on that flat plate, to be viewed from the side window.

easy option would be number two.

but i think that a least number 1 should be attempted, the plexi sits flush against the drives, mark out the power and interface ports, cut them out, monut the sheet and plug away. with some nice sleved cables and orac style connectors it would look really cool.

another idea came to me earlier. make sure you place all the drives according to how much activity you think they will recieve. clump all the hard working drives at the top, therefore when the other disk are not doing anything their fans can be turned right down. unless you have all drives running at peak, there will be little reason to run all the fans at high speed. i would guess that the bottom fans would rarely have to be turned up, as the bulk of the load will be sitting with the hdds at the top.

 

Cheers, i'll probably go with the first one for now, as the IDE drives are going to have SATA convertors so they'll stick out quiet a bit, i'll start looking into the plexi idea tho and see how all the drives line up in the bays.

 

Ive just moved my hosting back to nildram now that ive found what the porblem was (router not forwarding the port correctly after it got flashed. (doh)) so all the pics should work properly now, but priv msg me if they dont and i'll sort them

Not done any more work today, i did do some little bits here and there over the last few days, but thursday was the biggest work day so i'll go over that now, no pics tho, forgot my camera again

Basically ive begun work on the hinge for the door, this involved cutting the piano hinge to lenght as the other one was too short. This new hinge runs the full length of the side of the case. The major different is that with the hinge sitting flush with the edge of the case, the width of the hinge is insufficient to cover all of the holes dow the frame which will mount it.

To solve this i used the epoxy to attach a piece of the metal sheet i had left over from the sides inbetween the sides of the hinge (The hinge doesnt meet together, the whole thing is about 1/8" thick with a gap about 1/16" wide in between the sides). The piece is about 7/8" wide and 1/16th" thick so it covers the holes and sandwiches the hinge in place. Theres enough to drill a hole through but not to counter sink the holes for the bolts, so the hinge will be fully supported with the counter sink sitting in the alu above the brass plated steel hinge.

Anyway, long story short, i marked the holes, on the side and clamped the whole thing together with a bracket on the side to make sure it stayed in the right place when i mvoed it to the drill press. However, somehow, as yet by unknown means the whole template moved and i forgot to check the holes as i drilled, cos i looked at it and thought "well i cant ahave moved, and it looks right..." "well damn, it wasnt, so one end of the hinge sits perfectly, flush with the edge and looks nice. However the other end hangs over and so doesnt allow the hinge to sit vertically

So thats been scrapped and i'll try and re make it from scratch tomorrow with some pics if needed i'll take some dodgy ones with my phone. but i cant promise quality. Thats about all the work thats gone on, more when ive got the hinge + pics.

 

do you really need a hinged door now????

if your going to implemet the side fan idea why dont you just mount the plexi/metal/whatever on the front directly. have it screwed on so you can take it off to change drives etc, but apart from that there should be no reason to have a hinged front door. the fan controllers would be the olny thing that would create problems. maybe you could have a fixed front covering the drives, then have a hinged door for the controllers only. or just have a hole cut in the panel that the controllers slide through.

i just dont see much point to having a hinded door. once the drives are in you not going to have to access them that often.................

either way, it sounds like the hinge is being a bugger. hope it works out

 

The hinged door is to make it ewasy to remove Hd's, part of the original deisng was to have the connectors attached to some sort of plate at the back, but this proved to be too difficult to try and do without impeeding airflow over the drives. Now with the lateral flow you described (which should be great either way) and the plexi sealing plate this is possible. The holes drilled in the sides were only there to stop the drives falling backwards into the case, my original idea was for removable bays so i can swap the drive to my deskop to watch films/tv/etc without having the server on heating my room further (this was primarily for the summer months as in the winter they work well to heat my room )

I've bought 2 pieces of plexi today to do the door window and the sealing plate inside, not bad for £2 for the pair. I;m going to get some window tinting film tomorrow as i cant find anywhere in the region which sells tinted plexi, so the film will have to do, it should work as well and be substantially cheaper

Ive taken more pics today, including one of the hinge system although i am still thinking how to do it better, although i cant think of any method at the moment. I'll update tonight when i get back.

