This is a nice example of how you can hide a server without just sticking the beige box in a closet or in some furniture. You can tell that Vassilis Papanikolaou took his time when thinking about an efficient system layout. I have to admit that I have a normal computer tucked away in the closet next to my home entertainment system 🙁 If I had the time and energy this system is definitely what I would like to strive for. I would love to see the faces of the crooks who break in thinking that they can score a quick PC out of the closet!
"1) Motherboard ASRock N68PV-GS for €41 (Mini ATX, on board RAID, GLAN, VGA)
2) CPU AMD LE-1640 for €31 (Slow, but more than enough for streaming media)
3) 2 x 1 GB SuperTalent DDR2 800 MHz for €21 (more than enough)
4) 2 x 1 TB WD Caviar Green 32 MB cache for €158 (for total 1 TB secure RAID1)
5) 2 x 12 mm fans for €18 (it will get hot in there !)"
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Very nice setup. But, wouldn’t it be cleaner and MUCH easier to throw a nice server case in there? It would give much more room too.
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You could definately save a lot of space by just mounting a rack-mounted server on the bottom of the shelf, but that wouldn’t really look like a “hack”. As for a thief trying to steal it and being surprised, a motion-activated webcam in the closet could take care of that, as well as give you a photo to give the police when you report your stolen flat screen.
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Hey, that’s a great idea… will do 🙂
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Funny, I had almost the same idea earlier today.
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I very much like the idea of not using a PC case. Access and cooling are easy in this setup. The hard disk fans are a good idea too and should extend their life.
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exchange server provides an outlook web interface, why not have this interface as separate web PIM with 2010?
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I’m diggin the flower thermometer 🙂
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Nice idea…
Only problem I see could be lack of ventilation. An ATX case is designed to properly direct the airflow to allow better components cooling. In addition to that in your setup there is no ground between the components so this could potentially damage your HW/DATA.
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@hb : the temperature inside the closet (with the door closed) is far lower that usual temperatures inside ATX boxes, so this shouldn’t be a problem. However, I am concerned about the ground thing and will work on resolving it. Thanks !
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well “Hidden and Hidden” … well it works, but is not as he can toss in so much other stuff in that closet there … and not to say the problem hb points out of the lack of grounding the HW better. The temperatures in the closet I`m not worryed about. If it ends up as a problem he can just cut a little slit in the floor in the closet and on the front and cover it up with a grill or a small ventilation cover. No one is hardly gona see that. I think people is gona notice the sound befor thing about some discrete ventilationcover at a bottom of a closet. I`m wondring is he has done some anit-vibration to the fans and HDD`s. If those can plant them self to the wood in the closet you can hear it pretty well.
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I did the same thing because I was unable to sleep from PC fans noise
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where’d u get the screen sick setup