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Rackmounting at Home?
gnurd asks: "I am toying with the idea of buying a Rackable system for home use. However I'm sure I dont need a 72" cabinet, but i would like a small safe enclosure for a couple of systems. I have had a hard time finding a small (12U) cabinet for home use. anybody try setting up a small racked center at home? Your experience would be appreciated." Would any of the solutions from
this past Ask Slashdot discussion help in this case? And has anyone successfully used racks intended for rackable musical instruments to hold servers instead?
If there were answers in an old Ask Slashdot, then why was this posted to begin with?
MIDI racks are the same form factor as computer racks. You can get a pretty good MIDI gigging rack fairly cheap. They're from 8U to 16U, they stack well, and they're pretty rugged. Try your local music shop.
If you want to buy a rack that is nice but cheap, try Middle Atlantic/Datatel. Their ERK series of racks works quite well, and is not too expensive. http://www.middleatlantic.com/. They also carry a line of neat rack accessories. Other sources are Rittal, Knurr, Schroff/Hoffman, etc. But those are much more expensive. On the whole, I find that racks designed for servers are more expensive and lesser quality than racks designed for audio equipment.
When mounting hardware in a 19" rack, if you only have two screws per box put the screws in the bottom holes. Not the top, not one bottom one top. When they are in the bottom, the weight of the box pulls the rack ears against the mounting rails for a firm hold and a well-distributed load.
...and it's not a big commodity product because nobody needs them at home, not even the lamer who started this discussion. jeez, I mean, it's normal for a nice rack to give you a woody, but not when it's measurements are "12U". Puhlease tell us what this is going to be used for. Unix is multitasking, multihosting, multiprocessing, etc. two boxes, ok, or maybe three... but a rack?
Actually you can get rails that will pop into those holes without the screws. Plus if you strip one of those one with the wholes drilled directly into the rack your screwed. Heh, no pun intended.
There are a few considerations I learned about when I set up my living-room-based rack:
1) Temperature: Even a few pieces of equipment will boost the temperature of the room where the rack is placed. Beware of closets and other closed spaces since they collect heat and can be so hot in a few hours that your equipment will fry. UPS units make a lot of heat! Have a decent A/C available.
2) Noise! The rack can act as an echo chamber for equipment noise. The fans run all the time, and they can get irritating 24/7 when the rack is in a living area. You may want to consider low noise power supplies such as the Silencer from PC Power&Cooling if the rack will be in a populated room. Also, some of the cooling fans that are actually attached to the rack may cause too much noise.
3) Power Requirements: I had to install an improved plug in the living room of my apartment just to handle 4 rackmounted systems, a switch and some other peripherals. Be careful if you are planning to plug lots of stuff in as it could be drawing too much current. This would cause your circuit breakers to blow frequently or possibly a fire hazard.
4) Appearance: I got a lot of flak from my girlfriend when I installed the rack. Since I could not leave it in the closet for temperature reasons I had to put it in the living room, and she didn't like the way it looked. Fortunately, I bought a Middle-Atlantic unit (somewhat pricey, though) which allowed me to add a plexiglass door which made it look a little better. It sits in the corner with a lamp on top and looks okay, though.
Generally, besides these special concerns for a home rack, it is like any other piece of industrial equipment. I bought it for the specific reason that I run a home-based business and I needed to economize on space. I recommend against buying it unless you have a specific need. Even a single rack because of the above considerations will take some planning and setup work when one could just as well stack up systems on top of one another.
- John
There are plenty of options for you. Guitar Center and other music stores (Sam Ash etc.) will sell the rack rails individually, so you can build your own rack out of plywood and cover it if need be. A pair of 12-space rack rails should cost you $20 at most. If you don't feel like building your own, I purchased a black 8-space 19" Middle Atlantic rack enclosure from Full Compass in Wisconsin (no sales tax to CA btw) for $75. If you need casters and shock-mounting the cost of the rack enclosure can skyrocket, but there ARE options if you want to do it the cheap way, for instance, you could check ebay for used rack enclosures. good luck ;)
p.s. In general I would steer you away from Guitar Center due to their absolutely pitiful customer service. If you do have trouble buying the rails individually ask for Martin at Full Compass (extension #1179).... and no, I don't work for Full Compass, I'm just a loyal customer offering some decent advice instead of simply flaming the poster (which seems to be the common "advice" of late?).
reference:
http://www.middleatlantic.com
http://www.fullcompass.com
http://www.guitarcenter.com
http://www.samash.com
I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned optima. they make some very nice reasonably priced racks and rack accessories.
Just go to www.dovebid.com. Thats their business, although it's a lot more than just failed .com's. Any company can sell stuff that it's liquidating on this site. What's really funny is when Lockheed Martin decided to liquidate stuff. I believe that most of the auctions are in SF or LA, I can't remember. They're all the same to a Mainer like me.
I built my own rack out of 2 x 4's and some rack rails from middleatlantic.com Right now I just have 6 1U servers, a 1U router, a 1U switch, and a 1U KMV switch. If you can use a saw, drill, and hammer, you're set.
Head to a larger music store (Mars, Sam Ash, etc).. There's tons of small and mid sized (and nice looking) 19" racks for home studios. Sure maybe the original purpose was for 19" rackmountable FX processors and whatnot, but hey aren't standards wonderful?
Personally I use a 10RU SKB rack case.. just throw the front and back on and pick the thing up by the handles.. incredible if you need to lug 10U worth of rack gear around every few weeks.
On the subject of cheap home rack mounting, try an SPM. They come in 2U and 4U configurations http://www.middleatlantic.com/dcm/wall/spm.htm On the subject of racks being expensive, one word: tooling. Machineworks is expensive, even if you build the jigs, you have to pay the operator(s), etc. Jim
They are about 5 feet high and are designed for 19" rack equipment. They even have doors on the front and back, holes for volt/amp meters and a speaker! You can get them at hamfests sometimes for free.
They make a standalone 24U isolated rack that might be just what the doctor ordered.
--
- A.P.
--
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
here at the Geek Haus, we have several racks, including a nice looking IBM rack for our entertainment center:
Server racks
Entertainment Racks
There are a couple other racks, the central router rack, with cablemodem, cisco routers for internal subnets, and a vlan switch for remote management.
and another server rack next to the main NOC rack for a couple of servers, and a small clarion raid array.. (just don't ask what our power bills are like.. yikes)
These often utilize 19" racks AFAIK, and they are weatherproof and lockable to boot! The downside is that decent real cooling is not very easy to achieve (most traffic signal controllers are designed to have temperature/humidity tolerances that are extreme -- Econolite tests their controllers in an oven), and you'd have a time trying to find a supplier that would sell to an individual. But another avenue to investigate nonetheless, and they come in many sizes (I believe 24" to 72" is about the available height range). Just make sure 19" is the rack size.
Try good old radio shack. I was just in there today, and until the 28th of July they have a sale on a nice unit with wheels, a sloped top, and a straight up/down bottom. I don't know how many units, but pretty small. It looked to be plenty sturdy (built for amplifiers)
Price was $59 on sale. They also had a bigger one which was still less than $100.
The drawback is that they only have 1 small one per store, if that. So if you don't get the in store one you have to order it from the catalog, and I imagine shipping isn't cheap.
(Unfortunately, Newark's online catalog is poorly organized, the print version is much easier to follow, IMO).
