Server Rooms Extras and Accessories

Running a Server Rack? Regardless of if you are in a garage, basement, or dedicated facility you will need extra items around to help keep you running and ready. This is a random bunch of things that you will definitely need to have around as your “hobby” grows into a…? 😂 You probably already have lots of these items laying around, but take some time to at least group them into boxes or bins of the same thing so its fast and easy for you to get them when you need them.

3.5″ LFF Drive Tray Screws – A must have if you have a Chia Farm. These work for Hard Drives that are in the 3.5″ size format.

2.5″ SFF Drive Tray Screws – If you have 2.5″ SFF servers, you need to have these on hand also. These work for SSD’s and 2.5″ SAS/SATA drives also.

Cat6 Booted Cables – I recommend you get get a pack of a few and have on hand. The first thing you should do if you suspect a cable that has been dropping packets is replace and isolate to see if it is the card or the cable.

Wireless N USB WiFi Adapter – Good and cheap works for Linux, Pi and Windows. I use one and they have good range also.

Plastic Milk Crate for Rigging – These are bulky but the cheapest rigging case I could find.

1GB DDR3 – 1GB DDR4 – The cheaper the better for RAM so long as you KNOW it works. You need a known good stick at all times that is in a static free baggie to use as your go-to versus trying to isolate a potential bad stick.

Power Reset Switch – This will make your life a lot easier when you need to do a restart on a headless unit. Now you should already have the BIOS set to restart on power downs so you should only need to use it once and a while, but it’s handy. You can also sometimes salvage one off an old case!

8 pin to dual 6 pin Splitter – A good option if you’re outta molex.

6 pin to dual 6 pin Splitter – Splits a single 6pin into a dual 6pin.

Molex to 6 pin cables – Sometimes you need to have 2 6 pins per card (I’m thinking about the 270 line here) and it only comes with 1 in the box. If you already have the others in use that’s no good! I wish every card came with as many of these as they have 6 pin slots.

SATA to 6 pin – I’d go with the molex version first as it’s typically cheaper, but sometimes you use up all the molex connectors (why psu manufacturers are scrimping on molex nowaday?)

Kill-a-Watt – Everyone should have one of these. You can leave them plugged into your psu while you’re getting each rig set up to make sure that your BIOS mods are taking effect properly and saving you $$ on the downvolting. Plus you can use this on everything in your house! Super fun! Make sure if you’re on 220V that you get that model however, this is the US version for 120. You should also look to see how clean the power to your house is!

5 Tier Heavy Duty Wire Garage Shelving Unit – I love these! You can fit a LOT of MOBOs flat and have the psu sitting behind it easily! Great airflow in these with the bottom slats and heavy duty enough for me to have a 70 lb APC 2u rack on the top! you can easily get 8x of the 600 buck rigs on one! I did! BONUS! Use the shelves’ numerous bars to easily hang the cards down off the MOBO. You can get 8 cards hanging with lots of space in between on each tier.

550 Volts Backup APC – You should use one of these on your workbench when you are testing a system, flashing BIOS and generally messing around with the potential to knock out a power cable for sure! If your board powers down while flashing in that few seconds window, that card’s not going to be RMA returnable. Most people have one of these laying around. 😉 Personally I run my rigs off giant APC’s but I don’t get super clean power to my house, plus I have server racks I can take parts from.

8 port gigabit Ethernet Switch – For general mining, this works. For Chia, you should get 10g if you have more then 1 rig. You need to have 1 port per mobo and 1 port per inbound cable. These are for Cat 5-6 cables. IE this switch will allow you to run 7 MOBO’s off it.

25 ft Wire Sleeves – Helps keep airflowing better when cables are bundled. If you dont use this, at least use twist ties. This will help you out a lot.

Cat6 Ethernet Cable – 50 foot – It’s cheaper to run this yourself off a spool but until you learn how to crimp properly, this is easy and fits any long reach emergency need. The cheapest cables you can find is what you are after. Keep it wrapped up when not fixing some temp problem so it doesn’t tangle everything up.

Honeywell TurboForce Fan – Easy to position around your shelf and get the best air circulation possible with directed airflow. Fairly cheap solution also but pretty loud.

Floor Fan – Hi Velocity – Good floor fan for moving cool air (near the floor) up to the rigs and circulating it.

Samsung 128GB usb stick – This seems to have the highest speed ratings at a typically reliable price. I have 4 of these and they are very useful for manually correcting issues every now and then and not losing a plot! I keep some bootable utils on them also which helps when I hit unknown disk issues.

Power Supply Tester – This is good if you have a lot of PSU’s running and need to keep them tested over time. I would definitely recommend for 24/7/365 multi rig runs. You need to actually have a maintenance schedule for the weekend to check against.

Pipe Cleaners – Pipe Cleaners are great for hanging GFX cards and flexible as well! I use these to go in the small eyeholes on the edge of my GFX cards and hang them from my heavy duty shelf! Wire up 2 or 3 together. Also good for making animal and stick people crafts. 

TEKTON 6235 Assorted Cable Ties, 200-Piece – If you want a cleaner looking setup than my pipe cleaner suggestion. These are pretty and look professional. Also good for hanging PSU’s and FANS but also to use on all the wires and keep them organized. Remember fewer surfaces = better airflow, less dirt, less spiderwebs.