On-prem with a twist: The Pi Server Rack

13 Dec, 2021

Hi Everyone,

The other day I logged in to my Pi-Hole DNS and saw that my Pi was running at 70+ Degrees (Celcius)

Upon noticing this, I knew I had to do something about this temperature, as I know it won't be good for the Pi's performance or long time health.

So, I headed over to ThePiHut, to see what cooling solutions they have came up with. I found what is effectively a mini server rack with 2 fans, and knew that it was the one I wanted. I also had some other services I wanted to run, so the other Pi racks would make sense.

So I purchased this and (already owning one Pi 4 4GB) ordered 1 more 4GB Pi and a couple of 8GB Pi's (For more intensive uses), and a couple of SSDs, one 1 TB and one 2 TB.

When it arrived, I assembled the case with a bit of a struggle, as the parts weren't quite perfectly fitted, but I did get it together. Unfortunately, one of the holes was incorrectly drilled and so one rack hung off.

I did contact their customer services and they got me a new plate and rack in order to fix it. And finally, a very nice booting set of Pi's... quite satisfying.

And for the other side:

Where are the power cables, you may ask?

For neatness, I decided to install Power Over Ethernet boards and a Power Over Ethernet switch. The boards take the power over ethernet power and convert it to 5v 2.5A which is usable by the Pi. I hope you like my cabling job :)

Now, does the cooling work?

I would say that it has most certainly worked a treat. The middle Pi's run the two fans off of their 3v3 rails.

As I'm getting gigabit internet soon, I also used this opportunity to upgrade everything to Gigabit-capable networking.

And, before I go, what am I using these Pi's for?

1. Backups of my PC (2tb)
2. Pi-Hole DNS & HomeBridge
3. Unused, Might Use as a Handshake resolver soon
4. A Media server (1tb)

I'm quite big on having everything under my control, and this will enable me to take it a little further.

Thanks for stopping by, rate my cabling.

~ CA

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_{This post was last edited 4 weeks, 1 day ago.}