My 100% silent music(media)-server + some thoughts behind
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:20 am
This isn't the most advanced build as such but I still think some here could maybe get a kick out of seeing it. But first a little background info
Since 2005 I have been running a Slimserver music server on a G4 Mac Mini. At first it was making due with the internal storage and only on when I was listening to music and/or using the thing as a little office computer. Eventually the world moved on an I stopped running Office apps on the mini and I had to add an external drive for storage - by that time I also added FTP server and some other stuff so I turned into running it 24/7.
My mini was pretty quiet, even with the external drive, and while it did the job I started dreaming of something 100% silent. I considered putting in a basement, hiding it in a kitchen and what not but not wanting to add wireless networking or long cables that didn't happen. Then SSD drives appeared and I started waiting for the capacity to go up and the prices to come down and then the Mini died this summer sort of forcing my hand a bit.
I spend a good deal of time looking at all sorts of boards, CPU's, SSD's, PSU's and so on and of course also cases. I even went as far as posting some thoughts in the newbie section of this forum (and received 0 responses - there is not much happening in that part of the forum).
The part that caused the most seeking was the case. My thought on the case was to find a tall one with ventilation holes near the bottom and the top - the idea being that the hot components would heat up the air which would rise and that flow of air would then be sort of a chimney effect. Now I only found one case that seemed to offer what I sought after but with it being silly expensive and also impractical in some ways I made my own instead. Partly to save costs and partly because I was not sure if going 100% silent would work, so I ended up using a simple cardboard box as base ($1 at IKEA)!
Here is how it came out.
Box with mainboard, on/off-switch, power socket and air holes:
Drive rack with drives mounted:
Box with all things mounted. I had planned to mount the drive rack in the "case" with some extra support but the rack fits so neat it is unneeded (even moving it around is fine):
Front of case - the "fire" button is one I had laying around from another project. The keyboard in front is to provide a sense of scale - I only control the server remotely it is not connected:
Rear/side of case. I cut out air holes on three of the sides coming to 18 holes in all with them all being 5x5cm, so 5x5x18=450cm2 in all. The two wires seen going in are power and network, the red and black one next to case is just clutter on my desk:
And finally a shoot of the hardware monitor program I run. When idle the mainboard reports aprox. 35 celsius above room temperature and the drives 17, 21 and 24 celsius respectively. I am rather surprised to see the big difference in drive temperatures, but it does follow that heat rises and the results are consistent. In the shoot I have the system CPU and drives working out a bit rescanning my whole music library, so the CPU is extra hot but the drives hardly show a rise in temperature. To get the drives hot it takes running them hard for more than just a few moments:
All in all I am reasonably happy with the result. The cardboard box look is a little rough so maybe I will eventually fabricate something else, however for testing out if going 100% silent works it has been perfect so far. Easy to work with, cheap and fun.
The server is running Linux(Ubuntu) for now - working mainly as a SlimServer (music server) and FTP server . It was a bit of a pain to get just as I wanted with silly little issues taking much work to clear up. Even now I am not absolutely sure it is running optimal with regards to hardware power saving, like for instance controlling the graphics hardware side of things and was it not for a Windows OS costing stupid much I would likely go that way.
Specs and cost:
$226 ASUS E45M1-I DELUXE
$64 PSU: PICO-PSU 90 (Note - this requires 12V DC input)
$49 80W AC Adapter
$39 Memory: 2x2GB, Corsair
$213 Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200, 256 GB
$213 Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200, 256 GB
$213 Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200, 256 GB
$2 Fire button
$1 Case bought at IKEA
$0 OS Linux Ubuntu
=================
$1020 including 25% VAT. Postage not included.
Also used a bit of wiring and cables but I had that lying around.
It bugged me spending so much money on the PSU and AC adapter but I could not find it cheaper while sticking to brand names (also there is supposedly some bad copies of the PICO-PSU's out there, so look out).
Thoughts, critique and questions are welcome.
Since 2005 I have been running a Slimserver music server on a G4 Mac Mini. At first it was making due with the internal storage and only on when I was listening to music and/or using the thing as a little office computer. Eventually the world moved on an I stopped running Office apps on the mini and I had to add an external drive for storage - by that time I also added FTP server and some other stuff so I turned into running it 24/7.
My mini was pretty quiet, even with the external drive, and while it did the job I started dreaming of something 100% silent. I considered putting in a basement, hiding it in a kitchen and what not but not wanting to add wireless networking or long cables that didn't happen. Then SSD drives appeared and I started waiting for the capacity to go up and the prices to come down and then the Mini died this summer sort of forcing my hand a bit.
I spend a good deal of time looking at all sorts of boards, CPU's, SSD's, PSU's and so on and of course also cases. I even went as far as posting some thoughts in the newbie section of this forum (and received 0 responses - there is not much happening in that part of the forum).
The part that caused the most seeking was the case. My thought on the case was to find a tall one with ventilation holes near the bottom and the top - the idea being that the hot components would heat up the air which would rise and that flow of air would then be sort of a chimney effect. Now I only found one case that seemed to offer what I sought after but with it being silly expensive and also impractical in some ways I made my own instead. Partly to save costs and partly because I was not sure if going 100% silent would work, so I ended up using a simple cardboard box as base ($1 at IKEA)!
Here is how it came out.
Box with mainboard, on/off-switch, power socket and air holes:
Drive rack with drives mounted:
Box with all things mounted. I had planned to mount the drive rack in the "case" with some extra support but the rack fits so neat it is unneeded (even moving it around is fine):
Front of case - the "fire" button is one I had laying around from another project. The keyboard in front is to provide a sense of scale - I only control the server remotely it is not connected:
Rear/side of case. I cut out air holes on three of the sides coming to 18 holes in all with them all being 5x5cm, so 5x5x18=450cm2 in all. The two wires seen going in are power and network, the red and black one next to case is just clutter on my desk:
And finally a shoot of the hardware monitor program I run. When idle the mainboard reports aprox. 35 celsius above room temperature and the drives 17, 21 and 24 celsius respectively. I am rather surprised to see the big difference in drive temperatures, but it does follow that heat rises and the results are consistent. In the shoot I have the system CPU and drives working out a bit rescanning my whole music library, so the CPU is extra hot but the drives hardly show a rise in temperature. To get the drives hot it takes running them hard for more than just a few moments:
All in all I am reasonably happy with the result. The cardboard box look is a little rough so maybe I will eventually fabricate something else, however for testing out if going 100% silent works it has been perfect so far. Easy to work with, cheap and fun.
The server is running Linux(Ubuntu) for now - working mainly as a SlimServer (music server) and FTP server . It was a bit of a pain to get just as I wanted with silly little issues taking much work to clear up. Even now I am not absolutely sure it is running optimal with regards to hardware power saving, like for instance controlling the graphics hardware side of things and was it not for a Windows OS costing stupid much I would likely go that way.
Specs and cost:
$226 ASUS E45M1-I DELUXE
$64 PSU: PICO-PSU 90 (Note - this requires 12V DC input)
$49 80W AC Adapter
$39 Memory: 2x2GB, Corsair
$213 Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200, 256 GB
$213 Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200, 256 GB
$213 Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200, 256 GB
$2 Fire button
$1 Case bought at IKEA
$0 OS Linux Ubuntu
=================
$1020 including 25% VAT. Postage not included.
Also used a bit of wiring and cables but I had that lying around.
It bugged me spending so much money on the PSU and AC adapter but I could not find it cheaper while sticking to brand names (also there is supposedly some bad copies of the PICO-PSU's out there, so look out).
Thoughts, critique and questions are welcome.