At the moment all I have is a Synology and a Raspberry Pi, but I’ll probably use a repurposed laptop or a cheap mini-PC (or similar) in the near future. At the moment, they’re sitting on the ground in my lounge room next to my router, where the TV would go if I had one.
I’m looking to buy a TV cabinet. Something like the Ikea Brimnes, to put a TV on top of, and hoping to hide my server stuff inside it. An alternative I have considered is putting the servers inside what is supposed to be a linen closet. Either way, less than ideal airflow.
How much of a problem is this? And does anyone know of any easy solutions to keep things cool?
Something open backed like TROFAST is a better option than being enclosed on 4 sides. You need enough volume that the thermal output of the system is less than what is needed to heat the space to “bad” temperatures. Linen closet might be ok, but it’s hard to say for sure.
If you keep the back of the cabinet open I imagine it’ll be ok. Or stick a couple fans to cycle air through a cutout if you are handy.
On the ground it’ll pick up a lot of dust, fast.