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
My setup isn't as sophisticated as I'd like, but it gets the wires off the floor. I have two enclosures, an old AT&T DataPhone cabinet (about 1.5m tall by .65m wide by .5m deep) and a free-standing "ladder"-style rack (3m tall, standard width). The DataPhone cabinet holds two DDS-2 tape drives, a keyboard/monitor switch, and four computers: two "pizza box"-style Intergraph TD-40 workstations, a 486 in a standard tower case, and a Packard Bell desktop. The rack holds most of the networking kit in the apartment (both firewalls, the cable modem, an Ethernet hub, the Synoptics chassis, and the Token Ring MAU). The disk array chassis and the UPS remain freestanding.
The most important reason to throw stuff in a rack is cable management. Common cabling is bundled up neatly and hung off the screw holes on the enclosures. Bundles of CAT-5 cable are snugly wrapped in masking tape every half meter, with Ethernet in a bundle separate from the Token Ring. Power cabling runs up the opposite side of the rack from the data cabling, and I have taken care to cross power and data cables at right angles to minimize cross-talk. Almost everything is labeled neatly. If you want to spend the money, you can color code your cabling (I usually do this when doing wiring jobs for money).
Be careful when using tie-wraps: They can be cinched too tight and cause internal breaks in delicate wiring (e.g. SCSI or UTP cabling). I usually use wire ties like you get with boxes of trash bags to truss everything in place.
Make friends with other sysadmins. A friend of mine gave me all sorts of nice telecomms hardware (including the Dataphone cabinet and brackets for running wiring) in trade for helping him clean out his machine room. I regularly go through the trash at work looking for useful items, e.g. an HP SCSI enclosure or Sun monitor cables. I once found two 4-GB SCSI disks in the trash and was able to make do with them for several years until I bought enough disks for a software RAID array. A consultant friend of mine was able to get four dual-processor Intergraph workstations for less than USD 300---all with 128 MB RAM, on-board Ethernet and SCSI. Even though they're Pentium-133s, Windows, Linux, and Solaris fully support the hardware and run great as domain controllers, file servers, and Unix workstations. Another guy traded me a monitor for a working SGI Indy that was loaded with memory. Make new friends and keep the old, my aunt always said.
I have something like 20 computers in my apartment, from an old IMSAI 8080 on up to a DEC Alpha. While I'd be really hurting if I had to replace it all, I think I've purchased maybe one complete system out of the whole lot. If you're having a hard time finding racks and such, nose around the local swap meets or hamfests, contact wholesalers and salvagers, and hang out around a college data center. Somebody's bound to get rid of something useful, and most times they'll just give it away to be rid of it.
Rev. Dr. Xenophon Fenderson, the Carbon(d)ated, KSC, DEATH, SubGenius, mhm21x16
I'm proud of my Northern Tibetian Heritage
Heh. Fortunately for me, my girlfriend has her own place. I doubt I'd get away with all the crap I have if I was married. :)
Rev. Dr. Xenophon Fenderson, the Carbon(d)ated, KSC, DEATH, SubGenius, mhm21x16
I'm proud of my Northern Tibetian Heritage
I've got a _really_ nice rack I bought in an electronics surplus shop in Albuquerque, NM. It came from Sandia (I can tell by the colors). It has a good power distribution system (power strips) in it, a nice quiet fan and good sturdy wheels with a solid lock down thingy that locks/unlocks easily with your foot. Originally it cost several thousand dollars and I got it for $60 IIRC. I looked a long time before I found it, and I'm glad I was persistant and waited.
From Smarthome: Rack Systems - They're for audio and computers. Check out the empty frames 'n casters.
Cheap 4U EMPTY rack case!
Interlogic Industries
My idea was to convert my standard cases into rackmounts. Not too expensive it seems. That's the cheapest 4U rack enclosure I've ever seen. Dunno if it's still a good price though.
If anyone else has any other hints, lemme know. I'm still thinking about rack mounting to save space in my apartment.
There are a few companies making desks primarily for digital music workstations that have racks built in. If you've got the money, I imagine they would work real well. Check out this site
www.smarthome.com sells just the rails for racks,
in full-height (96" or something) and half-height
(45" or so). They're about $100 for the set of
four rails. I just bought a set myself, I've
got a big UPS, some hubs, and a few small boxes
now, and plans for a 4U RAID cabinet and a 2U web
server. Plus the spare wood from the deck my
parents just dismantled, I figure I got a pretty
great deal.
- Kazin
Racks for musical equipment are, in fact, the same as racks for computers. You can use musical racks just fine.
The reason they are expensive is that the demand is low, and the construction has to be pretty strong. You are, after all, mounting stuff that's usually quite expensive, and usually mounting lots of it.
All the technology in the world won't hide your lack of vision, talent, or understanding.
Then, if you take it as a given that you have these servers happily whirring and humming away, you probably do want to put them in another room from the one that you actually work/live/watch tv in.
At risk of being on-topic, I'd say that racks are expensive largely for the same reasons that SCSI hard drives are expensive - economies of scale (or rather the lack of them).
The coolest rack I've seen recently is the one that comes "free" with a Sun 4800. So buy one of those and stick your boxes in the spare space. Or maybe not :-)
Usually, you can get good modular shelves from a restaurant supply place too. Nice and simple, holds a hell of a lot of weight.
-30-
Hey, when you've got 19", you hear this sort of thing down at the club show all the time:
"HEY BABY! NICE RACK! COME ON HOME, BABY! I WANNA MOUNT THAT THING!"
Tough life, I know. [shrug]
--
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Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
I have my three home computers rackmounted. I did this because of the amount of desktop space 3 full systems take up, and the fact my apartments have all benn pretty small (and thusly cheap). I found a small cabinet on e-bay for about 1/2 price, I also found some nice older fiberchannel drives and enclosures pretty cheap. A good way to get easy storage for all my ummmm MP3's. Check out e-bay, and if you live in SoCal dot bomb closeouts and auctions and stuff.
Rule of Life Number 2: Remember, it can all go to hell at any minute. --Jimmy Buffet
Usual disclaimers apply, etc etc...
If you are setting something up in your basement or even a spare bedroom, IMHO, they're the only way to go.
Get to know people who work in IT at large companies. You may find that they're dumping rack enclosures. I've picked up a 19-inch and a 24-inch for nothing. The 24-incher has shelves and both have fans and doors. These were being dumped during an equipment migration project and if I didn't take them they'd have actually paid someone to come and haul them away. If you have some money... I've seen some equipment racks for sale cheap (though not cheap enough for me :-) ) in the local classified ads, usually when some company goes under. With the recent death of some dot-com companies, I suspect that some hardware will be for sale fairly cheap.
I have been assembling my own systems since the late '80s and prefer getting rackmounted enclosures for most systems though I found that it's nice to have a smaller workstation that'll sit under the desk. You can keep most of your data on the rackmounted systems downstairs. Makes the system under your desk quieter when it doesn't have a half-dozen disks spinning in it.
The downside of racks are that, even if you strip them down to the skeleton (removing the side panels, doors, etc.), they're a bear to haul up and down the stairs if you move. I know... I just moved and my back wasn't the same for a couple of days. Tests the strength of your friendships as well though it helps to remind folks that there's beer in the fridge when you get done shlepping the rack up the stairs.
