DIY Dampening Box/Cabinet?

[GNUHippy]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently investigating the possibility of making a dampening cabinate to house three machines. One full-sized, but realtivly cool NAS server tower, one desktop rectangular case, and one blistering hot AMD64 midi-tower(which has a radeon 9800 in it too ).

My initial idea is to construct a suitably sized cabinate from wood, sealing it with clear silicon(the type used for bathrooms), with a latch-door on the front, and several large, slow spinning fans at the back, and a slat at the base for feeding cables out, with the power strips on the side to keep it cooler within the box. Possibly with a foam lining to absorb noise.

Unfortunatly, this is cost motivated, idealy, i'd stick a water cooling lot in 'em all And so, I turned to a possibly more cost-effective option, yet the only thing I could track down on google was a server-room grade sound proof tower-case, way out of my leauge at £600 odd for the base model!

So unless anyone can suggest some cheap, versatile commercialy available options, building one seems like my best bet. However, i've got little idea what i'm getting myself into -- can anyone pass on some useful tips, or any 'gotchas' that might lay ahead of me? Is there anything not listed above that I should bear in mind?


Many thanks,
The GNU Hippy!

[sthayashi]

Would it be too crazy to suggest considering a refridgerator for your task?

[mkruer]

Actually that would be a cool idea (pun intended), Modding a Mini Fridge

you could pick up one of these for $150

[MonsterMac]

I think it can be done, but the hardest thing I see is finding some quiet house fans that meet your standards that you'll use to exhaust the air from the computers outside the dampening desk.

[GNUHippy]

The thought of a fridge did occur to me; I was put off by the lack of depth. Rather than try to mod the existing case, it might be more viable to simply transplant the entire cooling unit into an enclosure? I'm not quite sure how safe it is to mess around with fridge internals, though -- I know very little about fridges, but i'm betting there's some nasty stuff in the coolant.

As for large fans, what about a slow-spinning radiator fan at the top, and two small, slow-spinning case fans built into the base [of the enclosure]? Since cars run on 12v DC(afaik), it might be possible to power them all from a pc PSU.

[Dutch]

I've had the same idea for a long time. Many thoughts about it but no time to realise anything.
I agree, fans in the back, holes in the bottom or the other way around. Furthermore I'd build some drawer system in it on which each machine is standing. This allows you easy access to each of them.
My plan was to have it in the living. One machine for HTPC and the other as workstation. Put the whole box on wheels and use a single thick cable for power, network etc. On top of it the LCD and a small drawer for the keyboard and mouse. When the kids are in bed, I can pull it to my chair and use it. During the day, the box is closed well, the LCD folded down (need some construction there) and all is save.
That's my few cents.

[Straker]

simply putting a PC in any sort of fridge is a terrible idea, they're made to insulate more than cool... if they're powerful enough you can rip the condensor/compressor etc out of the fridge and reuse them though.

[Sleeper]

Why not try water cooling?
If you have three PCs in proximity of each other, you may be able to save cash by using only one pump and one resevoir.

[Slaugh]

Talking about mini fridges and watercooling, Did you see this article at overclocker.com called "Extreme Water-Cooling Using Refrigeration"?

[andywww]

It also might be difficult to find a sufficiently quiet refrigerator- mine is the loudest thing in my dorm room by far.

[wooglin]

If you don't want to build your own wood cabinet, why not browse ikea for something suitable? for example

[miks2u]

I have a similar set of 3 machines - Win XP box, Win 2003 server, Gentoo. Currently I'm using an Aria with intel mobo for the 2003 box and shuttles for the rest, in a nice lil stack under my desk. But they are hardly quiet as built, which is why I started hanging out here

I was having thoughts of making the cabinet/drawer scenario, with a hacked ATX case without the cover in each drawer and 2 or 3 120mms in the back of each drawer. Should be easy enough to do some ducting too. I'm thinking power supply in the front, kind of like the Antec Overture.

In reality that's pretty much like doing rackmounts on slide rails. My main thought against that approach was that 24" was a lot of width to give up under my desk.

And I was also was thinking that would be an ideal setup for going with a shared watercooling setup. I'm a total watercooling noob, are there any practical constraints on system length, or is the answer to just get a bigger pump???

[Sleeper]

And I was also was thinking that would be an ideal setup for going with a shared watercooling setup. I'm a total watercooling noob, are there any practical constraints on system length, or is the answer to just get a bigger pump???

Man I wish I could tell you for certain.
When it comes to watercooling, I am a "noob" too.
My guess is that the pump and resevoir would only need to be just a bit bigger. I have heard that there is only a slight difference in temperature in the water at any given place along the path, as long as it is moving rapidly enough.

Can someone wiser than I offer an opinion here?

[ronrem]

3 systems in a box,with a shared watercool could be very effective,but at some point if you had to pull a machine out for mods or repairs you would need some type of shutoff valve and reasonable coupling and a little room to work. If the plumbing makes it hard to pull a unit without leaks that would be no good