Under stair server ventilation

Reddax · 24 Jul 2019 at 12:37

Hi,
I've recently moved my server to my under stair closet. I've been monitoring temps and at low usage, the two CPUs sit at around 45 degrees. However once starting to hit max load they start to hit around 80 degrees, still safe temps but the room becomes extremely hot, the server case hot to the touch. This isn't surprising as there is no ventilation into/out of the room.

What can I do to add ventilation?

robj20 · 24 Jul 2019 at 12:43

Do you have a crawl space you can pull some cooler air in from, then extract out of the side of the house?

I've had a watercooling radiator mounted in the crawl space also to keep the heat out of the house. Worked really well.

Reddax · 24 Jul 2019 at 12:49

robj20 said:
Do you have a crawl space you can pull some cooler air in from, then extract out of the side of the house?

I've had a watercooling radiator mounted in the crawl space also to keep the heat out of the house. Worked really well.

It's a new build house, there's no crawl space(That I know of - no obvious hatch) and the back wall of the cupboard is the shared wall with the next door house

Quartz · 24 Jul 2019 at 12:51

Give your server some room to breath!

Cut an air duct to the left of the server and through to the outside - you will need to put a grille in one of the stair risers - and a vent on the far right - just above the ironing board.

Mark A · 24 Jul 2019 at 15:18

I'd put a louvre vent on the bottom of the door. It should allow a bit of cool air in. Ideally a vent at the top to allow hot air out, but it might look a bit odd. You could even wire up a 120mm fan from the pc to the bottom or top vent to force air in/out with a bit of small trunking to hide the wires so it doesn't look ghetto.

chroniclard · 24 Jul 2019 at 15:20

Hire someone to stand wafting the door 24/7.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 24 Jul 2019 at 15:38

If you dead set on keeping it there, I would put a small air vent in the wall in front of where the server is, as suggested elsewhere put a small fan powered by the pc on the back of it to draw air in from the hall, and the hot air will be slowly pushed out around the door.
Cutting a vent into the door is going to be far more permanent (its easy to fix the wall) and also look odd as you cannot put it at full height.

Semple · 24 Jul 2019 at 15:42

If you've got no external wall to vent the air out of, then your best bet is probably a vent on the door.

That location really doesn't look ideal though, not allowing much airflow with all the other junk infront of it!

Stephanie Peterson · 24 Jul 2019 at 15:45

I have a similar setup, server and pc under the stairs with no external air capability.
Mine aint too bad as i have nothing but the kit under there so a lot of space for the hot air to cool in, you need to empty that cupboard and it might help.
I was thinking of putting a couple of stair vents in, behind the carpet so they wont be particularly effective though.

Quartz · 24 Jul 2019 at 17:50

Stephanie Peterson said:
I was thinking of putting a couple of stair vents in, behind the carpet so they wont be particularly effective though.

You need to cut through the carpet. Just put a metal grille there.

jpaul · 24 Jul 2019 at 17:59

... run it outside of the cupboard initially to establish best case temperatures ?

Rroff · 24 Jul 2019 at 18:03

Mark A said:
I'd put a louvre vent on the bottom of the door. It should allow a bit of cool air in. Ideally a vent at the top to allow hot air out, but it might look a bit odd. You could even wire up a 120mm fan from the pc to the bottom or top vent to force air in/out with a bit of small trunking to hide the wires so it doesn't look ghetto.

Definitely the best solution without going to the lengths of putting holes in walls and running ducting, etc.

Stephanie Peterson · 24 Jul 2019 at 18:16

Quartz said:
You need to cut through the carpet. Just put a metal grille there.

Yeah was thinking of putting two vents in the stair carpets, running a couple of large 12v pc fans in a air guide to pull cold air from my hall in to the space under the stairs which i can block off to keep it self contained.
Then vent out the door with maybe another large fan doing some air movement out.

Seeing as i am considering putting a dual 12 core server in there its going to need to be a decent cooling solution. I suspect it will be a bodge instead

Reddax · 24 Jul 2019 at 19:17

Stephanie Peterson said:
I have a similar setup, server and pc under the stairs with no external air capability.
Mine aint too bad as i have nothing but the kit under there so a lot of space for the hot air to cool in, you need to empty that cupboard and it might help.
I was thinking of putting a couple of stair vents in, behind the carpet so they wont be particularly effective though.

I've cleared out and given the server half of the room, i've also manually ramped the case fans & CPU fans as the cpu temp control doesn't work. Temps have lowered significantly with it now maxing out at about 65 degrees for the CPUs whilst the door remains shut, even on a very warm day like today (25 degrees). I'll keep an eye.

Thanks all

jellybeard999 · 24 Jul 2019 at 20:19

Mine is in an upstairs cupboard and I put some vents similar to these on the top and bottom of the door -

https://www.screwfix.com/p/map-vent-fixed-louvre-vent-silver-229-x-76mm/68100

I was going to paint them white, but they match the brushed door furniture and don't look out of place on the upstairs landing tbh.

Simon42 · 25 Jul 2019 at 16:32

if ramping up fans isn't enough then I would look at some of the kit from the likes of AC Infinity. Their fans are very quiet and only run when required.

I've got several of their kits/fans/controllers for different purposes and in one case with a server in a cupboard I added the AC Infinity fans at the top of the cupboard to vent hot air and relied on the gaps under the door to allow air in. You could also duct hot air from the top to a lower point to vent to improve aesthetics.

andy_mk3 · 25 Jul 2019 at 16:45

I have rackmount servers and all my AV equipment under the stairs. A couple of vents and a 120mm fan does a surprising amount. However in this heat its doors open!

darael · 26 Jul 2019 at 00:19

In hot weather, like we have right now, I'd be tempted to just leave the door ajar rather than making holes everywhere.

RedvGreen · 28 Jul 2019 at 01:16

If you think under the stairs is warm, try the loft in a recent refurb house... I could barely stay up there for 2 minutes a few days this week!!

Was thinking of putting my NVR and UPS up there but on second thoughts, it just gets far too warm.

andy_mk3 · 28 Jul 2019 at 08:49

RedvGreen said:
If you think under the stairs is warm, try the loft in a recent refurb house... I could barely stay up there for 2 minutes a few days this week!!

Was thinking of putting my NVR and UPS up there but on second thoughts, it just gets far too warm.

A friend of mine used to have a blade server in his garage attic, you could hear the fans scream down the street!