The other thing that's sometimes annoying is that you never have enough of the hardware for mounting equipment in the rack. As a result, you collect a bunch of incompatible clip-on nuts and screws. The one's I prefer are apparently only made by one company on the planet and available only to people representing a secret cabal of IT equipment manufacturers. And what ever screw/nut combinations you find... don't ever lose one of the screws. The local hardware store will not have exact replacements. It's incredibly annoying to have to have three different screw/nut/Torx drivers on hand to put in a pair of slide rails. Hint: if you find some mounting hardware that you like, buy a bunch of it.
Oh yeah, one more plus: Your friends and acquantances will be assured of your being a geek when they see your rackmounted computers. Of course, if you wish to be recognized as a total geek, you'll keep the racks in the living room.
--
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Kinda expensive, but you get what you pay for.
Send lawyers, guns and money. The shit has hit the fan.
I ended up buying industrial shelving. It's cheap (~$100 for 36" wide by 72" high with 5 shelves) Each shelf is rated to 400 lbs. I bought the grid style shelving, which means it is made up bars every 3 inches or so. That makes cabling nice and easy.
No I don't get to screw my equipment into it, but it sits on it nicely, and even supports a Compaq DS20 without any hassle. (In fact, there are 3 other "normal" machines on the same shelf.) It isn't very pretty or very sexy, but cheap and efficient. (Think warehouse shelving)
You can get this sort of thing at any commercial office supply place. I'm not sure if some place like OfficeDepot would have it or not.
I have a 10U shock-mount rack case available, if anyone's interested. The rack is spring mounted inside a sturdy fiberglass case, and it's really deep, probably 24". I picked it up from a government surplus sale.
If anyone's interested, the first decent offer takes it. I would sell through ebay for security.
I have three 19 inch relay racks installed along one wall of the computer room in my house. The effect is kind of a wall of computers and audio equipment, looks great in a high tech, geeky kind of way. You can pick up AT and ATX cases in 4U and 2U sizes from several computer parts stores ( I got some of mine from Altex in Dallas) You can also pick them up cheap at computer flea markets and Ham radio conventions. The great thing about racks is I'm always adding something, rebuilding a server or something. With the racks I can always shuffle things around and make it fit. I used the open relay rack instead of the cabinets because a 72" rack can be had for as little as $100 new as opposed to a cabines which can cost thousands. You just fasten them to the floor and use ladder to brace against the wall. Do it right and it's rock solid.
http://www.optimumdata.com/ccielab
Look around in there and you'll see some nifty stuff I've got hanging from my basement ceiling. Total cost was about $10 for rails and $15 for a bag of 100 audio rack screws.
The front unit hangs over my 4' x 8' plywood desk and gives me 14U of rack space with room to easily fit my hitachi 21" tube under it.
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
Here's a source for AV racks, many different sizes, for decent prices: http://www.smarthome.com/racksys.html
bp
I managed to find a really NICE 5/6-enclosed HP 2m rack super-cheap from a company near me (in the north Dallas suburb Richardson)...includes a fan at the top, power strip, counterweights, little snap-in front filler plates, the works. They buy corporate-surplus hardware and resell it; from what my contact tells me, the racks usually end up on the scrapheap.
The company's name is Half-Price Computers...they ought to be in the greater Dallas phone book. I can't speak for them 'cause I don't work for them, but I imagine they'd ship FOB or deliver for more money...Luckily for me, my rack fit in the back of a friend's Dodge Ram.
The only problem I've had with the rack (aside from getting it in the door of my apartment) has been the power strip...it has one of those twist-locking 120VAC/20A connectors (I believe NEMA L5-20 is the designation), and my apartment doesn't. Landlords get peeved when you change out electrical outlets, so I'm stuck with trying to make/buy an adapter cable. Does anyone know of a place (online or otherwise) that sells those, or might sell those? Already checked Home Depot and Lowe's...they have the parts to make a cable but I'm not so good with a soldering iron that I want to risk burning down my apartment building by making my own. I know of several custom-cable places that could make one for me, but I'd rather buy off-the-shelf (or 'mass-customized' a la CafePress) if I can...I would expect such to be significantly cheaper.
Anyone? Anyone?
Thanks. Now I want one of them. You don't realise what you've done, do you?
Now I need to get the Financial Manager (read:Wife) to approve purchase of one of these. This means proving that I am indeed a worthwhile investment (read: clean out the basement, cook, cut lawn etc.) and that we really do need one (see cleaning basement above). I will then have to show ROI for a while to come after installation (Hon, I know we're broke, but can I buy this dress? You got that silly LAN rack or whatever a couple of months ago...). Like I said, thanks.
;-)
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
Wood shelving at K Mart. Each shelf can hold 150 lbs. My scanner is on the bottom, computer and monitor in the middle, and external drives on top.
Shaky if not supported though.
photosMy Photostream
There is not a lot of engineering in one of these things. Most of the parts can be had at a good sized hardware store for a lot less than the hundreds of bucks that "real racks" cost. Granted, they won't look all shiny beige, but who cares?
Bush should have died, not Reagan -- Morrissey
Morrissey rides a cockhorse -- The Warlock Pinchers
Small racks are made for network equipment such as switches and routers and hubs. Some of these racks are as cheap as $100 and come with attractive glass windows and even wooden enclosures. Many can be wall mounted or stood up on rubber feet. All of them have more than enough room to hold all of your home networking and computing toys.
If you want to try a guitar rack, you might try www.carvin.com or www.musiciansfriend.com. Both sites have attractive, nice racks and cabinets.
Never saw that exactly but I did see the inverse. My old roommate had an nice old rack surplused from a gov data center packed with tasty musical gear.
License: By reading this you are agreeing that you agree with me.
Try picking up used effects rack roadcases from musicians and PA hire companies. They might be a bit scratched, and not noiseproof like a glass case, but hey it makes it easier when you move house :-)
Check out SKB for new ones.
I prefer the handmade wooden ones you find around the music shops. The better ones even come with internal and/or external shock absorbers! Great for portability.
smile, it makes everyone else wonder what you're up to
Check local surplus houses. Mendelson Electronics (www.meci.com) is near enough to me that I can swing down in an afternoon, and pick up rack of almost any size for less than $100-150. Some of these are nice, half-sized racks with glass doors. They say things like "Compaq" on them.
Buy a road case from someone like Anvil, Starcase, or SKB. They're durable. You can take them with you to a LAN party. And your equipment will be safe in transit, or as luggage on a 747, or whatever.
Alternatively, build a rack. Parts for serious road cases and other racks (aluminum extrusions, hasps, heavy steel corners, plywood with colorful vacuum-laminated fiberglass, pre-tapped rails, etc) can be found at TCH (the URL escapes me). They seem to be the same to road cases as Black Box is to networking gear.
Rails are also available at Parts Express (www.partsexpress.com), for cheap.
Whatever you do, be sure to compare the depth of the equipment to the depth of the rack. It might not be a big deal if the back of your server hangs out of the cabinet a few inches, unless it bothers you to look at. But it would be somewhat troublesome if the back cover for your new road case doesn't fit once it's loaded with equipment.
Companies like Starcase and Anvil are completely willing to build custom projects, so if you -really- want something special...
Kid-proof tablet..
Why, praytell would you have a RCA DirecTV receiver on top of your computer? And what's that cable that seems to be running from the HU Authentication card to the back of your machine?
;)
Hmmmmm....
Cheers,
levine
Milestek has 36" or 42" enclosures. They're the std 19" size. I think they run around $450 and have locking doors. If you want to rackmount everything but dont need an enclosure, get a relay rack and cut it down to size. An 84" aluminum relay rack will cost you $120 max and could be cut down with a hack saw.
