Building Rackmount Cabinet for Home Use? 269
Timothy M. Schumann asks: "I am trying to build a small rack mount cabinet for my family to help with the clutter of our home network. I don't want to purchase a rack or cabinet pre-manufactured; I would like to build my own. However, I have been unable to find a list of physical specifications that racks and cabinets must conform to when built, so I was wondering if any Slashdot readers could help me find such information? Just for a frame of reference, I'm looking for something along the same detail level as the BTX form factor specs that can be found here. Any input on cost effective hardware choices for rack mountable UPSs, switches and/or cases is also welcome." This topic was originally discussed some two years ago, and while there was some useful information was presented, the basic question wasn't really answered. If you were going to try and build a custom rackmount enclosure for yourself (or someone else), how would you go about doing it?
Simple Solution (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Simple Solution (Score:5, Informative)
It's easy to follow and gives a list of stuff to pick up at your local hardware store.
Re:Simple Solution (Score:3, Funny)
KVM switches (Score:5, Informative)
Pick up a surplus terminal server like a WTI CMS-16 or Computer PowerRack off eBay. They are almost free these days. Then configure all your equipement to use serial consoles (particularly easy if you are using Sun or DEC Alpha, equipment, not too bad for LILO-loading systems either).
Just remember to enable the alternate break sequence if you are running Sun hardware and using the Computone product (or any other concentrator which isn't "break safe"). I think it's in
Re:KVM switches (Score:2, Interesting)
You're not going to get many people to ditch the framebuffer on thier desktop machine, though.
Try to think in 1980's terms, at least. Your ASR-33 is leaking oil on the linoleum again.
Closet (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Closet - too hot! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Closet - too hot! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Closet - too hot! (Score:2)
Wanted - Old Machines To Heat My House (Score:5, Interesting)
actually, for those of us in the Northeast, it would be cool to vent it out to an ajoining room to get some of that heat.
Same thing up here in frigid Ottawa, Canada.
My servers and my main workstation are in the furnace room, adjacent to a cold air return duct on my forced-air furnace. Their heat is dragged out of the furnace room and distributed throughout the house.
I'm actually considering getting together about 30 computers to heat the house this winter. Given my furnace's estimated 70% efficiency and the cost of electricity ($0.043/kWh) and oil ($0.47/L), it's cheaper. I also calculated the heat output per unit of each fuel. I could just use baseboard heaters, but the electricity may as well do something useful (distributed clients?) on its way to becoming heat.
While my main workstation is in the furnace room, my home office is in an adjoining room. I simply put a small hole in the wall for the VGA, audio, keyboard, mouse and Palm cables. It's effectively silent in here now.
Re:Closet - too hot! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Closet - too hot! (Score:4, Informative)
Buy rack rails (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Buy rack rails (Score:2)
Metalworking for Dummies (Score:5, Informative)
In the music industry it is done all the time- just buy the rails and bolt them to the enclosure of your choosing. It aint rocket science!
That's right! Buy some rack rails. They should be available at large scrap metal yards, one can get used ones inexpensively.
Buy some tools. Absolutely required:
Measure, cut, drill. Use the mitre box and a level to make sure everything is straight, bolt the pieces together.
To make your own computer cases and rack-mount shelves, use sheet steel and/or sheet aluminum, and lots of small #6-32 machine screws and nuts to hold it all together. Buy a small sheet metal brake [jcwhitney.com] if you don't have one ($20-$40) so that you can make neat 90 degree bends. Pop rivets can be handy for stuff like holding the side braces onto your own shelves. I usually like to build things with machine screws and nuts. Once I've got all the sheet metal done, I either weld the seams or pop-rivet them, depending on what I need. Welds are very tough to cut, and pop-rivets have to be drilled out. Machine screws let you play with the design a little bit before making it final.
Sheet metal is dangerous to work with - it's sharp and little filings will get all over the place. A pair of good leather sheetmetal gloves will protect your hands.
Also, sheet steel comes coated with cosmolene or similar anti-corrosion coatings. You will need to wipe it off (a rag with rubbing alcohol usually works) before you spray-paint your finished cabinets. You need to paint the sheet steel (Tremclad is good for this) or else it will flash-rust in time.
