Who could have guessed that the plan wouldnt even survive 24 hours as it turns out this year’s topic is Home Lab. FRACK!!

Thanks Wendell ! I should have seen it coming because of the … recent developments.

Anyway I dont mind pivoting as my homelab setup is in quite a sorry state. There are lots of things to do, both physically and virtually.

Future DIY rack

Right now its just a Ikea workbench with computers hap hazardly placed wherever they fit. (I had nowhere else to put the netgear switch, I AM NOT USING IT, I would go insane) NAS and LLM box General compute equipment and power supply

As you can see its not really ideal + it collects alot of dust so the all of the parts need to be within a dust filtered box. So the general plan is

  • get rid of the tower cases and try to make some kind of rail system
  • move the middle shelf down one level
  • put the NAS on the bottom shelf
    • Will have to figure out a way to mount HDDs and SSDs (maybe something similar to how JBODs do it?)
  • somehow fit 2 UPSes at the real bottom (like under the ground shelf)
  • move general compute and the LLM box into the bigger space
    • LLM box will need PCIE risers, I do only have one GPU but still need to be ready when I get hit by the stoopid
  • create magnetically removable dust filters (also probably will have to block off like half or more of the sides to ensure proper airflow)
  • Set big fans that can run semi silently to provide airflow

Day 3d

Even though I own a 3d printer I havent even launched a CAD program before!

Now armed with FreeCAD, Optimism and a questionably hosted LLM I trotted ahead. Instead of the one hour I said to myself I ended up ending at one o clock, WHOOPS!

Eventually I did manage convert the notebook blueprint into a 3d model … ish.

Initial measurements -> BROR workbench in progress

For some reason I got a warm and fuzzy feeling when I set up the linked copies of the legs. I am afraid of where this journey will take me.