I Made The World's Smallest Server Rack - With UPS and SSD Storage

Рет қаралды 163,769

Күн бұрын

Having your own home server rack or homelab is really useful, but you have to have a relatively large space to set it up, it generates a lot of heat and can be pretty noisy. So that's why I built this, the world's smallest server rack that fits right in on my desk alongside a drink or cup of coffee. In this video, I'll show you how I made it.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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Visit my blog for the written build guide - www.the-diy-life.com/i-made-t...
Download the 3D print files - etsy.me/3hYsdc1
PURCHASE LINKS
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Raspberry Pi 4B - amzn.to/3e0BL52
PiSugar 3 Plus UPS - amzn.to/3O0df1n
Geekworm M.2 NGFF Shield - amzn.to/3SA1ZdF
M.2 SATA SSD - amzn.to/3tt1iI2
Noctua NF-A4x10 5V Fan - amzn.to/3Ad8E6g
I2C OLED Display - amzn.to/3TAJdSO
Breadboard Jumpers - amzn.to/3XaI47M
M2x10mm Button Head Screws & Nuts - amzn.to/3hCpC7B
M3x8mm Button Head Screws - amzn.to/3NOTQPT
M2.5x8mm Button Head Screws - amzn.to/3hu1OTg
M2.5 Brass Inserts - amzn.to/3WXSkQq
M2.0 Brass Inserts - amzn.to/3WXSkQq
Tool & Equipment Used:
Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro - amzn.to/39lxlTX
Gweike Cloud Laser - bit.ly/3qbXvNx
Use my discount code MK200 on checkout to get $200 off
Electric Screwdriver - amzn.to/3aOeDVa
Acrylic Bender - amzn.to/3b0A4ma
TS100 Soldering Iron - amzn.to/3vw6MDo
Some of the above parts are affiliate links. By purchasing products through the above links, you’ll be supporting this channel, at no additional cost to you.
CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:10 Designing The Mini Server
1:48 Making the Case Components
4:59 Assembling the Racks
8:28 Adding The Fan
10:33 Booting It Up
11:57 Final Thoughts
If you've got any ideas for Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or other Electronics projects or tutorials you'd like to see, let me know in the comments section.

Пікірлер: 245

@tarrynweigand981 Жыл бұрын

"I used an acrylic bending tool, other wise known as my wifes hair straightener"

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Haha I’m not that brave

@vipupas Жыл бұрын

@@MichaelKlements according to you which is best single board computer for coder and hacker .

@brodyyoung2061 Жыл бұрын

@@vipupas lmao

@aaronmartin6077 Жыл бұрын

That looks so good!! I was looking for some ideas on how to make a minimalistic design for my server (which uses a rpi4). Keep up the great content! 👌

@MarkLapasa Жыл бұрын

man, this is screaming quality workmanship. Bravo.

@MadeInJack Жыл бұрын

Awesome build ! I'd love to see a full mini-NAS with this design style, using 2 drives for RAID1 and a UPS for a full rpi-based solution. Great work!

@lloydrmc Жыл бұрын

Impeccable form and function, per usual.

@KifKroker Жыл бұрын

amazing project, beautifully done!

@bo-bodad8253 Жыл бұрын

Beautiful work!

@philpatelis2326 11 ай бұрын

This is super cool. Thanks for sharing!

@ZippyDooDa435 Жыл бұрын

So creative, always enjoy your creations.

@Abhilashatthili Жыл бұрын

This looks amazing! Can't wait for you to upload files and make this myself

@peterruppert7856 Жыл бұрын

Looks amazing! Great job amd great video!

@wxfield Жыл бұрын

Nice work..from start to finish.

@mahirfredericks4013 Жыл бұрын

nice job, great production quality boet.

@marcelk.4371 Жыл бұрын

It looks beautiful 🤩

@markowens5446 Жыл бұрын

ANOTHER NICE BUILD KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK

@JoeMcMullin Жыл бұрын

Great work, love the design!

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thanks Joe

@W9HJBill Жыл бұрын

I love it! I have 2 of your other PI cases, the Y60 with and without the SSD.

@christophersmith108 Жыл бұрын

Very elegant design!

@TheRealInscrutable Жыл бұрын

Adorable and practical!

@cattanijerome 9 ай бұрын

Nice project. congrats

@haydenc2742 Жыл бұрын

Very cool!!! Just ordered the stl's from you

@gsmitchell Жыл бұрын

Really cool, thanks for sharing!

@wallacegilbert3888 Жыл бұрын

Very clever design!

@sasivatsal7244 Жыл бұрын

Informative content, Thanks for sharing!!