The standard 19" rack width is used accross computer, music, and broadcasting industries. You just want to make sure you are dealing with 19" rack equipment.
The place we buy from is Pacific Radio in Los Angeles. More detailed info located here on modular racks.
The main considerations will be heat disapation and cabling. Just make sure you have adequate airflow and are setting things up where you have cables running all over the place.
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nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
Do you have any recommendation on where to look for dot-com auctions? Local newspaper? Is there an online site for such listings (particularly in the SF/Bay Area).
-- Virtual Windows Project
Been thinking about this myself! I could skip the plywood myself.
make Linux, not Microsoft. sin(beast) = -0.809016994374947424102293417182819
This kind of sulution is nice. You could then fill/cover plate the rack. Put in a small refriderator air conditioner for just that room. It would be quieter than many noisy fans, and better off. All the computers could have the cases off. Then put in a simple air-filter (over the air conditioner) to help remove dust.
make Linux, not Microsoft. sin(beast) = -0.809016994374947424102293417182819
Keeping that room cool is a bitch. There's a ceiling fan, but even with the AC on in the place it hovers around 90. Short of sticking a thermostat in the room in question (or getting the room its own window A/C), I don't know what else to do.
Keep in mind a rack will also concentrate a lot of that heat in one spot. You could end up with scorch marks on your ceiling.
-'fester
As has been mentioned earlier, music equipment places have nice, cheaper racks:
12-Space, $29.95 rack
Other racks
-jhp
/. -- the Free Republic of technology.
A lot of rack systems depend on adequate cooling.
There's a reason that machine rooms at your job are around 60 degrees and full of fan noise...
You can't just put a bunch of systems in a rack (especially with doors that close) and push it off into the corner and expect everything to work. These systems give off significant heat and will start to panic or the disks will fail if you don't take proper cooling precautions.
I think some closed racks are required to have cool air pumped through them from below.
I have friends who have mounted large open-aluminum rail-type racks in their garage with fairly good results. (kind of like these racks)
Try smarthome.com . They're catalog has some cool stuff. Never ordered from them though.
Paul
http://jones.ling.indiana.edu/~prrodrig
I have four rackmount cases mounted in two 12u 19" racks from http://www.skbcases.com/. They have front and back closing "lids" for when needing to evade authorities becomes necessary; I can pack them up and be on my way. ; ) The SKB racks are for pro-audio equipment, but work fine for my computing needs. Care must be taken to purchase rack cases that are no deeper that the rack itself. Most 1u and 2u cases are just two deep. 3u rackmount cases can be had for between $200-$300. Most 3u cases I have seen fit nicely in these racks. Condurre
1) space: I have four systems that I never log into directly (firewall, web server, compute server and file/email server). It is more space efficient to have them in a rack in a corner I don't use. The noise and heat are somewhere else.
2) heat management: Rack mount cases are typically better for heat (and nearly everything else) than desktop cases.
3) dirt: Things in racks are typically cleaner. All the rack mount cases I own have filters which keep the insides WAY cleaner than the hairy mess your desktop case is certain to be.
4) ease of service/change: I can have any of my rack mounted systems out and open in well under 30 seconds. Because of 2 & 3, though, I usually don't have to do that.
5) Cable management: Rack mount hardware and switches makes keeping that rat's nest behind your computer much more manageable.
6) Centralized UPS: With just a couple of racks of stuff that need reliable power, I have two rack mount UPSes in the racks that matter and so there isn't Yet Another Box sitting around taking up space. This also means only a couple of upsd's and only a couple of sets of batteries that need to be replaced regularly.
7) my home is wired cat 5. Ditto wireless.
Lots of people have differing needs, wants and hence setups. Those few of us /.ers that actually make our livings in this weird industry do *use* our computers pretty close to 24/7... and at least in my case I have no problem investing in the hardware to make my life easier.
One more point. Rack mount stuff doesn't get technologically obsolete (mostly). The racks I'm using I purchased used and date from the 1970's. My AT cases are circa 1985 (with new guts of course). So this is pretty much a 'do it once' and not worry about it. I do hope that ATX lasts a really long time as a result...
-- Multics
www.anthro.com
This one I like. But, what are the prices? where can you get them?
There are several non-standard things to be aware of when rack mounting computer equipment.
First off is where the holes are drilled in the equipment. You may think that you can buy a 12U rack and stick 3 4U computers in it. But if you try it with different models of case or computer, you will likely find that the computers don't line up with each other correctly, meaning you may need more than 12U.
I've rack mounted a LOT of computers, audio and video equipment and run into this constantly. The A/V equipment always fits right, but the computers are all over the place!
Second thing is the depth. Many computer cases are deep enough that they need to be supported in the back. You'll find that there are multiple standards for how far back the back rail is supposed to be. To circumvent this, I usually forget about installing back rails (unless I have a perfectly homogenous installation), and just install side supports, either wood or metal, and bolt the computers to those.
I highly recommend that you use slide rails. Try to get ball bearing rails rather than friction rails, becuase the friction rails frequently do not work well.
Also if you are building your own rack out of wood, consider using the fancy ball bearing drawer slides from the kitchen dept. at Home Depot. You won't need expensive rack rails, and they can slide all the way out to let you remove the entire machine for service. The only drawback is that you'll probably have to drill your own holes to match up with the holes in the computer's chassis.
When drilling those holes, watch out and don't get any metal shavings in the ball track!
Good luck
-Loopy
Data and music people use 19" racks with a channel design and uneven hole spacing. Data and music people usually put mounting flanges on the front of the equipment, so that the face of the device is flush with the face of the rack, more or less, when all is said and done. This creates a lot of force on the screws due to leverage, particularly for thin (1U or 2U) units.
Telco people use 23" racks, with a different flange design and regular 1" hole spacing. Telco equipment has the mounting flanges in the middle of the equipment, so the only force on the screws is shear. There's very little twisting, because the weight of the equipment is centered in the rack. Almost all carrier-class equipment is designed for 23" racks and mid-mounting.
They make adapter plates to mount 19" equipment with EIA-spaced holes into a 23" rack with WECO-spaced holes. There are also adapter brackets to move flush-mount equipment forward so it's even with mid-mount equipment.
As the large telcos know, it's easier to put adapters in a 23" rack than it is to stretch a 19" rack.
I got them new for $40 each.
The problem is shelving and accesories. I made plywood shelves with metal L-brackets to screw into the rack. A new single metal rack mount shelf costs more than I paid for the entire rack.
I do find the racks very useful. I have found racks easy to find at good prices but shelving very rare on the gray market and after market.
It was LSD and UNIX initially. The BSD part was sort of implied.
This was originally said 15 years ago or so, when Linus was a high-school student, and odds were good that the UNIX implementation you would see at a university was BSD or a derivative thereof.
I've received enough grief from UNIX people in general who thought I was a VMS partisan or something. (I'm not). I don't want to be misconstrued by BSD lovers as having an axe to grind with BSD as well (I don't).
... But you are free to make any quote you want. My lawyers won't call...
j.
The US Military is in the process of phasing out Motorola base stations. Frequently, the cabinets end up in DRMO (military junkyard). Every quarter or so, DRMO has an auction where you can bid on lots of equipment. There will be a 10~15 peices of equipment in a lot and the bidding is usually low. Several friends and I banded together and purchaced 3 HP1000's. These came in a 6-foot-high, wheel-mounted rack with front and rear doors. The rear door came with 6 120mm 120 volt fans installed...Very cool. The price was about $25 each.
