Now that I’ve repaired the storm damage, I thought I’d return to my new office. Just a reminder but I’ve rented peoples bedrooms and used pretty horrible rooms to do my thing for around 10 years now. I’m finally in the position where I can build my own office and really looking forward to it. I am in the building industry, but not in the tech industry
Just wondered what you thought of this? I am worried that having the computer in a rack, in an un-insulated room might not be good. The door will have a good seal so it will definitely not be the same as outdoor temps. my outdoor temps are between 0C / 32F and 35C / 95F. I even thought about wrapping it in slab insulation…hmm.
Main thing I want to do is get rid of the noise, especially when rendering. My other issue is cables!
Anyway, here’s a linkie to a Youtube animation (unlisted), it’s pretty basic but hope it helps.
The furniture shown is stuff I own, it’s pretty old and manky but does the job. I’d like to fab a new desk sometime that is smaller but does roughly the same thing.
Really do welcome any comments, be brutal, but do it in a nice way
The idea you have is good but the server enclosure you have in your render is more like an office network cupboard than a realistic server for a workstation. A small rack for the kind of machine(s) you run will most likely have wheels and be 6x the size of the one in the render.
Things to really put a lot of thought into IMO are networking and cables.
Make sure if this is in an outbuilding that you run a high quality network cable when you run your electrical to the shed. Maybe even run 2 just incase.
If you do decide to run a server cab in another room than getting good stable usb, audio and video cables will be very important as cable length can have a severe impact on the performance of cheap cables from my experience.
For that reason I put forward the suggestion of rebuilding your pc(s) using high quality silence optimised fans and sound dampened case(s) as doing this will eliminate the cable lengths issue.
Yea, you really don’t want it to get so cool that moisture can condense, however you end up doing this. Dry basements are ideal, but it looks like you may be in a geographical location where that’s not a reliable option.
Cooling is the most important thing, usually. Any place that has humans in it will usually not dip that low in temps, to the degree you specified. At least, I really hope not…
If you have the ability to control temps in there to a degree that’s less habitable for people but provides enough buffer for the space not to reach the extremes you outlined, while remaining dry, that is also ideal.
Cheers very much for your comments, I’m in Kent near Tunbridge Wells. How’s about yourself?
That’s a shame to read, I was hoping to put 2 x 4U in there, may be getting a 12-15U wall mounted cabinet to put a UPS in there too Looks like I was naive! Can I not get smaller cases or are they just not designed for that sort of thing?
I went to good lengths to think about cabling, people on here are so helpful
You’re right about USB connections to mouse/keyboard, may be I should re-orient so it’s like this? The TV on the wall could look really smart with all the sockets going straight through the wall.
I will have a re-think about keeping it simple and having workstations under the desk or something.
Inside the building I plan to have underfloor heating as well as a heating/cooling system, but only when funds permit. It will also be heavily insulated, apart from the shed bit where I was hoping the cabinet would go.
I’m going to check the running noise of an Air Source Heat Pump, I’ve specified them before and helped install them, but never had one myself. Either this or the above will keep the temp constant which is what I want, as the offices and bedrooms I’ve been in, in the past, have either been unbearably hot or freezing cold!
Looks like I was naive! Can I not get smaller cases or are they just not designed for that sort of thing?