If you're working with salvaged scrap steel (which I usually do), you will probably need to clean it. An angle grinder with a suitably-rated cup brush will do wonders. Remember to wear the safety glasses!
Measure twice, cut once! Take your time! This is no more difficult than carpentry.
Metalworking is not necessary (Score:5, Informative)
I built myself a rack cabinet for my music gear about a year and a half ago. I built it out of 1/2" Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF), which is a pretty good, reasonably strong, all-purpose, cheap, and very consistent (because it's made out of sawdust glued together, basically ). My boss, who is a former contractor, uses it all the time to make shelves at work. You can get 3/4", and sometimes even 1", if you are concerned about strength.
Then all you need to build the cabinet are: a circluar saw (table mount is best if you can get to one), some wood screws, and a drill. Plus, I guess, a tape measure.
There are really only three crucial issues: securing the corners somehow so the whole cabinet doesn't wobble back and forth, making sure the screws don't crack the MDF (which can happen very easily), and making sure the two sides are as close to parallel as possible, so that your equipment will fit in correctly all the way up and down the cabinet.
I solved the first by simply screwing a big piece of scrap MDF to the back bottom half of the cabinet. There are much more elegant ways to do it, and I am sure you can figure them out.
The second simply means that you have to drill all your screw holes before you put the screws in.
The third is the most difficult; I dealt with it by using corner clamps, and got lucky. Using a square in each corner would help, or you might be able to work something out using a level, if you have one.
Rack rails are available at big music stores (Guitar Center, e.g.); small ones should be able to order them. I'm sure Fry's has them, and MicroCenter too, but I've never actually looked.
The best way (I think) to attach the rails is with carriage bolts, and I didn't find that I needed washers (since there are so many bolts all the way down the rail). Rack screws are #10-32 machine screws (at least, that's what I use), and it's best to get short brass ones -- they go in easier.
Good luck!
Wood - including particleboard - is Flammable (Score:4, Informative)
I built myself a rack cabinet for my music gear about a year and a half ago. I built it out of 1/2" Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF), which is a pretty good, reasonably strong, all-purpose, cheap, and very consistent (because it's made out of sawdust glued together, basically )
Oh yeah, it's a great material, except that it's flammable.
(One can, of course, make that same argument about iron and steel - ever light steel wool on fire?)
The chances of my computers catching fire are minimal, but sh*t does happen, and I kinda like having a roof over my head.
Besides, if you're going to the trouble of building the thing, you may as well do it in metal. If you've got the tools, it's really no more effort.
Re:Metalworking for Dummies (Score:3, Insightful)
Um... is your post an elaborate, sarcastic way of saying it's more trouble than it's worth? You know how hard sarcasm is to detect in digital form.
Not at all! It's no more work than wood, just a less familiar material for most people.
If you're building something like this, you're gonna get some callouses. Expect it.
Fast and Easy (Score:3, Informative)
Wrap with some nice finishing wood, stain, put on varathane, and you have a nice cutom cabinet.
Re:Fast and Easy (Score:2)
Re:Fast and Easy (Score:2, Insightful)
Well sure, but once you have the chassis width, the vertical distance between the screws is moot. With metal you need to (measure or template) holes, then drill then (and if you want to get fancy, tap them).
With wood, well you just screw in the screw.
And there IS vendor specific screw spacing. With wood, who cares.
Just add some bolts (Score:3, Interesting)
If you're in the UK, Studiospares supply all the bits you need to bolt rack gear into your own housing, such as rack strips [studiospares.com] of various heights, nuts and bolts [studiospares.com], and pre-made cases [studiospares.com] & flightcases [studiospares.com] by Buster Cases [bustercases.com].
Note their directions to get the right width between the rackstrips:
Or you could go for a Designer Rack [knurr.com], even if just for ideas :)
I was lucky to save a server
Re:Fast and Easy (Score:2)
(Actually, the reason for metal is to pass FCC laws)
I agree. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I agree. (Score:2)
I would be more interested in how to build an adapter of some sort to allow a regular computer case to be mounted in a rack. Currently I just have the computers sitting on a cheap wooden shelf in the closet but a rack in the closet would just be cool.