Anyway, call your local militar base and ask for DRMO. Find out when the next auction takes place.
Remember, you paid for it (with tax dollars), so you should at least check it out.
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
check out Anthro Carts. They've got upright racks up to 29U high, one that's as small as 37" high (probably about 15-20U), and a couple of slant racks made for home use, from 20" high to 41" high. Those would be great for smaller applications, and they're made specifically for home office use.
Whatever you do... don't read this.
I know who all those people were. Do you know who I am?
Didn't think so.
FAGS ARE RISING
+++ATH0
Try MilesTek. They've got a good selection of racks in various materials and sizes, including oak.
BTW, audio racks use the same mounting dimensions as computer racks.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
Actually, in a lot of cases, an increase in demand will result in the manufacturer creating an increase in supply so they can meet the demand. Making more of something (id est, in bulk) is actually cheaper per item than making fewer -- this is called economies of scale.
Hence, so-called "morons" buying stuff en masse means that it will probably eventually get cheaper.
But anyway, back on topic: my friend has an old, old wooden stereo cabinet that's actually exactly rack-width. We put rack equipment in it by drilling the appropriate holes in the wooden frame to mount things. Wooden racks like that, if built carefully, can be very sturdy. And it's much cheaper to machine wood than it is to machine metal.
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
Well seeing your after a small rack i think you should check out this one. http://www.ratemyrack.com/xracklist.asp?sort=date& start=12/1/2000&rackId=155
PS: Yes this is a (G) rated pic although the site has alot of MA15+ kinda crap on it
We thought about converting some home materials to build racks. You might try bakers sheet racks as well, They are on wheels, a variety of heights and have built in shelving (baking sheets), and are easy to modify.
Temperature is a problem, obviously. If you live in Alaska it is a good thing. If you live in California, bend over and wait for your PG+E bill.
-Moondog
The plan was this:
One board in each of the two smaller top shelves
Power supplies (if they won't fit in the top), disk array, hub, KVM switch in the larger bottom drawer.
Adequate cooling, etc
I don't have all the details worked out, but it seems like a good solution for a deskside setup (or hide it in a closet). It's plastic (light), on wheels, modular (I'm sure more drawers can be bought through the catalog or from the supplier), and the price is right. Thing even looks pretty cool, as far as file cabinets go.
Might be something to think about, might not work at all for you, but that's my plan.
"These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined" --Homer re:
build one from plywood and two by fours,
and a little bit of Amerikanski Ingenuity =)
--- even the safest course is fraught with peril
The rack will be picked up this weekend. God bless networking (in the 1993 sense).
I'll help you push it out the door. Everything else is up to you.
I'm serious.
Check out APC. They introduced a line of no-frills racks that are quite nice. Used a bunch at the last place I worked. http://www.apcc.com/products/rack/post_rack.cfm.
/(o\ I'm not a medievalist - I just play one on weekends!
Because it isn't a big commodity product, so they can't spread the costs out by selling quanity. Also most racks are used in real data or telco centers and they have to meet seimic certification standards. That a lot of cost for testing and liability, but that is why all rack equipment is expensive. With all the dot-comedy crashes out there, the're lots of hardware auctions and deals to be had.
For people with lots of boxes, if you get a small sturdy rack for them, and then get a single keyboard/mouse/monitor, you can use switches (kvm switches, I think; Belkin makes some), you could set it up so all of the computers use one desk. So, in the space that one computer would take up, you could bolt a thin rack to the wall and have four or five! I'll really have to look into that.
I use an SKB 16U shock-mount rack. I spent $180 on ebay for it, and the guy who sold it to me just slapped a label on the front and shipped it. I've had it for probably 3 years now and it's awesome for computer gear. It has about 1" of space around the rack rails (which are mounted on coils) that is good for cleanly cabling the rack and for the necessary airflow for sparc hardware. You can even get casters for it.
The only problem I've had has been finding inexpensive cases for my PCs and shelves for my nonrackable stuff.
Another good source for racks is ham fests. Lots of telcos swap the things out when they get mungy. I got a nice 6 footer with wheels and fans for $100. It was gross looking but it cleaned up nice. And you know you're just going to slap stickers all over it.
Q:How many libertarians does it take to stop a Panzer division? A:None. Obviously market forces will take care of it.
At least one of the reasons on pre-drilled racks is at pre-drilling rails is very expensive. To drill and tap a 7' rail with high precision takes expensive gear, and a lot of time. This is why racks with pop in nuts and the like are so much cheaper, but if you've ever worked with them you know they are a huge pain.
In particular check out the offerings from "Raxxess" on 8th street, they're pretty cheap -- and not particularaly well made, but they are very good when you consider price/performance. I myself have their ~30 unit rack (for my synthesizers) and it works quite well.
hope this helps
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
I suppose a more accurate title would have been "A computer person with an amateur DJ's problem"
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
If you are in or ever get to silicon valley try wierd stuff .I got a bizzare 24U rack there with doors 2 years ago for about 200$
Here's a question for you:
Why are racks so damn expensive?
They're just hunks of metal, and yet the ones I always see cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Even those seem unfinished (barbs and sharp bits everywhere); to get a *nice* rack you have to spend even more.
What's the deal? Is the market so small that they can charge this much, or is there some secret process in the manufacturing that makes it so expensive?
Music equipment (synthesizer modules, samplers etc.) fits in the same boxes and vice-versa. These boxes for the music equipment aren't expensive, so you should try out the local studio hardware dealer.
Back when I had an ISDN router (about 12"x1"x6") I just mounted it underneath to the bottom of a bookshelf in my office. Just got a couple slats of wood under the router, some wood blocks a few inches taller than the router, and screwed 'em in there. The router slipped in 'n' out no problem (not that I ever had to do anything with it...)
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dude, go look at pro audio racks. i've seen racks as small as 3u, and there's plenty of selection around 12u. plus, you won't have to worry about bolting it to the wall or some such thing as you do with some larger racks, just for stability. plenty of racks are designed shoved into plane cargo bays, much less get kicked around in the bottom of your closet. plus, there are many units for power scrubbing in the pro audio world, and even racks with such devices built in. if you're looking for cheap, you'll even be able to find plenty of stuff used. go visit a reputable music store. and good luck.
miskam evets
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Why the hell is a question which has been asked many many times on the front page, while the story about the BSA that would actually interest most of us is hidden off in Ask Slashdot?
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
I've got a rackmount er, rack, here - it can hold about 20U of devices, atm it has 3 4U PC boxes (canibalised systems, easier to fit into 4U's).
It's got space under the rack bracket for my two full tower units...now I just need to make up something so I can mount my 1603R in it - damn Cisco making 19" rackmount routers way to expensive.
Anyway it's made by NexelShelf It's the EIA Rack on that page.
pic of my one in action :)
What I'd really like is a full height server enclosure from Rittal :)
--
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
rather than a rack, you may consider the new "Flex ATX" form factor. With integrated MB like the ASUS CUSI-FX, and small Flex cases like http://www.galeriesdefi.com/176.htm, I made myself a great ADSL router (linux :-) at home...
other cases:
http://www.suntekgroup.com/th2016.htm
http://www.baber.com/baber/products/desktop_cases. htm
http://www.shentech.com/iniwflexatxm.html
What consenting adults do behind closed doors is their own business.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Consider investing ~$40 for some 2"x3" studs and 3/8" plywood. Recall your objective- Something to nicely hold your gear. You may be surprised at where your needs and ingenuity can produce in a few hours!
