Computers in Basements

[Rich Braun]

I run my file server, a 2U rackmount chassis containing 4 IDE drives (RAID1),
on the shelf of a top-floor closet in a 19th-century house that lacks A/C but
has insulation.

I opened the chassis not long after I bought the thing and added 2 or 3 extra
fans.  If you think about it, hard drives tend to operate well above room
temperature anyway (reach inside a typical desktop, the drives are probably
running at 120 degrees or so) so if you have enough air flow you should be
able to keep the drives at nominal operating temperature even if the room
reachs 95 or 100 degrees.

Have had only one drive fail so far in the past 4 years.  Last summer I put a
room air conditioner in that room, for the first time, only because we had
some severely hot days and I got worried.

Note:  I do automated *full* backups to an AIT2 tape jukebox weekly (nightly
incrementals to disk).  Don't take the risks that I do unless and until you
start doing backups.

-rich