Re:I agree. (Score:2)
Re:I agree. (Score:3, Informative)
It came with a reel to reel rig, and several 8 incher floppie drives as part of a data aquisition system. The original cabnet was built in '68 and then upgraded over the years. I stripped all the fans out of the components so cooling will
how would you go about doing it? (Score:4, Insightful)
forget cabinets, shop for a relay rack instead (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:forget cabinets, shop for a relay rack instead (Score:3, Interesting)
The only problem with these is that all the pressure is on the bolts in front, there is not a good way to balance heavy devices like a full cabinet.
Also, these are not good for servers that might need to get worked on. This idea is great for routers, switches and other network equipment that just sits there.
This is basically what we did for our network devices, but not for servers.
I agree (Score:3, Interesting)
These things are good for telco and telco-type infrastructure. Other than that, they are garbage. Garbage!
And they use a different sized screw than
Re:forget cabinets, shop for a relay rack instead (Score:3, Informative)
uh, no. (Score:4, Informative)
This doesn't work, half the time- for one thing, if the equipment is too heavy/long, you'll damage the case/rack by mounting it incorrectly(and few cases have provisions for mounting near the center of gravity).
This is especially dangerous with aluminum relay racks- you can strip the screws out just trying to get the stuff mounted; the second the guy in back lets go, the bottom screws go "BBRT!" and the bottom slams to the ground, while the tops of the rack ears are now horribly deformed.
Relay racks are only for patch panels, wire management, and SHORT depth equipment(like routers, switches, hubs).
This is a good question to ask before you buy colo space- "are my servers going to be in enclosures, or relay racks?" If they say "relay racks", run away, don't come back- clowns at work. Almost all servers need proper support- ie, front AND back mounting. Preferably with rails.
Re:uh, no. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:uh, no. (Score:3, Interesting)
More differences between telco and datacomm (Score:5, Informative)
The telco industry has been mounting equipment in "relay racks" for almost a century. You don't find many relays in them now, but back when the Western Electric Company (WECo) was making all the equipment, most of what they made were relays. Telco racks are 23 inches wide and built open, so the rack channels stand vertically and you can reach around them on all sides. They have screw holes on 1-inch centers, tapped for 12-24 screws.
Equipment mounted in "telco" racks is almost always middle-mounted. The mounting ears or flanges are located about halfway back on the chassis, meaning that the center of gravity is almost in the same plane as the rack face. This means the only force on the screws is shear load, against which they're tremendously strong. You can stand on telco gear when it's rack-mounted.
Some time after the telco industry had all this worked out, the wheel got reinvented. Deejays like to mount their mixers and effects processors in racks to manage the mess, and despite a lot of commonality between old telco gear*, they settled on racks that were 19 inches wide instead of 23. Along came the EIA to standardize this, specifying a screw thread of 10-32 and a staggered hole spacing of 1 1/4" alternating with 1/2". This gives us the "1U" size of 1 3/4". Many EIA racks don't even have threaded holes, instead they have square punchings into which you insert a "cage nut", which is easily replaced if you manage to strip the threads.
(* Many patch panels used in audio production are set up with the "longframe" or "bantam" plugs, which originated as WECo plugs on switchboards and are still used today in DS-1 patching applications.)
Mounting 19" equipment in a 23" rack would be simple enough with adapter ears. They can even compensate for the fact that most 19" equipment expects EIA hole spacing, and 23" racks invariably have WECo hole spacing. The damning difference is mid-mounting versus flush-mounting. Deejays want all their buttons and knobs to form one seamless control panel, so all their equipment has mounting ears right up at the front, with the face of the equipment. This works really well for audio gear, which is usually fairly light and doesn't stick more than a few inches behind the face of the rack.
When you try to mount a server or a UPS flush with the face of the rack, you quickly discover the mechanical limits of the screws. Because most co-lo outfits charge per vertical unit of rack space, there's a lot of pressure to make your equipment as flat as possible. This moves the center of gravity farther and farther back, while shortening the amount of rack flange over which the force will be distributed. If you get that UPS to hang there, don't even breathe on it, much less use the back edge as a stepstool while climbing into the cable tray superstructure.
When the option is available, flush-mounted equipment should always have a rear support too. This is the case with many rackmount servers, which include sliding rails for mounting. The back end of the rail must be screwed into a second rack flange, which means your cabinet needs two sets of upright channels.
