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Building Rackmount Cabinet for Home Use?
Timothy M. Schumann asks: "I am trying to build a small rack mount cabinet for my family to help with the clutter of our home network. I don't want to purchase a rack or cabinet pre-manufactured; I would like to build my own. However, I have been unable to find a list of physical specifications that racks and cabinets must conform to when built, so I was wondering if any Slashdot readers could help me find such information? Just for a frame of reference, I'm looking for something along the same detail level as the BTX form factor specs that can be found here. Any input on cost effective hardware choices for rack mountable UPSs, switches and/or cases is also welcome." This topic was originally discussed some two years ago, and while there was some useful information was presented, the basic question wasn't really answered. If you were going to try and build a custom rackmount enclosure for yourself (or someone else), how would you go about doing it?
That's exactly what I did. I got the quietist bathroom fan I could afford, and an old electric base board thermostat. I took the thermostat and inverted the temperature element so it would come on when it got hot instead of cold. After a little fiddling with the setting I got it to come on at about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. On average the fan only runs about 10 minutes every hour, and keeps the closet temperature just fine. Total cost, about $65 US (not including the tools I already had). The only downside I can find to the set up is administrating the two servers in the closet. Most of the time I can ssh into either box, but if something goes wrong and I have to hook up a monitor it's a real pain. Other than that it's great.