It might be cheaper to place the server in a datacenter or rent a semi dedicated server or just webspace for email/file server. Unless you are running very demanding applications like game server you don’t need a dedicated server, and most webspace providers will give you a www.company.com address and you get email and FTP capability, so no point running super hot dual xeon processor… you almost need air conditioning to run those things because they run very hot, eats alot of power. I use a webspace provider for file serve and email functions for the same reason, plus even if I could afford to buy a dual xeon setup I would need like a T1 or higher connection to keep them online, ADSL won’t do unfortunately because upload speed is severely limited in ADSL.
Sandy, but long term, will the 2002 Sancerre cool the pc, or will the pc warm the 2002 Sancerre and make it less drinkable. 
BTW, it is a waste of Sancerre to use it for this experiment, far better I come and help you finish it correctly.[/quote]
Well, the Sancerre was lovely indeed. Clean and crisp but with a lasting finish. Unfortunately, though, I forgot to turn off the computer before I started, so I don’t think it cooled down at all. It wasn’t a complete waste of time, however – I totally forgot what I was supposed to be doing. And that’s got to be a good thing.
I DID speak to a friend who also runs big setups, though. He said he’s experimented with water-cooling, etc., but found that in the end it was cheaper and more efficient in his case to just turn up the aircon, take the cases out from under the table, and point a regular household fan at them.
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Take off your current heatsink/fan assemblies, and clean off the surface of your CPUs
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Apply new thermal paste to the surface of your CPUs
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Replace the old heatsink/fan assemblies with new, high performance models
My CPU was recently running at 100 degrees Celsius, with an ambient temperature of 32 degrees. The result was a computer which repeatedly crashed. I knew what the problem was. I took off my heatsink/fan assembly, and cleaned out the huge amount of dust which was filling the radiator and fan. I then stripped down the CPU, applied new thermal paste to the surface, and remounted the heatsink/fan.
Temperatures dropped to between 45 and 50 degrees.
Temperature over 55 degrees C will crash your computer, so I don’t think it was actually running at 100 degrees C…
[quote=“Fortigurn”]* Take off your current heatsink/fan assemblies, and clean off the surface of your CPUs
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Apply new thermal paste to the surface of your CPUs
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Replace the old heatsink/fan assemblies with new, high performance models
My CPU was recently running at 100 degrees Celsius, with an ambient temperature of 32 degrees. The result was a computer which repeatedly crashed. I knew what the problem was. I took off my heatsink/fan assembly, and cleaned out the huge amount of dust which was filling the radiator and fan. I then stripped down the CPU, applied new thermal paste to the surface, and remounted the heatsink/fan.
Temperatures dropped to between 45 and 50 degrees.[/quote]
Humm… 100 celsius is alot… your CPU would burn at that heat. At 60 celcius you would be experiencing crashes at startup and at 75-80 you should smell burning.
That depends entirely on your CPU. Athlons are great at running very hot and still performing. I remember back in the good old days when finding out how hot your Athlon (or Duron), would run was almost as much fun as overclocking it. Temperatures over 50 degrees were common. The limit was supposed to be around 80. I had a Duron 700 which would run at 60 degrees. The Athlon I had before this would run at 75. It wasn’t as much fun with my Pentiums. My computer would crash when my Pentium IV reached just over 50 degrees.
When my current CPU was hitting 100 degrees C, that’s when it would freeze. I use SpeedFan to monitor my CPU, motherboard and HDD temperatures, and it takes the information from the motherboard’s onboard chips (in the CPUs case, it takes it from the die’s own reading), as well as SMART. My CPU is currently running at 52 degrees C, in an ambient temperature of 32. That sounds about right, as the system temperature is 49 and the HDD is 56. I usually crosscheck with the BIOS temperature reading to confirm the SpeedFan reading. When they’re about the same, I’m pretty sure I know what temperature my rig is running at.
Here are a few forum posts from back in the day, around 2002 when the Athlons normally ran hotter than 50 degrees C:
[quote]i need to check this stuff out again cos my athlon is running at 60 cool and 69 intensive.
maybe my sensor isn’t reporting accurately because i’ve had no instability problems at all.[/quote]
[quote]cpu is at 58 degrees at normal now and just over 60 intensive (according to sandra).
When i immediately shut down in the bios and check the pc health stats the cpu temp is slightly lower. [/quote]
[quote]With a no-namer HSF and no fans, the CPU hit 64C idle, case 44C and climbed beyond 75C (alarm set) during test.
rated CORE temp is 95C max, but under-CPU sensing may be inaccurate so you really do NOT want to see it that close - these things are tougher than you think, which helps in the balance of:
Warmer than you’d like versus noisier than you’d like![/quote]
Note in that last example the CPU hit 64 degrees at idle, over 75 at peak, and had a maximum core temperature rated at 95. Many of the old Athlons were great overclockers, because you could really thrash them with heat and they just took it.
These days I like to see my CPU under 50 degrees (as it usually is), but I’m not alarmed if I see it anywhere up to 55.
Hmm, yea I had a newer Athlon 64 and it hit 80s because I didn’t fully apply the thermal paste on the die and it got burnt a little. Never ran at it’s full power again. Still a good chip.
FOrtigurn and others have got some good points:
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Split up your servers and HDs is one possible, though not elegant solution perhaps.
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CLEANINESS. Clean the dust off components and vents and fans is a easy and effective way to reduce noise and heat. Re-apply arctic silver to the heatsink-chip interface. Get more /fans/heatsinks for your grafix chips, NB as necessary.
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Watercooling is a possibility, but doesn’t sound necessary in your case. Lots of file servers do fine without watercooling.
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LOCATION: Where is the computer located? in the shade with airways to ventilate? in a AC’ed room?
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AIRWAY. Think about your airway inside the computer. One end should have air pulling in, then pulled through all the hot components, chips, etc, and finally pulled out the other end. Make a plan, and install fans accordingly. Try a large fan (lower noise) as possible. Some modders use a push/pull arrangement (one fan inside the vent. One fan on other side of vent. but the fans have to be sound compatible ie fan speeds/airflow). Tie up the wires. Cleaniness is next to godliness. In this case, it will also provide a clean airway.
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COMPONENT PLANNING. Is there space between the HDs? Some people use HD fans underneath to help with circulation. Maybe with 7HDDs, not easy.
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TEMPS? What exactly is hot? Do you have a fan/heat sensor? There’s a great freeware you can DL to monitor speed and heat (i forget the name).