---=-=-=-=-=-=---
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Besides the SKB racks already mentioned by another poster, you can buy rack rails and screws very inexpensively online at music stores (http://www.sweetwater.com, and http://www.americanmusical.com come to mind) and build your own rack. I built a nice 14 space rack out of oak plywood (and oak tape becomes your new friend), which while not all-metal industrial-looking, is very sturdy, was a lot of fun to build, and looks great. If you're going to be mounting a lot of stuff, you may also want to put some vent panels in between pieces of equipment. They look slightly better than open rack spaces and provide good airflow room.
I have several bits of audio gear that is "half rack size" (A Zoom FX unit, Roland Soundcanvas etc) - does anyone know if you can get racks to fit this stuff? I don't want to fill them out to full size just so I can mount them. I was thinking of getting a wooden box made up so I could mount them on my desk, recessed at a slight angle. At least they would stop falling all over the place. Does anyone have any better ideas? Zilch.
I went searching around at electronics surplus stores (Active surplus in toronto is where I got a lot of stuff) and found old rack mount cases for my AT style stuff.
For my newer machines, I just made shelves inside the case and layed the machines on horizontally. The same goes for my sun machines.
Also, if you want a cheap enclosure to hold all the rack mount gear, look for someone who is selling an old unix server case. That's what I did, and now all my stuff are inside of a Sparc Center 2000E case. The processing power inside of it is more than the origional server had. And, IMHO, it looks good too.
Jason
they have cool racks that go with their gear designs http://www.dell.com/us/en/esg/topics/segtopic_serv ers_000_rack.htm
Go ahead and use cases intended for musical equipment. The beauty of rack mounted stuff is that it is all the same size, so you don't need to worry so much about it. Try American Musical Supply (http://www.americanmusical.com) or Musicians Friend (http://www.musiciansfriend.com) for a good selection. If you want, you can also buy just the rails and build a cabinet yourself.
It's LSD and BSD, that's what makes it funny. Say LSD and UNIX and even geeks won't laugh.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
It's a rackmount, but on wheels, not wall-mounted.
Painfully pricey, though, in the $700-$900 range, and 29u. Still bigger than the thread was suggesting.
Giving up the chance to moderate to make an obeservation.
I would but most, like me, are scared of the goatse.cx link...I'll let the user beware...
Here is a URL for a story on this topic from back in January. http://linuxtoday.com/stories/15158.html
If cooling might be a problem there is a model with "shock protection" where the rack is mounted on special springs which are supposed to protect your rack gear for roadies who drop your stuff, but they double in purpose and add extra space and allow air to flow around the gear, keeping it cooler. Look in catalogs like Musician's Friend (although I'm told they're a tad expensive...) for such items as well.
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
I've been having so much trouble trucking my 10 disk RAID array to LAN parties!
--
Musician's Friend sells small SBK portable rackmount guitar effects cabs. I'm not totally sure if they are the same size but could prolly be modified.
I actually have an SBK guitar case for my strat. For about 5 years of playing local shows it took a pretty good beating. So I'm guessing that the rackmount cases are of the same quality. I saw a guy drop a 4U shockmount cases at a bar in Cleveland and though nothing of it. Just picked it up and put it in the bus. I'm not to sure if I'd do that to my puter.
AK
They are not pretty, though. The first picture here shows a light version, probably 14 inches deep not 18, but it gives the idea. Mine is the same brand as, but not as ugly as the one in the picture. Some are textured with faux ruggedization like the one in the picture, and some are not. They are pretty easy to find. My comments are NOT referring to the wire racks (also shown) although those might also make sense.
Not to be confused with gorilla.net, which has much nicer but way more expensive stuff. I don't know if these are the same company.
Unless your home is wired for cat5, or you are using wireless ethernet, having rackmounted boxes in another room doesn't make sense. Most rackmount systems won't make any consideration for low power useage (Energy Star, etc.), so likely these systems aren't even appropriate for home use.
There is a Mill surplus place about 5 min. from my office in Orlando. They have a huge selection of racks and rack stuff.(fans, Power Supplies, UPS, etc) I have bought short racks there. Like 4ft tall. they are a little scratched up but for $25 whose complaining.
I have a bunch of rackmount equipment, and not one rack. Why? I just never saw the need. My rackmount switch is lying vertically against my router. A rackmount server can fit on a shelf.
It's really more compact (though maybe not as neat) to put rackmounted stuff wherever you have a niche for them, rather than setting aside an entire block of space.
--
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#nohup cat
It is black and on wheels. You can see it here This one will cost you about $150->200 for the rack And you can get cheap cases for as little as $89 from here Or you can get alittle better quality ones for slightly more at rackcases.com. I just order two from there and they shipped the same day. Very quality. -mwhahaha
Most folks (including the junk dealers who have them) don't realize that Sparcserver 490's, 690's, and 2000's are actually multiple components installed in a very high-quality, very standard 5' tall 4-post 19" rack enclosure. They even have some keen 3U spots rotated by 90 degrees and located on the side, great for network switches and rackmount surge protectors.
They can be had cheap, and in most cases, you'll even get some nice rackmount hardware with the enclosure.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
I use a musicians road case. complete with seismic buffer springs.
check this url: http://www.geek.net/~chris/pix/rack/ ..old photos, but a good example
chris
This communication is secured using Rot-26 Encryption Algorithm, Unauthorized decryption will be subject to laughter.
They're about the size of a low, wide fridge, and quite deep. The problem is that PC rack cases are often a good bit deeper than the rack frames you get for musical equipment, or at hamfests.
Of course, you could always get some Dexion and make a rack frame up yourself. Might be best to weld the corners.
The wires have to be off the floor? That explains the dirty looks my wife gives me. For my racking needs, I just picked up a wire shelf for $60 at Walmart. Nothing gets screwed in, but the thing is supposed to hold up to a ton and the equipment (routers, sparcs, PCs) sites nicely on it. I would not recommend it in earthquake prone areas without bolting it to the wall.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
I mounted a 3U with a long enclosure in an unfinished part of my basement. Just dropped 4 10" bolts through the 2x4s in between the floors and put 2 metal (1/8"x1.5"x20") strips across that the bolts go through. Then slid the box on top of the metal strips, and I have a box I never have to look at. Just ran power and an ethernet cable to it and X or SSH to it when I need it (I also installed VNC from AT&T labs to take over the local screen if needed).
A funny thing that happened though was the fans in the unit (there are 8) were so damned loud we could hear them through the floor on the main level of our house. I searched the net and found some (virtually) silent fans to replace them with, and my wife's a whole lot happier.
I'm seeing maybe several hundred dollars to reverse that rack job. (Materials and labour, including the white paint that appears to be on the surrounding walls.) So if that actually does damage to a home's resale value... well, it must be a really really freaking cheap home!
Anyways, that rack is really hardcore, man. I love it. Watchen das blinkenlights...
Ya, fixing this would be cheap. probably only take a day, but I figured I'd list my house with this in the ad. There are plenty of techies looking for homes, and I'm sure someone else could use it when I leave.
