Server & network equipment: utility room, loft, or garage?

DragonQ

DragonQ

DragonQ

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In my previous house, I kept my network equipment and server under the stairs. It got a bit hot during heatwaves but otherwise never got too hot and had excellent noise isolation. My new house has no under-stairs cupboard so I have a few options for storing this stuff: the (attached) garage, the loft, or the utility room. Which of these would be better in your humble opinions? Here's my thoughts:
  • The utility room is south facing and with the boiler, washing machine, and tumble dryer, probably gets quite hot in the summer. In the winter it's cool with a window open but still quite humid. Doesn't seem ideal. One wall backs onto the garage so cable routing should be quite easy.
  • The loft has reasonable insulation and half of it is boarded so keeping stuff in there is fairly easy. It's the most annoying room to access if anything goes wrong or the setup needs changing though. I would be a bit worried about heat during the summer though.
  • The garage on paper would be a great place to put it for noise isolation and cable routing and it shouldn't get too hot except during heatwaves. However, I'm worried about creatures, humidity, and dust. Are there any insulated cabinets with fans and dust filters I can use to keep my stuff reasonably clean in there? I need 3U of space for the networking equipment but my server is in a (huge) desktop case: a Fractal R5. I'm not even sure non-commercial cabinets exist that are big enough for such beasts!
Cheers for any thoughts.
 
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I'd rule out the utility room as well for the same reasons as above.

If it was me I'd be working backwards and thinking about how I'd be running cables, this might actually make the decision for you.

IMO the loft and the garage are pretty similar... both can have issues with temp variation (my office is in a loft conversion and it got incredibly hot this summer. My pc saw +15C idle temps iirc), both can have insects but then to be fair you can get them in a normal office too. Dust levels in both will probably be pretty similar as well imo, if anything I'd maybe argue the garage will be slightly lower.

The garage space could go for a wall mounted server rack, some of them are likely suited to the task at hand, although you'd likely need to change the fractal for a server style case or if you're feeling a bit handy with the tools, I'm sure you could knock out a unit to house everything easy enough.

Loft space, you'd just need something to house the network equipment really if it's boarded out.
 
I have a switch and other equipment in my loft. I was worried about the heat but even when it hit 50C this summer I had no problems. But my server is in the home office - I think it would overheat in the loft.
 
I'd like to put my server in the garage as its temperature is pretty good all year round. The only problem is that I get flies, spiders and even the odd mouse in the garage which could potentially cause problems and finding a suitable small rack unit that can prevent insect access has been an issue.
 
I wonder if it's feasible to build a large ish wooden enclosure (or buy some basic Ikea equivalent) and then inside that put a standard 4U network cabinet for the switch/patch panel? My server could then sit in the enclosure, benefiting from a bit of protection from creatures etc.
 
I’ve ran in all three locations however one is significantly worse than the rest…

The utility was fine in the summer as humidity, temps and condensation wasn’t an issue however as soon as temps dropped it made for some twitchy bums situations with water droplets that saw a move to the loft space.

In the loft, all was great again however the summer heat saw multiple issues with the equipment throttling and sending temp warnings. Over all this didn’t make for a particularly reliable set up. This saw a move to the garage.

The garage was better over all, cooler in the summer, subject to the same issues with condensation as anything outside however a quick move of equipment to a small “rack” that was insulated for the most part with more limited airflow sorted that. I just opened the door in the summer. Biggest issue here is the dust and over all filth that gets in. It’s by far the dirtiest location but some cleaning every now and then is all that was needed.

It’ll be going back in the new “garage” once my current building work is done alongside an intelligent PDU, LCD Draw, small UPS and a couple of small switches (a 2.5gig unit and a 1gig with POE). All of this again, in a makeshift rack with ventilation and a door.
 
I think you are over thinking it. It's always a compromise based on space, ease of access, wiring, noise. The best of those three are the garage due to temperatures. Servers don't really get too cold in the UK if inside some form of domestic shelter. It just doesn't happen realistically even in very, very cold winters - which we seem to have less of anyway.

So the focus should be on whether it can survive the other ones.
Moisture...if the utility room feels humid but condensation and surface water doesn't really happen even in the height of summer...not really an issue. If it does then a definite no.
Heat... the garage will be the coolest all year round, even in summer. Lofts can ridiculously hot in the summer months, yet I've never had equipment go bad in there. Granted this has been limited to networking equipment. A server could be a challenge but it would depend how hot it truly gets, which you will never know without just running it up there in the summer.

As you said the wiring is easiest, access good and temps good, I'd go garage. I would not worry about insects/mice at all. Just check in on everything every so often to ensure they are not building a nest on top of your warm server. Insects can happen but so what...a fan or filter gets clogged a little. You'd be very unlucky to have an insect actually short something out.
 
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I've been deliberating this issue for some time. Mine is a toss up between Loft and Detached Garage.
Garage already has power, but is detached so running cables is a pain.
Loft obviously gets very hot. But i can easily add dedicated sockets for power.
One of my ideas was to install 2 vents (In and out) in the gable wall and duct into an enclosed DIY rack.....
 
I would go for the garage as its temperature is good, and the garage provide excellent noise isolation, which is important for keeping your equipment running smoothly.
 
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Thanks for all of the replies. I'm going to go with the garage. I'll put the networking stuff and UPS in a 6U wall mounted cabinet and I'll get the FTTP installers to put the modem in there too once it's avaialble (next year ish). I wanted a 50cm deep one as 45cm would've been cutting it fine, but annoyingly the only one I could find with fan cut-outs was 55cm deep so it'll be a bit of a beast! As for the server, I haven't found a single pre-designed cabinet that has the right dimensions (except specialist stuff costing an arm and a leg), so I plan to bosh together some MDF for a little enclosure, just to give it an extra layer from the elements. Couple of filtered fans and a simple door should do it.

One thing I would like is some brushes to go over the cable cut-outs of the cabinet, you know like you might find on a letterbox. Anyone got any recommendation for what might work for this?
 
DragonQ said:
One thing I would like is some brushes to go over the cable cut-outs of the cabinet, you know like you might find on a letterbox. Anyone got any recommendation for what might work for this?
Click to expand...
You can get standard 1 and 2 gang sockets with brushes built in if the cut outs are the same size, if not the brush used in them and a letterbox for that matter is basically the same as used on doors as draft excluder.... so you can basically grab a draft excluder and cut to size.
 
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