Convert a Silicon Graphics Server into a Fridge

NOTE: I have entered this project in the Dead Computer Contest. If you like this project don't forget to press the "Vote Now" button on top of the screen. Thanks!

Too much free time will make people do the weirdest things. I've always had a soft spot for obsolete computers, especially when they had once cost a small fortune and were the absolute top-of-the-line in their hey-day but are now hopelessly out-dated. It seems unfair that after only a short time of hard work the reward for their loyalty is to bring them to the junkyard.

When we move away from the boring, low-cost world of ugly WinTel PC's and look at the high-end of the computer market we come across a little computer company called Silicon Graphics Inc. Best known for their powerful workstations like the ever-so-cool Indy, they're the kind of people who don't jerk around when it comes to building a good looking machine. If you look up "Server" in SGI's dictionary it probably says:

Server (n.),
   1. Large, extremely expensive machine that goes "Ping!". Measuring at least 25 cubic feet, heavy, bulky and giving of more heat then a nuclear power plant. It's big, it's bad, it's beautiful and makes it pretty obvious what happened to this year's IT-budget.

Step 1 How to get one

It is unlikely you'll find a high-end server at a garage sale. So your best bet is to start working for the IT department of a large internet company and wait until something breaks down... well, that's what I did.

When one of our three Challenge DM servers broke down it was decided to strip the now-deceased monster, Dua it was called, of its vital organs (i.e. memory, cpu's, power supply etc.) and throw it away. So it was carried out the door and put next to the garbage containers only to be hauled back in again just three minutes later by my colleague and me.

At that moment I had a vision. A vision of a world where server and refrigerator could co-exist. The clouds broke and a beam of sunlight hit me. The angels sang and...well, you know, sort of like that scene from The Blues Brothers. "This will be my new project!", I proclaimed and took it home. That evening, an interesting situation occurred when our CEO was standing in the parking lot with a business client. As they talked they saw two guys come out of the front entrance and throw a rather expensive-looking server rather ungently in the back of a Volkswagen and drive off.

Comments

[zack247]

why does the picture in step 7 say its 1999?

[mr_novack]

This is really old, done years ago, I doubt that this guy even did this.

[zack247]

then how would he have step by step instructions on it?

[thijsatteiltje]

Mr_novack,   yes you are right, it was done years ago (in 1999 to be precise) but I assure you it was my project. You will just have to trust me on that one ;-)

(if you google "sgi fridge" you will find that the original website lives on my personal homepage at http://home.planet.nl/~mourits/koelkast/)

I (re)posted it here to enter it in the Dead Computer Contest. It might also interest you that I myself, like the fridge, have returned to Center for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam. Perhaps it is time for a brand new project...

[sisyphus321]

Heh. It occurs to me that after you hacked the fridge into the Challenge box, you probably would still have enough room for a mini-ITX board and a few SATA drives. That way, in addition to the fridge, you would have also had a server that was about equal to the Challenge in terms of compute capacity.

[zack247]

ah, but do not forget about HUMIDITY, it is still a fridge, which means there will still be liquids in it, and so on

[omnibot]

Oh, that is one geeky sweet fridge! How'd you come by the server?

[Holden_vy_s]

Did you read the Instructable?

[omnibot]

Oh, I see. I tend to skip over anything but the building instructions.

[Misac-kun]

Awsome!!! too bad you can't find a SGI sever on your local Junkyard

[laxap]

Awesome!
You have my vote.

[Raikou-san]

Question: Is it possible to turn something such as this into a fridge and computer in one box?

Also, would it be possible to link the cooling systems in such a way that the computer parts stay cold?

[thijsatteiltje]

Ah... many have travelled (or at least thought) down this road and without much success. To simply put the pc parts in a fridge you would cause compensation on the electronic bits (not good). And to use a fridge to cool some coolant to then cool a pc is really a waste of effort. After all, you would still have to cool the heat exchanger of the fridge as well. So noise wise it would not make sense, and if your after overclocking performance there are way more efficient and smaller sollutions.

[thijsatteiltje]

Correction: "cause compensation" should be "cause condensation"