You can always just put the rack into your wall like I did. [url]http://www.atheosonline.com/niles/rack.jpg[/u rl]
You should make sure that you have adequate ventilation though (add a fan or five if necessary) - these are generally meant to be enclosed, and I've seen LCD displays (the small type on audio gear) go bad just from the heat generated by the equipment.
Also - check the depth on the rack before you buy... most audio equipment isn't as long as some of the computer gear you might mount.
Or, make your own. Watch the weight though!
I would really like to fit my own systems into a single wall unit, which would require space for several mobos, fans, psu's (ATX and AT), etc..
Has anyone seen either some generic configurable storage area, or better yet the equivalent of mechano or lego for doing this kind of thing cheaply?
I would be amazed if the industry hasnt made a shelf-type system with correctly spaced parts and screw-holes for this yet.
[ insert meme here ]
Anyone seen something like a case on this kind of scale that could be modified to hold all the bits screwed in at appropriate points?
[ insert meme here ]
I got a 20u cabinet that I use at home for my Sun Netra X1 and my Linux boxen. I highly recommend these types of racks for home use: locks on the front and back, and quite good both for network/telecom and for machines. My specific rack was dumped by a Dutch company when its use was expired, for an experimental disk project with HP. They can be found used in all sorts of places, and they are very cheap. Used 19" racks are usually good enough for home use. Just keep your eyes open for companies' old "junk", especially companies that do lots of research and development of hardware. I could not part with my home rack...
I did not design this game/I did not name the stakes/I just happen to like apples/And I am not afraid of snakes-AniD
The problem with these cases are they are made to store audio gear that is less that 22" long. Most server case are 24-26". At least mine are. So you can have the server hang out the back but that is lame and misses the point. There is a company called Raxxess that makes enclosures that are longer than 22" they have a product called a KAR-18-26, which I have used and works great for servers.
web and shell hosting plus more
Cheap considering what you get. I've bought from them before (1U rack mount). Very nice people too. http://www.gtweb.net/rack_frame.html
If it's for home use, make it a bit more furniture like. Your woman of the house will complain much less.
bm :)-~
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
I had the same problem, a half width rack unit. Then answer is to get a rack shelf, these have loads of screw/bolt holes in the plate to fix the kit to and you will get 2 1/2 units side by side on the shelf (pretty obvious really). They can be a bugger to secure the units to - I had to drill a new hole and hammer the plate into an ident to get the bolt to fit. Unfortunately I got mine on holiday in Orlando Florida (Abneys music store I think) but its a common musicians items so they should be easily obtainable
....but all they found there was a man who repeatedly said that nothing was true, but was later found to be lying.
If you live near Seattle, then the best source for used racks of all sizes is Boeing Surplus. They have singles, doubles, and triples and lots of hardware. Halfs are rare. Most are $50-100.
Most are in good shape and blue. I have a single in my garage and run everything remote.
The key to using audio rackmount enclosures is building rackmount servers that will fit the limited depth of such cases. Check out General Technics' MicroATX 2U enclosures. By the way, the SKB 8U Roto Rack case I have was purchased via eBay for $99+$24S&H.
-- Sinistar
I got sick of 42U full size metal racks, so I had a company here in Canada design me a 7U scalable rack. It's made exactly the same as other racks, only smaller. It's 7U high, and can be increased by adding 7U modules. It's basically a 1/6th of a rack. I had mine made fire engine red. If there's enough interest, I can provide them to other slashdotters. Drop me an email at ridgelift@canada.com
Ruby on Rails Screencast
If you will settle for "open air" type racks, which are just a pair of rails with no cabinetry, etc., you can find all kinds of configurations from Quik-Lok, in all sizes. They're sturdy, easy to assemble and take apart, etc. Oh, and relatively cheap (most offerings in the $50-200 range).
I think these are pretty economical. A 12U case is $130 at http://www.americanmusical.com Here's SKB's site. The roto racks only have holes on one side (front). I've also seen 72" racks for as little as $15 at NC State Surplus. Might try there if your local organizations have ways of recycling stuff. Good luck, Eric
Off the top of my head...
Of course, I'm a tad rusty on prices, but that should be pretty accurate. And if he's talented enough to make the hole and wire it up, then he's probably talented enough to repair it.
DoD pretty much mounts everything on industry standard racks. That means you have a fair shot at finding an old one at a DRMO sale close to where you live. When I was stationed in Germany they even had special sales open to German nationals, so you don't have to be a DoD employee to take advantage of this.
Worst case scenario you will have to repaint it and probably add power cords and fans.
As for size, we had many different models, the only requirement was that they had to fit 19-in wide components (the racks themselves always were exactly 2-feet wide). WE had some models small enough to sit on a desk, so I bet you can find something for what you have in mind.
Pedro
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
That should be enough said, but I know that next week someone will get something similar posted.
Go get your shopping advice somewhere else, having a rack in your house is NOT a new idea, or even an interesting one.
Ikea sells a nice bed-side rack/cabinet (17.5"x17.5" internal, 16" deep), which is exactly the right size. I got a white one, but if I remember, you can get other colors / finishes as well. OK, no rails and screws, but you just put in one or two more shelves and you can stack in 3-4 desktop PCs and other stuff. Or drill the holes yourself. They look much better and were something like $30-40 a piece.
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
This place has some great deals on rack cases. http://www.electroseller.com/ (I'm lazy). I've done a fair amount of price research, and haven't found anything better in terms of cost.
.sig is waiting to be installed in my rack
1u $200
2u $140
4u $200
Don't all slashdot it at once 8)
Maskirovka
My
A music lover listens to the music. An audiophile listens to the equipment the music is played on. Which one do you like to do best? :)
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
http://www.middleatlantic.com/studio/sracks/sbr.ht m#s12sdg
-ted
http://www.middleatlantic.com/ Check out the studio equipment section. They have smaller 12 space racks. Some even have integrated desks. -ted
The company I used to work for, Root International, has the capabilities to do such a thing that you are talking about. They offer both custom and pre-made solutions that are not that expensive. They are the supplier for the UN, a lot of Sony's musicians, and several other high-profile clients. Best of all, the staff is very friendly, and will work with you to develop any solution you need. And I know of clients who have had racks built just for that purpose. They also do cases for flat-screen monitors, laptops, etc. Wish the best of luck to ya!
Random Musings
http://www.casescases.com/ - you can order just about any size rack (in a case) you want.
I'm not sure if the sizing is the same (a quick glance at my rack makes me think they are), but I know music stores will sell rack systems. You can get 'em in sturdy cases as small as 2U.
... very nice, and light-weight moulded plastic (not fabric covered plywood). Light-weight when empty, of course.
I've got a 8U case by SKB for my music gear
Alternatively, I'm sure you can get open units, or cheap-o versions at a used music place. Obviously, you want to start looking at "Jimmy's Used Synths", rather than "Buddy's Ol' Guitar Shack".
Good luck!
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
Try your local music store. You can usually buy just the pre-drilled and tapped rails, then stick them into whatever you can find for a cabinet. I made a cabinet from plywood, attached casters from Home Depo, rails from Daddy's Junky Music, and covered the whole rig with sticky vinyl from a local sign shop (buy it in rolls, by the yard.) Most of the work went into adding a plexiglass door, (plexiglass came from the hardware store)and lining it up. Whole rig was about $130. Pay attention to cooling, a couple of fans in the roof won't hurt anything. Vent them outside to keep your room from reaching hell like conditions.