For mounting deejay equipment, 19" flushmount makes sense. For mounting huge switching equipment, 23" midmount is clearly a better idea. For anything in between, it mostly depends on what options your equipment gives you. I vastly prefer mid-mounting when it's available, because it makes for a much stronger setup when all is said and done.
There are plenty of other differences between telco equipment and datacomm equipment, despite the superficial similarities. I won't get into the details of DC power, grounding, redundancy and reliability, heat dissipation, alarming, or any of the myriad "requirements" that equipment must satisfy before being located in a telco office. Suffice it to say: Datacomm equipment is happy on a desk but sometimes gets bolted into a rack. Telco equipment was designed for it.
Re:uh, no. Do NOT use your brain. (Score:4, Funny)
And who the hell is this "guy in back" anyway? You make me jealous, wish I had help. I've built entire cellular telephone sites and radio repeater sites putting things in racks and rarely have help. I've even been able to mount 75 lb power supplies in relay racks by myself without damaging anything.
I know you must have been shooting for "funny" but someone modded you up as "informative" and someone is going to get the wrong idea. Relay racks will work fine for his application.
By the way, you do know that they make four point relay racks, right?
Re:forget cabinets, shop for a relay rack instead (Score:2)
A better idea would be to just order the rails from a cabinet company, chatsworth for example [chatsworth.com], and just bolt those to the inside of a wooden frame with front and back supports.
Be sure to make the cabinet deep enough, many 1U servers are fairly deep and may end up hanging out the back of your cabinet if it's not deep enough.
The only time a relay rack would be acceptable woul
Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
if you are _custom_ building a cabinet would you care about "physical specifications that racks and cabinets must conform to"? I find this confusing. Isn't the point just to build what you need for the equipment you have???
If he buys a new a 1U or 2U box later, he probably wants it to fit in his rack.
Re:Why? (Score:2)
H" x W" x D" (Score:5, Informative)
Re:H" x W" x D" (Score:2)
1 inch = 2.54 cm; (all rounded up)
4.5 cm, 48.3 cm, 42.3/50.8 cm
I'm not sure about these figures. Eg. X-Serve [apple.com] is 28 inches (71.1 cm) deep, and it's a U1... right? Thats 8 inches more than your spec, or did I miss something?
Re:H" x W" x D" (Score:2)
19" (as in 19" rack) refers to the WIDTH, not the DEPTH. 28" is not *that* deep for rackmount equipment by any means.
Re:H" x W" x D" (Score:3, Informative)
What "average" cabinet was this?
Sun's standard rack (Sunrack 900) is 35" deep.
HP/Compaq's 10000 series racks is 40" deep.
A few thoughts (Score:5, Informative)
If you are not going to be taking anything out of the "cabinet" too often, you could probably get away with this, and just put 2 bits of wood 19" apart so you can screw your kit directly into these...
If you do want to take things out (as I would) it would be nice to find some metal sheets with the appropriate holes drilled - they must exist - dunno where you could buy them though...
Remember rear access (no pun) but I spend as much time behind my cabinet rewiring this and that as I do in front.
For some reason rack mount gear other than networking kit is usually about twice the price of its non rack mount equivalent - take switch boxes (KVM?) and UPS's in particular - even server rack mount kits tend to be a few hundred quid - and all you get is a few brackets and perhaps some rails...
Hence I tend to go eith shelves in my cabinets - the advantages of rack mount, but cheaper!
Re:A few thoughts (Score:4, Informative)
My audio stand project. [demaagd.com]
I would have made a rack mount system if it really meant a damn other than just a few "cool" points with select few people, the results I got IMO look much better anyway and non-rack-mount stuff doesn't look out of place.
Re:A few thoughts (Score:2)
Re:A few thoughts (Score:2)
For around $300 ($100 for ups, $150 ish for batteries), you'll have a UPS with brand new batteries that will give you probably 80 amp-hours, r
Re:A few thoughts (Score:2)
~Will
Two words: Anvil case (Score:5, Interesting)
Not Neccesarily.... (Score:3, Funny)
It could be sold with the house as a built-in feature. Who knows, if you sold it to a geek it could be the closer....
