Best rack cooling and airflow

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
1

Hi,

I am building a little 14U home rack.
At the moment, it’s:

600x1000cm, perforated ports front and back.

Front, bottom-up:
2U UPS
3U open
1U long server (dell r620)
1U long server (dell r620)
1U long server (dell r620)
3U open
1U switch
1U open
1U patch panel

Back, bottom-up
1U power strips
12U open
1U 4x top fans system

I’d like to make it better in cooling and airflow, adding prpbbaly a 1U intake fan for front bottom, right above the UPS, and some blanking panels to cover the open Us.
Probably one more 1U power strips above the one already installed.
Is it a right configuration? Are blank panels or perforated panels better for the setting?

Thank you very much!

2

Just as a data point, I had a rack with the servers at the top, with 2-3 U above the top server. The servers were conventional flow, intake on the front, blow out the back. If I ran it without the hole at the top blanked out, the hot air would be sucked up and over, back into the top server which would then run 10-20C hotter.

So without thinking about your specifics too hard, I’d be inclined to put solid panels everywhere, but I’d experiment to make sure.

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3

I don’t think you need it, but if you go forward I think your setup is good.

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