Terrible Tom <silvereightynine@aol.com> wrote:
> jon@dakota-truck.net wrote:
>>
>> Yeah, it would be kinda cool to be able to use that heat. The only
>> catch there though is I'd like to keep the computers even lower than
>> normal room temp to help extend their life. If the heat is allowed to
>> build up to a point where it is usable, would the computers be getting
>> warmer than what might be desirable?
> I was about to raise a point on something - when I shot it down myself.. but it made me think
> of something else Jon - I'm not up to date on all your computer set ups - but I know the DML's
> server is now hosted in The Barn... where is the web site for The List hostes? Is TwistedBits
> hosted off site? (I want so say I remember you telling me it was) -
It used to be, but now everything is on-site (with the exception of
an offsite machine which a copy of the Twisted Bits backups get dumped
to). The DML server and web server are in the 19" rack in the barn.
> the reason I ask is do you
> know how much of the time your systems are running at or near full load?
Very seldom do they run at full load. The mail server used to,
until I changed the spam filter setup. The load on that will still go
up on occasion, but most of the time its at a low/medium load.
Everything else basically idles for the most part; the backup server
has mostly disk access though it does do compression too, so its load
will go up a bit when its pulling down a backup, but again, idle
otherwise.
> I know you have most
> of the units cooled with box fans and desk fans... I used to think it was just because they
> were computers patched together and it was cheaper to use an old window fan you had laying
> aroudn than to mess with smaller CPU and case fans... now I'm wondering if its because they
> actually run that hot?
None of the servers were ever set up that way, that was just my
personal workstation. The case got taken off because I used to have a
second power supply sitting on top to provide power for some extra
hard drives and such which I had installed, and I stuck the household
style fan next to it because that seemed to get the best airflow; the
case fans won't do much good when the case is off. I recently put the
case back on, added a couple of case fans, and installed a couple of
more case fans aiming directly at the hard drives (the case design
wasn't that great, and the hard drives would heat up quite a bit.)
So, everything is back to "normal" now as far as that goes. :-)
The only auxiliary fan I'm using right now is a small 5-6" fan blowing
on my 3000VA UPS, and that's mostly just because its in the very
bottom of the rack and the air flow isn't the best there. It allows
the UPS to run at 70F instead of 100F. It probably is fine to be
running at 100F since the internal fan doesn't often come on, but I
just feel more comfortable seeing it at 70. :-)
Once I get my server closet built, I'll probably keep that at about
50F, and *everything* will go in there, including my workstation. I
access it (and all the servers) via a KVM + extender already, so the
only thing that will be outside the nice, cool closet will be
monitors/keyboards/mice.
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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