Re:Two words: Anvil case (Score:2)
PartsExpress (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User
Google to The Rescue (Score:5, Informative)
More on Google [google.com]
Find your local rock & rollers... (Score:4, Informative)
Find good, sturdy wood 1/2 to 1 inch thick, make 4 sides of a box: top, bottom and sides. Front and back should be open. The INSIDE distance between the sides should be just a bit over 19 inch. The box should be however deep as your biggest unit (of course) plus some extra for plugs and cables.
Now comes the trick: on the inside sides put two vertical bits of wood 2 inch wide, 1/2 to 1 inch thick, flat on the sides 1 inch recessed from the front running top to bottom. This is where you'll screw in your equipment. Make sure to use nylon washers so as not to scratch your euipment.
Done.
Re:Find your local rock & rollers... (Score:2)
I used a good birch plywood, then edged it and put a nice coat of varathane over it. To finish it off, I put a glass door on it to make it less obtrusive and to cut down on fan noise. Looks great in my office.
I also bought a 4U enclosure for my CPU and stuck it
Not for the original poster, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
I went to IKEA and bought a cheap-o entertainment cabinet. Nice black finish, smoke glass door on the front, and cheaper than I could have bought the parts for to build my own.
I never installed the castors, and as that puts the bottom right on the floor it easily handles the weight of my large UPS. The only problem is no rails, but I've put everything on shelves... it's only for home, after all.
Racks (Score:2, Informative)
Join the club... (Score:5, Interesting)
Try here [smarthome.com] for reasonably-priced rackmount rails. They aren't really quite proper for computers, though.
I also have a catalog from Hammond Manufacturing [hammondmfg.com] which sells racks piece-by-piece, including rail sets. Their catalog shows a lot of detailed schematics for their racks, as well. You can get a catalog free from their web site.
I use a couple old HP half-height racks (really using only 1 right now, 1 more sitting around). They aren't deep enough for proper cases, though, so I use shallow cases for now.
I'm planning to do the same thing as you, at some point. I've considered some $300 racks off eBay and the normal $250 shipping, but I'd rather build a nice wood-exterior cabinet that would look good in the home. Besides, I need something that is closer to 'normal' specs than the racks I have now. Rack hardware: I'd stick to eBay. Shelves, blank panels, etc. are all much cheaper that way. I also bought a rackmount APC UPS--look for one WITHOUT batteries, and shop around online for replacements. You will pay less for shipping all around, and the batteries are usually crap anyway, unless it's a trustworthy seller who says they put new batteries in it. For cable management, I prefer a simple lacer bar [altex.com], unless you really have a ton of equipment. Of course, if I had money, I'd get rails and cable management arms...but I was doing good to buy the rackmount cases, as the rest was (mostly) free for me. For rackmount computer cases, I've used Case Outlet [caseoutlet.com] for a while. They barely speak English, but they resale decent cases at decent prices. If you are using any kind of multi-drive enclosure or removeable drive racks, be sure to gett the DEEP cases! You can also try KRI Computer [kricomputer.com] for rackmount equipment. I've never bought from them before, but I've heard good things about them, and they have good prices and a good selection. Welcome to the world of Ultimate Geekdom!
Ebay: Swingline racks, Leviton: patch panels (Score:2)
I ended up wall mounting an open-frame Swingline picked up on Ebay (while the frame is 19", it's designed to wallmount on studs 16" or 19" apart). I got some patch panels from Ebay as well, and some ordered direct from Leviton. The rack also houses a 32 port 100 Mb/s switch. Non-rackmoun
Re:Join the club... (Score:2)
Me, I use an Ikea hi-fi roll around pushed into a closet..
Don't forget to plan (Score:5, Interesting)
What tools do you have? (Score:5, Informative)
1) Accessability - an area where many commercial rackmounts flop, let alone a home-build.
2) Temperature - when you pack 4 dual-processing Athlons into a small box, you have quite a room heater. Not only does the rackmount itself need to be ventilated, but the cooling needs of the room it's in need to be considered.
3) Appearance - is it going to sit in your living room? Or, is functionality the primary concern?
4) Power and bandwidth - How are you going to plug it all in? If appearance is an issue, what about all that ugly cat5 cabling?
5) Resources - what tools do you have? Are you like me, armed with a 1'x1'x3' toolbox filled with cheap handtools, a circular saw, and a drill, or do you have a garage full of table saws, lathes, and routers?