@SuchByte Жыл бұрын

This is so well done! What I'd really love to see would be a option to add two SSDs and use them in a RAID setup for redundancy.

@t0uchme343 Жыл бұрын

Significantly more visually appealing than a scuffed stack of RPi starter kits, I love it.

@rawa9891 9 ай бұрын

Absolutely Cool 😎 I want this... NOW!

@MrJoegotbored Жыл бұрын

This is so clean. Looks great and looks easy to maintain/swap in new parts as you grow the project. Great work!

@pluto762 Жыл бұрын

This is so cool!

@usererror8208 Жыл бұрын

really nice. I want one. great video

@NovaspiritTech Жыл бұрын

that looks so good

@JoseLopez-yx8wx Жыл бұрын

Love it, definitely would like one!

@dirtyd1398 10 ай бұрын

That whole project is awesome :)

@MichaelKlements 10 ай бұрын

Thank you!

@popsyann Жыл бұрын

Very nice!

@CyberSecForce Жыл бұрын

Really superb thanks

@rbnjr Жыл бұрын

excellent build quality, i say add more shelves to populate with all the ideas i see listed here in the comments.

@HaimPeretz Жыл бұрын

Beautiful!

@liamhoffen8529 Жыл бұрын

You have wonderful packaging ideas for the Pi and accessories. I love your designs, and have one. I've taken to adding a pushbutton to them and cycling the OLED display on for 30 seconds every 10 minutes, or for 30 seconds on demand via the pushbutton. In that way, the OLED doesn't start burning out display areas on the screen.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

I like the idea of having a pushbutton to turn the display on temporarily

@xienjougao3131 Жыл бұрын

just buy a fanless mini pc n5105 or n6412 or j4125.. it is the smallest, not that one, we call RPI as the expensive mini computer in the world.

@DunOpondo Жыл бұрын

Good job 👍🏿

@johnjames4324 Жыл бұрын

this would make an awesome pi media center with something like Plex or OSMC running on it, well done

@DavidJones-pi8rl Жыл бұрын

I am currently running an Argon 40 Argon One case for my Raspberry Pi Server and had been thinking of buying the Argon 40 Eon Raspberry Pi 4b NAS case. But this design is so much better and will enable me to use either use a spare SSD I already have or alternatively use a couple of my portable Samsung T1 or T3 SSD! The things I wouldlike to see added are a powereed USB 3.0 hub and the angled network cable you mentioned in the video .

@denniszettersten9607 Жыл бұрын

Quit an amazing machine...i want one..!! :) GJ man...!!

@nunux75 Жыл бұрын

Very nice build. I suggest you add 2 Keystone holder / frame for mounting, to get USBC and Ethernet at the back of your mini rack.

@Capitaine.Albator Жыл бұрын

That’s next level, impressive! 👍🏻✌🏻🇨🇦

@g6h48 Жыл бұрын

its looks awesome! :)

@rafazundt Жыл бұрын

cool project!

@HEINLUMBY Жыл бұрын

As always, I love the cases, and enclosures you design. For this version 2 you could use some power banks that output up to 20w per port, and have a few "blades" (RPIs mounted sideways) then for the third teir you could add a RPI with a few ssds to act as a SAN/NAS. Additionally you could add a small managed switch and a RPI running PiHole and you have a full blown data center in a tiny enclosure

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the great ideas - I'm still looking for a small ethernet switch, even a compact 6 port is too big for this case. I'm looking at stripping down a 4 port industrial DIN rail mount switch as these seem to be the smallest form factor that I can find.

@sarmentinho Жыл бұрын

Switch Flex Mini from unify 5 ports, gigabit and can vê PoE powered, which allow you to use the ethernet going to the mini rack to be network and power. Size wise 107.16 x 70.15 x 21.17 mm, vs the Pi size, ~88 x ~58 x~16mm, not bad ☺️

@microdesigns2000 Жыл бұрын

@@MichaelKlements Phoenix 1085039 or 1085256.

@sarmentinho Жыл бұрын

@@microdesigns2000 much Bigger volume than Switch Flex Mini from unify, (almost 30% more volume) needs another power input, and not even gigabit.

@microdesigns2000 Жыл бұрын

@@sarmentinho yes the Phoenix switches are gigabit and pretty small for din-rail mounting. I've bought a few of these. The unify switch is pretty small ! But it is not din rail mounting.

