Rate my (jank) setup

[confusion8519]

Not sure if this is the place to post this, but I thought you guys would get a kick out of my jank.  Enjoy!

 

Specs:

- Dual xeon E5-2658

- 512 GB RAM

- 3x 4TB WD reds, (1 parity)

- 1x 1TB WD blue (spare from PC)

- 1x 512GB Samsung 970 as cache drive

- 1 x 1TB sandisk ssd (not sure what kind, it was laying on a shelf so I used it)

- 1x GTX 1080 (used for hardware encoding on Plex)

- Running UnRaid

 

Setup:

I wall mounted this thing in my office closet (1U is too loud for anywhere else), and added some sound dampening on the doors to try to contain some of the whine, which coupled with low noise mode on the server works quite well. 

 

Now I know what you're thinking, "A small closet for a 1U dual xeon server, that space must get super hot!" And you'd be correct! I added two fans, one to blow on the GPU (the temperature was just right to have the fans kick on for a second, then turn off once it got below the "silent mode" threshold), and one to act as an "exhaust" for the closet.  Now this being the hottest room in my house, my office would consistently sit around 80°f  so I had to add a window unit to cool this space a little more.  Now the room sits around 73 during the day, and the server is fairly quiet (compared to the a/c right next to me)

 

 

Backstory of the jank:

 

I had to mount the HDDs on the outside of the server due to all of the hotswap bays being made for 2.5" SAS drives, but I didn't want to go buy all new drives, so I bought some SATA extension cables and used VHB tape to secure them on the outside.  So far, none have fallen and they're pretty solid on there.

 

I wanted to add a GPU for hardware encoding plex streams, but ya know.. 1U server, no space for GPU. Lucky for me though, I had a PCIe SAS card (obvoiusly I'm not going to use it, VHB tape is cheap after all) and even more lucky for me, the PCIe slot was facing a side vent... So, all i had to do was cut the vent to be a gaping hole in the side of my server, buy a PCIe extension cable, and VHB (of course) the GPU to the outside of the case! Can you see the pattern here?

 

But alas, how would I power the GPU from outside the case?! Tech hoarding to the rescue.  I grabbed a PC power supply i had laying around, jumped the 24 pin cable using some spare wire and a switch I had laying around.  So now I can turn off the power to the GPU using the switch whenever I shutdown the server (not sure if powering a GPU that is not being used would break stuff or not, but better safe than sorry).

 

Of course everything is plugged into a UPS, safety is my #1 priority here clearly, and I can't have this look like an amateur put it together!

 

Would love to hear your ratings

Edited August 7, 2023 by confusion8519
Forgot to specify OS

[Bersella AI]

A pretty wild & tricky setup... Although I could not make conclusions on it, it would seem that this 1U server rack has vastly limited your options of upgrading, driving you to make compensations one by one. As such, this rack would seem to barely meet your requisitions, and should be replaced with a more applicable platform. Though, it proves that you are absolutely enthusiastic in DIY, and you have done a nice try on setting up home labs.

 

Not Rated -- Keep moving, and make decisions more appropriately and wisely for your actual requisitions.