Recommendations/thoughts for 19-inch Rack System

I'll focus initially on OEM's & Retailers who have a presence in my City/State in Australia.
I'll move beyond that only if I don't see anything that I'm happy with, which is unlikely.

Devices it'll house:
*1U for the Firewall/Router/Kitchen-sink
*1U for the 16-port Gbit Switch
*1-3U for the 19" rack-mount NAS
Maybe one of these. I prefer the model that has 8 drive bays, but the 12-bay one has stuff I want that's unavailable for the 8-bay! If neither of those models, then definitely a rack-mount NAS from here. Not even close to finalising NAS, but it's clear that I'd need at least 2U of space!
*1U for the DOCSIS & 4G MODEMS, & possibly a DSL MODEM.
*MAYBE 2U for the UPS (haven't decided on UPS yet, I may get one that's not designed for racks!)
Anything else???

Criteria so far:
*Given my list above, 12U should be plenty big, even after allowing for lots of room!
*I prefer wall-mounted, just depends on if the wall I have in mind will cooperate.
*Fully enclosed (but well ventilated), & a lock-able door...
*2 holes up top through which I'll pass cabling for my 4G MODEM's antenna, but not imperative.
*Maybe if it had excellent built-in filtering & active cooling, but that might markedly increase $.
*Decent cable management....
Not sure what else, I don't think much else matters? I can always hack/mod/tweak etc.

i use startech's 10U frame rack because the size can be adjusted to fit really long servers that can fit GPUs in them and has a weight limit of above 500KG and has wheels. I use a portable 4U rack for my networking hardware since both my router and switch are rackmountable and i place my wifi routers above the rack. All my networking hardware fit in the portable rack with the cabling if i need to move them.

For cooling as long as the front and back are exposed it will be fine. Active cooling is only required if there isnt much cooling space or if your machines have holes on top.

Using a frame instead of fully closed rack is cheaper and doesnt need active cooling. It also makes the rack lighter as well. Wall mounts and such are good for smaller and lighter servers or networking gear. I always place wifi outside the rack instead of having the antenna outside because there is no loss from antenna cabling.

jalyst said:

*I doubt I'll need much bigger than 6U, I like the idea of wall-mounted & swing-door -I think.

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It depends on what you're going to put in there. A number of switches and consumer/small business routers are reasonably shallow (and lightweight). Servers and higher-end switches/routers tend to be both a lot deeper and heavier, and I'd be concerned about wall mounting those. Some companies make wall racks that mount equipment vertically instead of horizontally, so the heavy stuff won't stick out from the wall so much. Just make sure that that type of rack is compatible with your device's airflow requirements, and that it is in a clean location (you don't want to discover that the RJ45 jacks on the switch are full of crud).

*Maybe if it had built-in excellent filtering & active cooling, but that'd probably markedly increase cost.

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It would. And if some of my customers are something to base a decision on, they'll forget to clean the filters and will turn the rack into an oven.

*Decent cable management...

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I use floor-standing 23" cabinets*, which give me extra room along the sides for cable management. I generally use cable hoops on one side and cable-tie brackets on the other side, as you can see in my second photo here.

* I have no idea why Open Compute chose 21" for their rack specification. Both 19" and 23" are widely-available existing designs in large volumes, and 25" exists for some specialty applications. Worse, they do 21" in the same cabinet width as a standard 19" rack, so you lose space on the sides for cable management.

it might be better to get 2 6U racks as it would help with mass for wall racks. UPS take more than 1U.

What total weight do you nees to support?
Is it possible to get a second vertical wall mount for just the UPS?
Something like this;


What depth of rack do you need?
Assume 4 inches extra in the back for cables and if the door is flush 3 inches in the front.

My personal preference for racks is a company called middle atlantic.
Is a rack like this something you had envisioned;

Cloud200 said:

What total weight do you nees to support?

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I can't say until I've finalised everything that's going into it, but I'm sure I can garner a "close enough" figure.

What depth of rack do you need? Assume 4 inches extra in the back for cables and if the door is flush 3 inches in the front.

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Can't be 100% sure till I've knocked-over the NAS & UPS (if I get a RM UPS), but I want to finish the Rack 1st.
Later I'll dig-up the NAS's on my short-list, & determine a "close enough" depth using them.