@tecnopadre Жыл бұрын

Amazing perfect job

@Nobe_Oddy Жыл бұрын

That little guy is AMAZING!!!! So clean!!! I really would LOVE to be able to make a case for my little Pi, but I don't have a 3D printer (or acrylic cutter lol)

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@agoodun Жыл бұрын

Very cool 😎

@TheAnoniemo Жыл бұрын

Nice idea, but this kinda removes all the advantages of a real rack by integrating all components into one and not having room for expansion. If I could make suggestions for a future revision? Obtain a generic 5V USB UPS, this way you can keep it separate from the Pi in a rack slot. You could integrate a power distribution board (USB hub) to power multiple devices from the one UPS. Connect the SSD with a USB Type A to Type A cable, this way the SSD is wired through the front and can be removed without also removing the pi. Leave space for upgrades, maybe a 2.5 inch HDD or a small ethernet switch could be added later for more functionality?

@zacharyhart7025 Жыл бұрын

I like the switch idea.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the ideas! I really wanted to add a switch but couldn't find anything small enough - I even looked at repurposing a 4 port industrial DIN rail switch which looked quite compact, but landed up making the whole rack 50% larger.

@TheAnoniemo Жыл бұрын

@@AlexanderBingham except a drone operator is a kind of pilot and has to deal with rules of the airspace. For large drones you need some sort of licence I believe.

@TheAnoniemo Жыл бұрын

@@AlexanderBingham do IT people that deal with server racks risk their lives?

@zacharyhart7025 Жыл бұрын

@@MichaelKlements how about BotBlox SwitchBlox Industrial

@g.s.3389 9 ай бұрын

very nice 😊 👍

@MrBlakBunny Жыл бұрын

certainly a design i'll adapt, i run a couple of printers so having all the pi's in one case could be useful

@riri0u Жыл бұрын

Very nice

@Tru3Tech 10 ай бұрын

super cool!!!! Great project man. can you add 2 or even 4 m.2 ssds? :)

@DavidMeggers Жыл бұрын

I’m just looking at the Pi…in a box…new…slightly envious 🙂 Great project

@atom6_ Жыл бұрын

Yeah that is the real secret; where did he get it from?

@funkymonk4688 Жыл бұрын

Super cool!! Would love to see a rack that could hold a pi, wif and internet router that could all be printed on a prusa mini. I made a small rack shelf but I lack the design skills to do what you can where things have actual mount points. Mine is more just a shelf

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

I've added 3D printable racks to the design files, I'll look ad adding 3D printable side panels and a door (although they won't be clear then) and you'll then be able to 3D print the whole case. The side panels would be pretty easy to just cut from clear or tinted acrylic by hand as they're mostly straight cuts and you'll then have a much better looking rack.

@BryceCanyon Жыл бұрын

I love your build!! The sound was a bit hard to hear, seemed... I dunno, a bit muffled perhaps? Copied down the transcript to better capture the entire thing. Still, really awesome!! Next, would love to see some performance stats on the Pi itself. What OS/kernel did you load?

@lllever Жыл бұрын

Amazing work! And how about the read/write speed after all the connectors?

@rawdelicious Жыл бұрын

So cool, this is a complete machine! Does the battery charge via the cable, didn't understand that. Looking fwd to the build with bigger cooling, I will get that one!

@RickBane23 Жыл бұрын

Awesome mini rack for rapis!!!. I would like to have one for mi pimox7 raspberry pi 4b. Sadly I don't have a 3D printer, neither the laser cutter for the acrylicks 😖 Very good and insteresting idea 👏👏

@arturwelp1877 4 ай бұрын

I am planing on building a UPS using 26650 or 18650 cells

@nadirsalim7419 Жыл бұрын

impressive

@the-real-random-person Жыл бұрын

This guy is ALWAYS using these displays xD but that's so useful!

@AlistairBrugsch 8 ай бұрын

Fantastic design! One thing I'd change though is not making the uprights print as part of the base. As they are, the layer lines going across them makes them much weaker. As separate pieces they can be printed flat with better layer strength, then it makes it easier to make the height modular too. That would be an instant buy for me.

@MichaelKlements 8 ай бұрын

Thanks for the suggestion, that makes a lot of sense! I'll look at doing this for version 2

@DanielF847 Жыл бұрын

Super cool build! Really clean looking, and I love the honey-I-sunk-the-server-rack aesthetic! What did costs look like, and how have you felt about the noise from the 40mm fan? I'm considering replicating and have been looking into running a larger fan at slower speeds

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Haha thanks Daniel. It probably costs around $200-$250 - I had most of the components already. This obviously depends on where you get a Pi as these can easily exceed $100 by themselves at the moment, mine cost $35 a few years back. The fan is quite noisy, but I'll probably just swap it out for a Noctua PWM version and control it with a script on the Pi as well - they're virtually silent to around 50% speed.

