Xserve LOUD

I recently got a good deal on a used Xserve, and I'm using it at home. Yes- I know it's a rack-mount machine and I know it makes a lot of noise, but 86Db is too much for the wife ( I don't mind at all. I could sleep next to it.)

Anyway, I'm looking for advice on a case or enclosure or something that I can use to muffle/styfle/reduce the noise.

Putting it in another room is not an option; I live in Japan and the place is small enough as it is. I wanted an Xserve when they first came out, but because of the price I stayed away. This time the price was just too good for me to pass up.

Yeah, I saw that with a little Googling. Unforunately it's almost twice the price of what I paid for my Xserve in the first place.

I wonder if anyone's got anything home made?

Well, it was about $1000. It's the original 1Ghz single processor model.

I was in Tokyo over the weekend and hit the electronics district, and at this huge Mac-only place up on the 5th floor they were sellling a few used (5 or 6 I think.) The dual G4 1Ghz was like $2,000.

Wrapping the top and bottom with foam wouldn't muffle the sound at all?

Originally posted by Eniregnat
A great deal.
I have several rack mounted servers (non Apple) and they are just noisy. Any rack with a door will at least reflect some of the noise. You could build your own mini rack with 2*4s. It won't look great, but it will be breeze to add a door, some sides and a little soundproofing. If you make the sides out of Lexan, you can easily drill into it and make holes for heat dissipation, with out allowing a log of noise out. It would also look pretty cool. Lexan is a little expensive. If you go with something like this, ask the people that sell you the sheet (the thicker the better) to get you the proper kind of saw blade.

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I don't suppose you have a FAQ with pictures on how to do that, do you?

Thanks for the idea though, I was thinking along those lines, but I'm clueless when it comes to materials and such. At first I went to AppleFritter to see if anyone had done anything, but I came up empty-handed. I wonder if wrapping it foam would do anything? Time to dust off the old science books and brush up on sound & its properties.

I wish I could just toss it in a closet somewhere, but the walls in this place are too thin, the old people in the house would go nuts with it whirring away all night.

mstecker > I bought it at a place called SoftMap in Akihabara. Is this where you went? You might be thinking of LAOX, which is closer to Akihabara station and doesn't carry anything used. And no, I didn't take it on the plane; I live in another city in Japan so I just mailed to myself. If it were a few years ago, I would've thought about checking it in as a carry on just for fun, but now a days they probably wouldn't find it very funny.