6) Cleanliness - I've seen a rackmounted system run 24x7 in a hosting facility for 2 years and at the end not have any noticable amount of dust. I've also seen my kids' computer downstairs accumulate over 1/2" of dust on the CPU heatsink. If the box will sit in your home, you have to account for any dust in the house. I'd recommend two boxes in your unit. A small one on the bottom, with a filter on the very bottom letting air in, and fans on the top pushing the filtered air up into the server cavity. Then, at the top of the server cavity, on the sides, have the ventilation holes that let the heated air out.
7) Dimensions - there are basically two kinds of racks. 19" used by servers, and a larger size (22'? 23'?) used for telecommunications. You can get brackets to convert the bigger to the smaller.
I assume that you have a server or two, or you wouldn't be bringing it up. Really, I wouldn't consider making my own unless I enjoyed making wooden-ish boxes or had some special need or decor to match up with. You can get a decent half-size rack on ebay for a few hundred.
-Ben
Re:What tools do you have? (Score:2)
ARticle (Score:5, Informative)
IEC standard (Score:2, Informative)
IEC 60297-1 Ed. 3.0, 1986. You may have to
pay a nominal fee to get it though.
Surplus Sales (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Surplus Sales (Score:2)
SPecifications and Pointers (Score:5, Informative)
Gil
I built my own a few years back. (Score:3, Informative)
ikeya
rackfront fans, side ports (Score:2, Informative)
For the rackmount newbie.. (Score:2)
Here's a good way to build a rack cheap. Rent a van and go to the local computer surplus place, and find an old Sun Sparc Storage array (e.g. SSA-100) enclosure. These are 3/4 height cabinets with pull-out fronts.
Next, remove all the disks (1 GB SCA) and sell them on eBay for a buck a piece of whatever you can get. The SSA will probably come with about a hun
Unless your time is of no value (Score:3, Interesting)
It's worth remembering that steel or aluminum cases lose quite a lot of heat through the walls while wooden boxes are insulators, so commercial cases are more tolerant of poor thermal design.
You Want Specs? (Score:3, Informative)
Then get the diagram for it, includes all the dimensions you need. Then just build your case according to that...
rackframe.com (Score:2)
High strength corners + right angle pre-drilled members and you've got all the customiziablity you need. MUCH cheaper then buying a pre-fab rack, plus lots of geek factor.
In fact, they even make shelving to make a rack/workstation combo. Awesome toys. I don't work for them, I just ran across their booth at comdex.
rackframe.com [rackframe.com]
Bedframe Rails = homebrew rack on the cheap (Score:5, Informative)
Good luck!
Re:Bedframe Rails = homebrew rack on the cheap (Score:4, Informative)
Rack rail from milestek [milestek.com]
Just hit up IKEA (Score:2)
Do notice that I have a few shelves on the relay rack. The ServerIron (switch) is a bit heavy in the back, so I have a book shoved between it and the Sparc 5 directly below it.
The rack is also anchored to the wall.
Re:Just hit up IKEA (Score:2)
Racks on the cheap (Score:3, Interesting)
I went to a bankruptcy auction and bought three Motorola telecomm cabinets for $1.50 (that's right, a dollar and a half). These are only about 60" high by 18" deep, so they're really just dressed up relay racks. I gave one to a client and kept the other two.
Adding rails to one of them was about $60. I ordered them through my local telephone company, because it was cheaper and better than buying angle iron, drilling holes, and threading them myself. I added wheels and some paint. My total expenditure was just over $100 per cabinet.
I also bought a used high-end server cabinet for a client from the local telco for about half the price of a new one.
Our local recycler has a division that deals with computer stuff. Anything computery they separate out and try to resell. The nice thing is, they sell it by the pound! I bought several rackmount cable management modules for about $20, less than the price of a single new one. They were just sitting in a pile on the ground. I cleaned them up, and they made a nice addition to my cheap server cabinet.
If you want to put your rack in a closet and maintain a reasonable temperature, you can buy a bathroom fan and thermostat for not much money. I think a nice quiet fan is about $75, but in a closet noise may not be an issue.