@Diasdhiego 11 ай бұрын

Amazing project! How long is this UPS lifespan? It would be amazing for a 3 piece K3s environment. Does it have raid? Amazing again, thanks for the project and the video!

@DhaniElfaraby Жыл бұрын

u got 1 subs from me, i like ur project and i plan to build one

@aldara6166 Жыл бұрын

Holy crap this is FIRE!! I love this! How much would you charge to sell me one? No really, I'm serious I'd buy one from you in a heartbeat!! Awesome work, looks more high quality than what you would buy commercially!

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I've put the 3D printing/laser cutting files up for you to make your own. A lot a time goes into making one up so it would cost way more than what I would consider to be reasonable. That's mainly why I haven't put them up for sale as a finished product.

@ferky123 Жыл бұрын

I would say to use a 90° USB C angle connector or use a cable that has one to help with cable management.

@BruceWayneReal Жыл бұрын

For the screen, use the second i2c interface.

@Unknown15916 Жыл бұрын

Very nice. You must have had all the dimensions of the components beforehand. - Robert

@gearboxworks Жыл бұрын

Nicest build I have seen of yours. Have you considered putting a large low-profile low RPM fan at the back for airflow more like a regular rack?

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thank you. I haven’t really had any thermal issues with the current setup but there is definitely enough space on the back to put a larger fan.

@paulstubbs7678 Жыл бұрын

Nice build, although I've never heard of a server rack running on WiFi! It looks like I might have to learn about docker, I thought it was reserved for much bigger builds - builds I avoid as they suck more power than I can justify.

@slabua Жыл бұрын

Great build as usual! Have you tried enabling monotonic top/bottom order in cura?

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

I haven't tried this feature in cura yet, I'll definitely look into it

@tgirard123 Жыл бұрын

If Christmas wasn't coming up I'd probably throw down some cash and build this. Going to have to wait till next year

@adolfogonzalez1305 Жыл бұрын

awesome case. wish you would sell it and make it so that there is the ability to fit a larger heatsink.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

I'm going to try fit a low profile Ice Tower into this design, I think there is already enough headroom between the Pi and the top cover. Update: There isn't enough headroom for the low-profile Ice Tower cooler, I'm going to have to use a larger standard heatsink rather.

@kristianwind9216 Жыл бұрын

This is so cool! Please let me know if you were to sell it at any point...

@colinrogers9927 Жыл бұрын

Amazing work! What type of containers are you running? Does the pi handle them well?

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Im mainly running Pi-hole, Plex and Home Assistant although I might move Home Assistant to a dedicated Pi. I've had some trouble getting the Pi to reliably communicate with the Zigbee network when running in a container.

@ckthmpson Жыл бұрын

Please,mass produce these. I'd buy one. Either just the case itself, or an entire kit.

@adamwalter2573 Жыл бұрын

Looks good, but a bit overcomplicated. UPS can be made from any 12v car battery. Big enough, it can hold power for up to few days without recharge, so enough time for power go come back, so no any additional hardware is needed (signal for no power/ac restored and so on). I take a server as a bunch of hardware laying around, connected with open cables, sitting somewhere in the ceiling or attic :) However, a big plus for the chasis :)

@SireSquish 10 ай бұрын

If you're looking for ideas - the racks could be made to accommodate anything that's in the appropriate form factor - that way, people could make these kind of things for different SBCs, and extend them to have taller cabinets/more rack space depending on needs.

@MichaelKlements 10 ай бұрын

Thank you @SireSquish, I do include a blank rack in the CAD files so that they can be adapted to suit other SBCs etc.

@rbrantley86 5 күн бұрын

Love it. IS there anywhere I can purchase the Case from? I don't currently have a 3d printer.

@MichaelKlements 5 күн бұрын

You can reach out to me through my Etsy store - www.etsy.com/au/shop/TheDIYLifeCo

@shykitten55 Жыл бұрын

That is just amazing. I don't want this to sound like a criticism of the design, but I would put the door opening from the other side. And as most of build is black, I think it would be that much better if the bolts/screws holding the fan in place were also black. But all in all fantastic build.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the suggestions, it would probably make more sense to have the door open up the other way given that the Pi's ports are now all on the hinge side

Жыл бұрын

If you have problems with I2c OLED, try dhanging its adress to differetn on, usually there are solder jumpers on back of them. But i belive there is problem somewhere software wise... try scanning I2c with i2cdetect -y 1 and see if there are 2 / more adresses. Usually display adress is 3C and RTC is 68 (if active on system, it will show as UU). Awesome build.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't think its an address issue, I think the two scripts (one for the UPS and one for the display) are trying to communicate at the same time.

