A stylish server enclosure

Driven by the need of an enclosure for my home server I’ve designed a retro-looking box. It wasn’t as easy to produce as I hoped ;-)

I doodled a concept on a piece of paper and then made a model in SketchUp. My main goal was to dampen the noise, hence non-parallel walls, also protect the computer from dust. Incidentally it turned out to be a nice piece of furniture.

I was blessed by working with a very talented carpenter and a furniture maker who’s gone many extra miles to fulfil my vision.

Design inspirations
Early concept design with random items to show the scale.
Even earlier concept featured a thick acrylic plate on the front.
The air intake filters are motorbike parts.
In the final product the logo has been water-cut from brass.
Round display in the front features the server status indicator. The temperature sensors, fans and display are managed by a tiny Raspberry Pi placed at the bottom of the enclosure.
Currently the server runs on energy efficient Mac Mini and a RAID storage.

This Retro Server Enclosure provides many benefits. Apart from obvious – noise and dust protection – it is also kids and pets-proof and provides a good conversation starter.

The box was tailored for HP MediaSmart home server, which I was using at that time. Luckily a Mac Mini along with a G-Raid storage fits in perfectly, too.