Mommy. What's a karma whore?
now all my bids for rack mounted systems are outbid.
/. a cut of the action for as much bidders /. sends their way
you know, with as many of these 'build your own home nuclear reactor' type stories, ebay needs to start give
Middle Atlantic has good, cheap cabinets. you can get as fancy or plain as you want - add doors and vents and fans or leave it open.
i'm looking at their ERK series, 18U with doors, fans & filters, and caster base. eventually i'd like to move all my machines (except the mac ;) in here and run a nice KVM, too.
their distributors list is available here. in the greater Boston area, i'm going to You Do-It Electronics in Needham.
www.pixelectric.com
Hi I just bought a 12U Rittal "QuickBox". Comes with everything. Sidepanels, rearpanel, ventilated glassdoor and a 19" mounting rack. Great to place under a desk. It's full 600 deep & wide and 632mm in height. Works great for me. If you really want great racks - go for IMRAK 600 / 1200 - I've installed wuite a few systems using these - GREAT ! Falck
- Feyd - the reality dysfunction -
I spent six years in the navy fixing computers, about a sixth of which were rack mounted. I like the concept of rack mounting, from an aesthetic approach, as well as from an organizational approach. The thing is that the semi-standardized rack mounting system is expensive, and at times, clunky. My solution to it was to build my own cases and racks. On the ship, we made a testbed that was essentially a piece of plywood with an antistatic mat and a "ground-bar" attatched to provide a common ground. it worked great, and everything could be swapped in or out with minimal fuss.
Now that I'm free and persueing welding as a more fun alternative, I made a nice aluminium case which holds 5 scsi hdd's, a pioneer scsi dvd player, and a plextor 12x10x32S, it's running 3 120mm fans in the rear. Everything that spins and vibrates is "shock mounted" (rubber O-rings), and runs very quiet. it helps that the case is mounted inside of a hand-built entertainment center. Total cost for the case (less power supplies and internals) was about $90. cost goes up if you can't weld auminium yourself. My next project is going to be a smaller version for my VW Bus. . . camping in style.
You can get general equipment racks that size, they're just really hard to come across. Because smaller racks aren't in high demand, they are harder to find and more expensive than a standard (19 inch wide) 72in. Rack. I saw 72inch open relay's going as cheap as $120 ( from APC, the UPS company, turns out they make racks too, check their website they have pictures), while I finally got my 48inch at $200 ( aluminum, black finish from codemicro.com ). I saw a few nice models from hammond inc. [ hammonddirect.com ] but they were impossible to find at retailers, and the webstore was out as well. I guess you can always buy a taller open relay rack and cut it. Chatsworth is another company you can look for.
I got one for my home lab. It's a 48in. rack open frame equipment rack ( basically 2 poles with holes in them attached to a metal plate at the bottom, they're much more accessible and cheaper than the enclosures ). I also got the cool thumb screws from rackrelease.com. I add/remove components all the time without the use of a screwdriver.
Look on ebay as well. There are rack models sometimes called "table top racks" . They are usually very cheap, as low as about $40 bucks and I've seen them on ebay for less. they look small and flimsy but should get as tall as about 8U I think
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The biggest issue is the depth -- most cases are less then 17" deep. A few are 17" deep and these are suitable for some computer uses. I've never found one deeper then 19" deep. As most server boxes are quite deeper then 17", I had to search for some time to find a rackmount server box that was small enough.
-- Herder of Cats
The link I included is to the solid door version. If you want the plexiglass window, here is the correct link.
There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and BSD. We don't believe this to be a coincidence.
"I either want less corruption, or more chance
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I work for a very small company in Wyoming, we have only a 64k Frame relay line and a few users, no reason for a large rack. I bought this wall mounting cabinet that holds 19" equipment and it has worked great. It has a nice smoked fiberglass front window and swings open from the back or front of the unit. There are cable holes on both the top and bottom. The unit locks with 2 different keys in the front and back. It was simple to mount, just put some heavy gauge bolts in the studs and you're all set. It may be a bit large for home use, depending on what you need. You can buy it from Cables to Go.
There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and BSD. We don't believe this to be a coincidence.
"I either want less corruption, or more chance
to participate in it." -- Ashleigh Brilliant
When GSAT went under, my (ex)company bought some 8 foot racks for $500, they sell for $2000+ otherwise. This 19" monitor was $50, and this Sparc was $50. We got a ton of shit including a HUGE Xlyan switch/chassis and a Packetshaper CHEEP.
I have a 32U Cabinet in my office at home. It houses a couple of my personal boxes, as well as an 8U server for work. I set this up as an off site backup for our most critical data.
There is a company here in Tempe, AZ called Instock Inc. (www.instockinc.com) that I buy all my racks and cabinets at they always have prices that will blow away anything you have ever seen. For example the cabinet that I have at home is a 32U Compaq cabinet with locking doors, side panels, etc. I paid $250 dollars for it brand new still on the pallet. This cabinet is normally $1200.
The downside to racknmountable equip. is that the price of normal 4U case is at least 4 times the amount of an normal ATX case. So what I have done with two of my computers is left them in normal cases and just put them on $40 shelves in the cabinet.
find a milk carton crate they work well, just drill
sheet metal screws into the crate for mounting the equipment.
I once mounted this chick's rack... too bad it was just a magazine.
I bought 2 full size comp. rackounts, plus all kinds of other "junl" all total for $50 at a gov't auction.
What about a wire-rack type shelving unit? BED BATH & BEYOND has them.
I use a wire-rack shelving type unit for am all-in-one desk, entertainment center and computer stand.. I purchased Fellowes Wire Shelving from OFFICE MAX (hope that link works)..
Don't be such a geek. How's rackmounting going to improve your life? It's not like you have fifty seperate systems to house and maintain. Take the money you'd waste on pointless rackmounting, which serves no purpose to you other than nerd-masturbation fodder, and spend it on something that will provide more of a return on investment. Take up photography or something. Go mountain biking. Go skydiving. Rack mounting? Jesus...
Denial isn't just a river in Italy
I got a 3' rack about 5 years ago from AMS for about US$200.
-Brett
--
"I'm not sure exactly what an AS/400 is, however, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't want one up my ass"
The Anthrocart costs from $719 for a 13U rack. It can also be configured as a 9U rack with some shelves on top. There are versions up to 29U. Here are some pictures, and here's the main product page.
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I started checking into this when I got a rack-mount sound card. Most good corporate/professional racks are so expensive because of locking doors and other security measures. I found that the 19" racks guitar stores sell for amplifiers work great. Some of the less sturdy ones start at $45 and go up from there. Works fine with my G4 minitower.
The following addresses may be of use for anyone wishing to buy individual rackmountable cases:
;)
Digital Networks UK Ltd
www.dnuk.com
Pro Computers & Industrial Case Ltd
www.pcicase.co.uk
Sight Systems Ltd
www.sightsystems.mcmail.com
VASCO:
www.tmc-uk.com/
Personally, I bought an ATX case, and separate drive case from Sight Systems, cost under 500ukp, and you can even choose the colour!
Personally, I went for the rather nifty black ones, though if you are so inclined pantone-414C is still available. That's beige to you and me.
The quality was excellent, far in advance of standard pc cases including vibration dampening, and not a sharp edge anywhere to be seen!
The cabinet an (18u including acrylic door) made by proel and purchaced through a high-street music store was 220ukp (including VAT and delivery).