Жыл бұрын

@@MichaelKlements Ah yes, that did not occur to me

@mattghoward Жыл бұрын

so i replaced the RPi GPIO header with one that has a socket under the board - then i have added ups and ssd under the board and cooling above the board - because once you ad direct cooling you cant put anything above the board - still working on that - modifying heat pipes etc

@scrcrccrd Жыл бұрын

would it be possible to see a conteinerized NAS solution in the rack? a step by step guide. good video man :)!

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Unfortunatley my favourite NAS software, OMV, isn't able to be run as a container. You can however install Docker alongside OMV and have them both running on the Pi.

@dav1dsm1th Жыл бұрын

You've got a rack - so may as well make it a cluster in the next iteration 🙂

@spuds7677 Жыл бұрын

I think it would be cool to have several R-Pis in one case like this. So like a "4U" you can run up to 4 R-Pis and or devices in it. So you can have the ability to run a customized setup to fit your needs. You can have 1 UPS, 1 SSD and 2 Pis or in the "4U" case, or if you need, pull the SSD and run 3 Pis and a UPS This would be handy to have for sure.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thats a nice idea, maybe making it slightly wider would also allow two Pis to fit next to each other on one rack, so you could then have up to 8 Pi's in a relatively small enclosure.

@zhaoshikai Жыл бұрын

@@MichaelKlements Micheal, this is great idea, hope we could see it in your youtube channel soon! 🙂

@user-sg5xq8pe3k 11 ай бұрын

Do you, by chance, sell the server case pre assembled?

@loosemoose6293 11 ай бұрын

So I don’t own a 3d printer or a laser cutter can you recommend businesses or a link for a prebuilt case ?

@bunkey-ed2vc Жыл бұрын

So what can you use these for? Thanks!

@jeremybrun2503 Жыл бұрын

Do you plan on offering kits for this server rack case design on Etsy?

@happy_waves9786 Жыл бұрын

Looks really nice my only problem with it is the hinged door blocking the rj45 port. So if you’re running your pi as a server using a wire connection you need to either let de door open or just not install it

@billyjbryant Жыл бұрын

Or use a Low Profile 90° Ethernet cable as he stated in the video.

@happy_waves9786 Жыл бұрын

@@billyjbryant touche

@bco1981 Жыл бұрын

Looks nice, and really does look like a mini rack. though personally, i would have turned the insides 90 degrees to help the upwards airflow. And given the size of the case i probably would have used a bigger 80mm fan for even less noise. I wonder, can we use a usb batterybank as a UPS ? like a 30.000mAH usb powerbank ?

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Yeah a larger 60mm or 80mm fan would definitely be better for reducing the noise output - the 5V 40mm PWM Noctua fan is almost silent when running under 50% speed so I might swap this out as a temporary fix. A battery bank is fundementally different to a UPS. It also won't have any communication options with with Pi, so won't be able to initiate a shutdown on low battery etc.

@whitepawrolls Жыл бұрын

Now add the 4 bay nas board mod :) Its too bad we can't still get a pi though without paying scalper prices.

@mrmotofy Жыл бұрын

I wonder if the back panel could be modified to use a Keystone jack for rj45, or power

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Yes this would be quite an easy modification to make

@favired612 Жыл бұрын

Excellent project. I would like a battery that allows the server to run 24 hours without power. Or a connector for connecting an external battery outside the case. Also, I would like to duplicate the raspberry charging socket on the outside of the case, because I want to change the charging cable without unscrewing the screws.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

There is already a battery connector on the UPS, to run for 24hrs you'd just need to swap the battery for a higher capacity one (I would guess around 80,000mAh at 3.7V for 24hr run time). As some others have suggested, a USB C keystone jack would be a nice addition to the back.

@Inappropriatematt Жыл бұрын

Nice. What’s the small nut, tyre hub style tool called? I assume it’s 3mm and some other sizes?

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

It came with an RC car that I built over 20 years ago haha, it's four different sizes to suit M2, M3, M4 and M6 nuts

@Inappropriatematt Жыл бұрын

Found some online. Ended up googling ‘ small nut wrench’.

@zk_6312 2 ай бұрын

Looks good though I hesitate to really call it a server with only one ssd. There is no redundancy in case the ssd should fail. Maybe in a future build you could add a couple more ssd drives and create a raid system. Then it really could be called a server.