While I subscribe to the "Less is more" philosophy, I’m actually pretty poor at adhering to it. I have a major case of information overload in my digital life and junk clutters up both my digital and anolog lives. I’ve been pretty good with the RSS feeds that I subscribe to, I’ve slimmed down this site, and I’ve started attacking the piles of unused computer gear in my apartment.

I’m going to continue whittling away what computer gear that I actually need and use until I reach a perfect harmony, a blissful happiness, or complete enlightenment. This week’s part of that task is the server rack in my living-room.

I’ve done all my web hosting from home for years due to the increased flexibility & control I have over the servers, the challenges I get to face, the practice, and the somewhat lower operating costs (ignoring the labor, of course). However, having a half-height server rack housing two servers, plus a bunch of networking gear, in our living-room for the past few years has grown tedious. It takes up a lot of space, it’s frickin’ loud, and it’s an eye-sore¹.

The current setup consists of:

• A home-built 18U, 4-post, open-air rack
• A Comcast cable modem
• A Dual 2.0GHz Xserve G5 providing web hosting and acting as a gateway/router²
• A 400MHz PowerMac G4 in a Marathon G•Rack, my former media center & file server
• An Intel Express 530T Switch
• A “Snow” AirPort Base Station
• LaCie D2 hard drives (rack-mounted, naturally)
• Rack-mount power strip & cable management accessories

Now, I’m not about to stop hosting from home, but I do want to reclaim some of the space, reduce the noise, and cut the electricity usage a tad. To pull this off I hatched a master plan to consolidate my server and network equipment to one small, quiet 8U desktop rack. The new setup will be as follows:

• A Middle Atlantic DR-8 8U desktop rack (with a couple Middle Atlantic U1 shelves)
• My Comcast cable modem
• A Gigabit AirPort Extreme Base Station which will provide WiFi as well as act as my new gateway/router
• A 1.83GHz Core2 Duo Mac mini which will provide web hosting and act as a file server
• My Intel Express 530T Switch
• My LaCie D2 hard drives
• My rack-mount power strip & cable management accessories

This new configuration will be a hell of a lot smaller, much quieter (there will be only three small fans: one in the Mac mini and two in my Express 530T), and draw much less electricity. An added bonus: the boxes for all the hardware take up less space in a closet than that of just one of my servers. There are also some added technical benefits, as well, including: a better NAT implementation³, support for more WiFi standards, gigabit uplink from my server to my router & network, reduced load on my server, etc.

The cost break-down?

1. Mac mini & AirPort Extreme – approx. $750
2. Middle Atlantic rack & shelves – approx. $90

Well under $1000. I’ll also be selling the PowerMac G4, the 18U rack, and possibly the “Snow” AirPort to further reduce that. Even when I bought the Express 530T switch two weeks ago the net cost to me was only $30 after I sold the switch it was replacing.

I brought home the Mac mini and AirPort on Friday and have already integrated the AirPort into my network as the new gateway. The 8U desk rack and shelves are on order and should arrive sometime this week. The migration of the Xserve’s configuration and data to the Mac mini will be the most time-consuming part of the project and I’ve got plenty of practice doing that sort of thing.

All in all, what will this get me? First and foremost: a much happier girlfriend; but also more space in a cleaner living-room, a quieter living-room (all the better for watching movies in), a lower electricity bill, and a pretty powerful server that I actually own.

I do still need a proper 1U rack-mount UPS, but that’s for later. I know, I know… I live in Vermont so I do really need a long-lasting UPS. Unfortunately, that’d cost as much as this entire new server setup.

¹ Emily’s never exactly been a fan either. In fact, she’s always hated it.

² Graciously loaned by Small Dog Electronics, Inc. for continued development, testing, and training. Fun, fun.

³ The built-in NAT in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) Server always tests as “Moderate” on my Xbox 360 and so I get kicked off Xbox Live fairly frequently. The new Gigabit AirPort Extreme’s NAT tests as “Open” and so I have nary a hiccup now.