Cooling and quieting the server/automation room

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Now to get the noise down... I am thinking of trying an insulated door so I could also get a bit of additional security on the server room door. Anyone have any other ideas?

Build a room-within-a-room. A lot of work but many folks have had good results with it. That means, on the existing room, you will make a new ceiling and wall frame sitting on rounded rubber soles or whatever hometheater folks call it. Then install double drywall using Green Glue in between. It's a lot of work but for sure, you will be able to reduce the amount of sound from exiting that room and going to the other parts of the house.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=room+within+a+room

 

[upstatemike]

Build a room-within-a-room. A lot of work but many folks have had good results with it. That means, on the existing room, you will make a new ceiling and wall frame sitting on rounded rubber soles or whatever hometheater folks call it. Then install double drywall using Green Glue in between. It's a lot of work but for sure, you will be able to reduce the amount of sound from exiting that room and going to the other parts of the house.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=room+within+a+room

Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy quieter equipment?

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Build a room-within-a-room. A lot of work but many folks have had good results with it. That means, on the existing room, you will make a new ceiling and wall frame sitting on rounded rubber soles or whatever hometheater folks call it. Then install double drywall using Green Glue in between. It's a lot of work but for sure, you will be able to reduce the amount of sound from exiting that room and going to the other parts of the house.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=room+within+a+room

Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy quieter equipment?

I have a Dell PowerEdge 1950 and they are very loud. Fans are proprietary. I don't know if the OP would like to change his existing Dell machines. I must have missed something on the thread. Quieter equipments are ideal but I think, building a room-within-a-room is cheaper if the room is small like 10'x13' and if he is going to do it by himself. If doing it by a different person, I might as well just by new quieter equipments. Is it the Dell machines that he is concerned about?

 

[IVB]

I'll ask questions about my setup here so all the "cooling server room" stuff is colocated for future folks

As per this picture, I'm going to be boxing in my basement (that has a floor drain, and is on an exterior wall) to create a 6' wide x 7' deep x 6' high server room. I have 2 goals:
1) Keep humidity from crawlspace out (occasionally we get standing water about 25' away)
2) More easily cool it.

Two basic options I see is that when building the interior walls, frame out a "window" in which I can mount:
1) AC unit
2) Fan. Keep air moving, which I understand is more important than the actual humidity. In this case, I could frame out 2 windows, one for intake, one for exhaust.

Questions:
1) Any other options that you can think of?
2) If I go the fan route, should I get the smaller 12ish " window fans? Noise is irrelevant since it's the basement, I could also put in large 24-30" square fans to move more air quicker, and potentially a lower operating cost. The only thought about window fans is that if they break, it's easier to find a new window fan than those huge square thingeys.

TIA,
Vivek

 

[brotsten]

Build a room-within-a-room. A lot of work but many folks have had good results with it. That means, on the existing room, you will make a new ceiling and wall frame sitting on rounded rubber soles or whatever hometheater folks call it. Then install double drywall using Green Glue in between. It's a lot of work but for sure, you will be able to reduce the amount of sound from exiting that room and going to the other parts of the house.

I went this route. My wire closet / equipment room is adjacent to my theater, so it was fairly easy to continue the soundproofing into the closet. I also had the luxury of planning my ventilation with our HVAC guys. I have two supply registers in the room and one return which is mounted directly underneath my two 19" racks. That will give me 750cfm through the racks and returned to the heating system. I also installed a remote exhaust fan for my projector which gets mounted in the same room.

Brian

 

[CollinR]

I'll ask questions about my setup here so all the "cooling server room" stuff is colocated for future folks

As per this picture, I'm going to be boxing in my basement (that has a floor drain, and is on an exterior wall) to create a 6' wide x 7' deep x 6' high server room. I have 2 goals:
1) Keep humidity from crawlspace out (occasionally we get standing water about 25' away)
2) More easily cool it.

Two basic options I see is that when building the interior walls, frame out a "window" in which I can mount:
1) AC unit
2) Fan. Keep air moving, which I understand is more important than the actual humidity. In this case, I could frame out 2 windows, one for intake, one for exhaust.

Questions:
1) Any other options that you can think of?
2) If I go the fan route, should I get the smaller 12ish " window fans? Noise is irrelevant since it's the basement, I could also put in large 24-30" square fans to move more air quicker, and potentially a lower operating cost. The only thought about window fans is that if they break, it's easier to find a new window fan than those huge square thingeys.

TIA,
Vivek

I'll add a 3rd option!

Build a heatsink using whatever concrete you have down there. Use that for water cooling or air cooling if you like, now you can totally seal all your gear up airtight. Unless the earth heats up a bunch or you can't get enough temp delta you'll be fine.

 

[IVB]

I'll add a 3rd option!

Build a heatsink using whatever concrete you have down there. Use that for water cooling or air cooling if you like, now you can totally seal all your gear up airtight. Unless the earth heats up a bunch or you can't get enough temp delta you'll be fine.

Damn Global Warming!

Ok, thanks, i got no idea what you're talking about, but I do have a google toolbar so i'll research it. Thanks.

 

[CollinR]

Do you have a concrete walls or floor?

Basically the foundation of your home hovers around 60* year round, all you need to do is find a method of exchanging the heat between you components and the earth/foundation.

If you have pilings you might be able to simply wrap a hundred feet of copper tubing tightly around them and insulate. If the tubing is big enough you can blow air through it, through your cases and then back in a closed loop. More often though you would use waterblocks and a pump and just watercool the whole thing.

Really you could just water cool as usual and cycle it through an automotive heater core or radiator and blow a fan through that. Then you have cool air and little chance of water damage.


(Dell actually has a massed produced water cooled system now, the stuff has improved drastically.)