My personal preference for racks is a company called middle atlantic.
Is a rack like this something you had envisioned;

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I'm aware of MA, but I'd set them aside as an OEM to look at in the future...
When I do some more upgrades to the entertainment areas i.e. new TV, speaker system, AVR, Separates etc.
They focus mostly on Rack Systems geared towards premium AV Systems, don't they?
The example you reference does look very nice, AFAICT it doesn't look too AV-centric.

My original budget for a closed-frame, lock-able, & possibly wall-mounted 6U 19" Rack was $400AUD.
I've since realised that I'll want 12U just to be on the safe side, so I'm prepared to raise it to $1000AUD.
But I'd rather not spend any more than that...
Remember even if some of their models fall close to that, there's shipping to factor in.
But they may have distributors here, I haven't looked into that yet...

UPS I haven't decided on, it's in my "End Devices" project, which I'll start right after the "WAN/LAN/WLAN Overhaul" project is mostly done. A thread for it (maybe not here at SNB) will probably come after I've knocked-over several other End Devices:


Making the UPS the last of my End Devices makes sense I think, because then I can best determine what power capacity I want. Sorry, this is digressing way too much from 19" Rack Systems, but just giving you a rough idea of a closely related project I'll be hitting, once I finish this one. Speaking of this one (WAN/LAN/WLAN Overhaul), it roughly breaks down as follows (I'll list in order of how I'm currently prioritising things):


Then of course there's the cost of labour, most of which I won't be doing, in simple terms it's: 4 Ethernet runs, removing a RJ-11 & Coax port & relocating them a short distance to where the new Rack is, 1 power run (in parallel with one of the Ethernet runs), & mounting of the Rack(s). I think that's it, though I could be forgetting something. I may be able to handle much of it myself, but "other members" of the household will likely disagree. The following three will commence after I've finished the above, & only if I'm not fully satisfied with the above:


^This stuff won't be factored into the total cost of the current project, it won't add much anyway. I know roughly what it all costs, the 3rd item's about determining if I can use our aircon. infra. to extend our Ethernet LAN.

Top-notch Antenna for 4G/LTE_MODEM
I've done some initial groundwork for this, but it remains a LP.

^This is much longer-term, maybe next year, already have a decent antenna (can't recall specifics OTTOMH but it was well-researched), just not a more "hard-core" one that's properly mounted on the house.

Cheers!
*these devices can mess with Powerline networking, but where I'll use this board we'll be using: Eth, "some" Wifi, & maybe MoCa.

doesnt look like you have much in terms of servers so the longest/biggest device will be your UPS. For other devices they wont be as big so you can save cost and half the space if you mount the devices back to back. From a full length server my networking gear and devices only takes up a quarter of the length or less so i get to save some rack units by mounting some things at the back of others. Only the UPS will be heavy but none of your other devices will be.

So, any thoughts on the points in my last post?
Is my budget limit sufficient for a decent 19" 12U rack system?
Or do you need to know exact total weight & depth.

As mentioned I'm nowhere near knowing what UPS I want, I prefer to leave that for later.
But we can easily guess approx. total weight, based on what I've said will be in the rack.
Same for the depth...

Thank-you.

Its important to know the amount of weight you plan to mount. I think your budget might be sufficient if you dont need long racks.

You only need a specific length for rack if you are mounting hardware with long depth. If the hardware you need to mount has a short depth than it is cheaper and easier and you can mount them back to back and save lots of space and rack units.

Even though i took the cheaper option when going for my rack it costed me less than half your budget for 2 rackmountable power distributions, the adjustable 12U rack that can withstand more than 500KG, 4U portable rack of medium length, rack mounts.

Fully enclosed rack would be more expensive.

jalyst said:

Thanks guys, sorry I haven't been very responsive, been crazy busy lately.
I'll get back onto my two main threads here at SNB (for now) ASAP!

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No problem, we needed the break.

jalyst said:

Cheers mate! BR.

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Looking to see you back here soon (am just starting to read todays posts here).

Cheers!

I've decided to move this 19" Rack stuff to my End Devices project, see this post...
i.e. I'll resume focus "after" I've worked out exactly what NAS & UPS (& most other End Devices) I have.
Will now focus on the remaining stuff in my WAN/LAN/WLAN Overhaul project.