Cheap Solution (Score:2)
Once I buy a house, I hope to get a real setup going, but this works for now and cost me next to nothing. I did provide the rack with its own 20
Well you could do it like me (Score:2, Interesting)
Antec for cheap rackmount cases (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.antec-inc.com/us/pro_rackmounts.html [antec-inc.com]
I think these are fairly new, because when I first started looking, no one had stock. I got my 4U22ATX400 off of Newegg.com and I love it. It is really heavy duty and sturdy. Plus, it has drive bays up the wazzo. Finally, despite its low price ($188), it has the features of a much more expensive case.
Re:Antec for cheap rackmount cases (Score:2)
I don't have a rack yet. Right now the case is sitting on its side out in my laundry room next t
Build it with a drill, tap and Wal Mart! (Score:2, Insightful)
Hold on a second ... (Score:5, Informative)
So let's say (old gear scenario) a hub/switch, old PC as server, cable modem, T5 cable (you said "clutter" so one assumes no wifi); typical to home needs. Negligible heat, negligible power. So what the heck do you need even a "small rack" for?
Think: a cabinet rack must necessarily have a larger footprint than the existing gear it encloses. A cabinet will have all the same wiring clutter leading in and out of it. So it's unclear what you hope to gain.
If you want to make things look nice, mount the gear out of sight (closet, furnace room (my own set up)) or stick it in a piece of furniture (as many of the posts here suggest). Total cost can be zero.
Industry went to racks primarily to make use of vertical space for the large number of units typical of an industrial set up. Clutter is addressed with trunking, bundling, and raised flooring.
Great Site for what you are asking. (Score:3, Informative)
guide for building rack
Picture: Inexpensive Rack (Score:5, Interesting)
I purchased a wire shelving unit on wheels from the Container Store [containerstore.com]. I keep the rack in my closet [michael-forman.com]. When I need to get to the wiring, the entire unit rolls out. Total cost was about $150 US.
Michael. [michael-forman.com]
Don't build a rack (Score:3, Interesting)
Guitar Center + Home Depot = Cheap Rack (Score:2)
They (as well as many other pro-audio stores) sell metal brackets for mounting rack-mount audio hardware, mixers, effects processors, etc. The brackets run about $5-$20 per pair, depending on the height. They are L-shaped, and have plenty of mounting holes pre-drilled, plus threaded holes spaced perfectly for rack-mount devices, 1U apart.
Then head over to Home Depot and spend about $40 on some nice wood (probably something intended to be used for shelving), plus about $5-10 for hardware. (Screws, a few
Audio Systems Design and Installation (Score:2)
Bank closeouts (Score:2)
We got a couple very comfy chairs for five bucks each, and I got a full height equipment case (plexi front door, perforated rear, dual exhaust fans, roller wheels, etc) for $20. Canadian.
Of course, moving the damn thing was another issue. It weighs in at close to 300 pounds.
how to rack 'em and stack 'em (Score:2)
choice quote from this article
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the article covers building a frame from both metal (welding required) or wood
Side Topic: Cooling for equip in residential setup (Score:2)
Obviously this one room get a bit warm in the summer, but stays okay in the winter. Any ideas on how to set something up to keep the machines - and the room - comfortable. I have access t
EIA-310-D (Score:2)
What you're looking for is "EIA-310-D". Unfortunately, when I try to search for it, all I'm finding is companies quoting that their racks comply with the specifications.
What I did when I finished my basement (Score:3, Informative)
I made my office next to my storage room so the servers are in the storage room with nice heavy smoked glass doors in front of the racks. I ran mouse, keyboard, VGA Printer and a pile of cat5 cables through the wall when I built it so that I could run a KVM to control the servers from the office. Now I only have to worry about that stuff changing to USB or something before I have to run more cables. The storage room has a window in it, so when it is hot I just open the window and put a fan in the window... Cooling problem solved. I have about 8 servers, 2 switches, 2 routers, 1 large UPS and the KVM running in there with room to spare.
US screw sizes (Score:2)
Re:Rolling your own racking system. (Score:2)
Re:That must be some home network! (Score:2)
My place is a clutter of wires because I am a jerk! I don't want the neighbors sniffing my packets. I do have a wireless nic in the laptop from work, and yes, I can connect to their unsecured AP.
I have used both relay racks and the closed cabinets. Relay racks will work for just about anything, dee