 

Got damn you are so active! Its a joy and my internet is near to blow cous the amount of pictures! Great project work.

How many PSU W will you need to pull this monster of?

 

Wow! I've seen this in the logs but never had the chance to read the thread. This blows the aluminum case that I'm making out of the water. I like how you've made all 3 pieces come flush together at the corner. Have you said exactly what type of bolts you're using on the corners? (If you have I've missed it.)

 

I'll have one for now, but i'm looking to mount a 2nd one behind the first and cool them in series, but i cant get too advanced on this project as i want to build a new case for my main machine this summer too

The bolts are just M4 Hex bolts, ie a bolt with a 4mm Machine thread and a Hex or Allen key fitting and about 10mm long thread, then corresponding M4 nuts to fasten. I've got half a dozen or so pics to get off the camera, resize and upload then i'll post them.

 

Right then, another update cometh.

My ftp is still playing up so the last couple of pictures wont work for now, but i will get them up and running asap. Ive no idea why the ftp wont let me login (again) but i'll try later, most of them work so theres plenty to look at

The fans i ordered arrived on friday but lack of camera meant i couldnt really do anything about an update.


The molex connector with 2x5V and 2x12V connectors on is a damn good idea. Its not a lot of work or cost to include in this kind of fan, not that the 5V would be needed as this one is rated at 20dBa at 12V. but even so, its a nice thought


Frankly im rather impressed with, not fired them up yet tho.


One side will have this side facoing out for the extraction.


this is the hinge in place as it will be when its finished, its a shame its brass but i cant find anywhere that will sell single piano hinges, ive not ventured to B&Q yet but they're pretty much my last hope as all the mail order catalogues ive seen (including where these brass ones were bought for some folding doors) sell these in packs of 10, for about £15-£20, and i have no need for so many hinges. Not when i only need 1 1/2' of it from a pack of 60'


The plate i picked up is quite nice and i'm going to make a sort of plexi sandwich and wrap it in some thin L shape alu to cover the edges. so this piece will be fixed to the hinge, then the plexi on top and another piece of alu on top, this should give it some substance as the plexi alone is too light weight and feels flimsy.


The plexi was pretty good, each piece costing £1 cut to size, the only problem i can see is that the plexi is only protected on one side so it seems a little marked, but without taking all the covering off i cant tell properly. but its not bad for a quid, even if its used for a template for another piece eventually (probably)


Inside, as Exodus suggested a 2nd piece of plexi forms the seal behind the Rack. I'm going to get the plexi tint film tomorrow


It needs to be cut to fit around the side support pieces which ive also installed on the left side of the case now. (see below)


and there we have it, just about every small clamp i could find


the biggest problem i had last time i made the hinge (which failed miserably as i described before) was that the hinge seperated from the epoxied strip and everything moved when i drilled as a result. So this time the alu filler strip in the hinge didnt get attched, just marked into place and clamped firmly to the frame, which was detached to fit in the press.


This time i decided not to try and drill holes in the brass hinge where they could break out and ruin yet another piece of hinge. So for this one i've just filled around the bolts, later i'll drill 1 or 2 more supporting holes directly through the hinge into the frame and put a spacer in to support the hinge fully. I'll probably do this when i attach the hinge and spacer together.


Another shot of the hinge, i forgot to rotate it round but, its not a particularly orientation specific shot


Now its all fixed together with the bolts it'll go on the case and see how it looks and works. you can also see the feet i made for the LAN much better than most other pics, just an M8 nut with an M4 bolt through the centre. Simple but effective.


The case as it stands now with the hinge in place. Next jobs are to finish sitting the hinge on the frame and to try and fix the first piece of the door in palce and cut the hole in the centre.

 

looking good mate, keep it up

 

nice job so far

 

very nice, but it is month 06, not 05

 

This is a great project and I've really enjoyed reading it. You've also given me a lot of ideas for my next case

 

Nice work

 

To say the least! Will you plan to lighten it up or will it be plain steel?