Something different for a change
Jammin1911
Icrontian
First of all, I apologize for the ishy pictures, they were:
a) rushed.. and
b) taken with a crappy camera
Anywho, this is just something i've been working on at work. I was asked to build 4 web/db servers that looked a bit fancy and could be shipped via UPS/FedEx/Purolator/Etc.. without the worry of them dropping it and destroying it.
First just a bit of info about it...
- It's built in to a band equipment 'style' case that I designed and built
- 120USD worth of fancy junk per server from frozencpu.com
- cant see it in the pictures, but its got a 24-port switch, wireless symbol router and dhcp server built in (all of the connections for this are on the back hidden away with a locking door.. just like everything else)
- 2x120mm aluminum led fans and 1x80mm led fan per server.
- 15" LCD Touch Screen mounted in to the lid.
- if you look at the picture where I used a flash you can see 4 black circles stuck above the LCD. These are actually only stuck there with velcro (the scratchy side sticks nicely to the carpeting I used to line the case) - these are used to cover the fan holes when not use use/shipping.
Yes I know some of it is done very ghetto, but I'm not a case modder, I'm just your average tech who was given the opportunity to spend some of his employers money.
PS - click the images a second time to get full-res versions, although most of them are crap quality - sorry!
http://gallery.jshost.ca/gallery/EndoServer
Tell me what you think and let me know if you have suggestions/questions.
a) rushed.. and
b) taken with a crappy camera
Anywho, this is just something i've been working on at work. I was asked to build 4 web/db servers that looked a bit fancy and could be shipped via UPS/FedEx/Purolator/Etc.. without the worry of them dropping it and destroying it.
First just a bit of info about it...
- It's built in to a band equipment 'style' case that I designed and built
- 120USD worth of fancy junk per server from frozencpu.com
- cant see it in the pictures, but its got a 24-port switch, wireless symbol router and dhcp server built in (all of the connections for this are on the back hidden away with a locking door.. just like everything else)
- 2x120mm aluminum led fans and 1x80mm led fan per server.
- 15" LCD Touch Screen mounted in to the lid.
- if you look at the picture where I used a flash you can see 4 black circles stuck above the LCD. These are actually only stuck there with velcro (the scratchy side sticks nicely to the carpeting I used to line the case) - these are used to cover the fan holes when not use use/shipping.
Yes I know some of it is done very ghetto, but I'm not a case modder, I'm just your average tech who was given the opportunity to spend some of his employers money.
PS - click the images a second time to get full-res versions, although most of them are crap quality - sorry!
http://gallery.jshost.ca/gallery/EndoServer
Tell me what you think and let me know if you have suggestions/questions.
0
Comments
I've been great, just keeping busy with muh hosting biz
Many HDs O\H easily when stood on end, and SOME cannot be stood on end and work right for normal lifespan. Flat, embedded controller side DOWN, yes (ALL). On either LONG side, yes (about 95%). Yes, I know Compaq and eMachines and occassionally HP did this, and I have replaced SO MANY HDs in Compaq and eMachines mid and mini-towers that HD R&R has become a most often replaced part thing over the years-- and when I replaced them, they got mounted in spare floppy bay under floppy drive. Every single one I opened had had head crashes (yeah, they were so damaged to begin with that they had media failures AND failed mfr diags, and I typically got at most half the data off of them).
SO, if you want to run them on end, two suggestions:
One, rig a fan to cool them, blowing between two two drives. Can you mount one blowing UP from bottom of case, with a fan filter to keep from blowing dust up onto the embedded controller parts of drive??? BE a pita to keep clean, but....
Two, make dang sure they are plumb true to vertical-- with a level or laser level to guage trueness. Gravity is gonna stress the stepper motor, and the very delicate arms on which the read\write heads are mounted.
I hate to mention this NOW, but just saw the way the HDs were mounted.... Several mfr's at engineering level support have told me NEVER to mount HDs vertically, and that doing so and running them mounted that way voids warranties. So, felt I had to say something before you got potential problems REALIZED.
OTOH, everything else looks decent.
Thanks for the good suggestions. However, I noticed you mentioned a few times about cooling them. I did indeed fabricate a bracket to hold the drives at 90 degrees (at least to the bracket and the case itself, the floor is a different story most likely) and the brackets have slots cut in them to allow air to pass through and also have a 120mm fan blowing air across them. Heating should not be an issue. If I turn the fan off they get hot but within a few seconds of turning it on they are barely warm, the setup seems quite effective cooling wise.
And regarding the hdd's mounted vertically, I actually spoke to a tech at WD about this. I don't know many specifics about these drives but apparently they have liquid bearings which allow them to run efficiently at any 90 degree angle. upsidedown, vertical, whatever. Hopefully we'll be ok!
Also, if I do lose a drive, 1) they are raid 1 so it wont be the end of the world at the time and 2) I've got a few replacements AND an image on the gigabit network I setup here at work
You did build retainers for all of the cards, right?
And you did reinforce the mobo where the hsf mounts, right?
And the hdds are shock mounted, right?
I love the use of Gig boxes.
Great cooling, esp the duct. Nice touch.
I built one in a plastic tool box once. We shipped it all over with no trouble. Until one day I picked it up and it rattled. Thank God for insurance.
Gig boxes?
Retainers for the cards?
The mobo is reinforced under the hsf, yes. In fact, the entire board that the chassis is bolted to is mounted on a sort of sponge/rubber to absorb some shock.
HOWEVER, we've been shipping completely regular pc's in hard plastic totes for years now and have never had any problem with drives or motherboards, even with some pretty bad drops... I've seen plenty of bent out of shape cases but the hardware is always reuseable. The only thing we seemed to kill on a regular basis was ATI video cards and I still havent figured out why. However, we've switched to nvidia and haven't had a problem since.
//EDIT// HAH I just realized what a gig box is. It's not REALLY a gig box, I built it from parts/materials typically used for that sort of equipment and it resembles the style pretty well. It's a very sturdy case.. I've kicked the [non] living crap out of it in front of my boss already to proove it
Nice thoughts on the mounting. I'll need to remember that.
We used to put computers into shipping boxes with equipment. Often card were loose on arrival. Cross country by truck can shake the hell out of stuff. The only problems that we really had were when something came loose and started slamming into to other stuff.
Sup Jammin', long time.
Yeah I noticed the gallery broken this morning! Stupid thing - I didn't have time to work on it before work.
Ed: yeah I've seen heatsinks fall off before but have been lucky enough to never have it take equipment out of commission.