I recently designed and built a stylish enclosure for my home server, with the help of a talented carpenter and furniture maker. My main goal was to reduce the noise produced by the server, and I achieved this by creating non-parallel walls in the enclosure. This not only dampened the noise, but also protected my equipment from dust and potential hazards.
The server is capable of a range of functions, including acting as a Time Capsule for Time Machine backups, a web server running Apache and MySQL, a mail server, a DNS server, a media server based on Plex, and general storage and archive for my graphic design, web design/development projects, and personal files. It even hosted a small Minecraft Bedrock server for some time, more on this here: Enhancing Your Minecraft Server Experience with a Custom Discord Bot: Meet Sharon.
The design process began with a simple concept doodle on paper, which I then turned into a detailed model using SketchUp. The enclosure is not only functional, but also a beautiful piece of furniture that sparks conversations.
I drew inspiration from various sources, mostly from vintage radios and TVs. The logo on the final product was water-cut from brass, and a round display on the front indicates the server status. All of the temperature sensors, fans, and displays are managed by a tiny Raspberry Pi located at the bottom of the enclosure.
While the enclosure was initially designed to host an old HP MediaSmart Home Server, it also proved to be a perfect fit for it’s successor – an energy-efficient Mac Mini. So if you’re looking for a stylish and functional way to reduce the noise and protect your home server, consider building your own custom enclosure.
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