Small Computer Rooms by Tim Hogard Micro Data Centers on a Budget

Specs? 2 to 5 racks Neat Easy to maintain

Raised Floor? Of course!

Height? 150 mm is good for wires 300 mm isnt quite enough for forced air More than 150 requires cross bracing on small floors

Tile Size? 600 mm for metric racks 2 foot for imperial racks Use the right size tiles for your racks and equipment

Integer math For a small room you want as many of the tiles to be removable as possible Cut tiles are a pain Typical building cuts the decorative flooring to fit the walls

Walls Plasterboard on steel studs Consider putting wire mesh in the walls Security Helps keep RF energy out

Floor Racks are heavy Ground floors may work best Reinforced flooring is expensive

Insulation Pack in as much insulation as you can Consider non-fiberglass insulation Seal the room with a good plaster and paint

Electrical Figure out what you need Then double that Then double it again

Power 4 Power points per rack is minimal Put your UPS and batteries elsewhere Consider several UPS circuits

UPS Rolling blackouts for 2 hours Cheap UPS will fail Lots of batteries are heavy

Comms Put IDF in machine room parallel all MDF circuits to machine room IDF

Alarm PIR sensors in room Door switches one hooked to alarm system one hooked to computer monitor system

Monitoring Door Temperatures Air conditioners Water on or under the floor

Air Conditioning Dual split units Must be small enough to run off generator with emergency heat load A fan and a window can remove a great deal of heat in a hurry

Footnotes TIA/EIA-942Data Center Standard Past talks by Geoffrey Day and Don Gingrich web.abnormal.com/compute r_room Fergus Electrical