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Building Rackmount Cabinet for Home Use?
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?
I would begin by measuring the equipment I intend to house. Kind of like shoes....
They are around $75 to $150 instead of cabinets which tend to be $250 - $750. As long as you have a place where you can bolt it down to the floor that's well air conditioned, you should be good to go. It's the same functionality, (holds 19" rackmount gear goodness) just not enclosed.
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
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.
KVM switches are your friend. Unless, you really have to be using all six at once
I understand the need for a cabinet and not wanting to spend a $1,000US for something that looks nice. Buy yourself an inexpensive cabinet from Wal Mart(under $100US). Then add a few metal rails (angle iron from an old bed frame), and drill the holes to fit your need. You can buy a tap and a few screw under $10US. You can get away with a project like this for around $200 and some time. You might even be able to teach the family how to drill and tap holes too!
It's all about RTFM.
He's asking about the specs to build it.
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.
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I am a programmer. I am paid to produce syntax not grammar. Deal with it.
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.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Remember that the chief advantage of mounting equipment in a rack is stability.
Something like 60% of all system errors are caused not by component failure but by loose connectors. The incidence of errors goes down significantly if you secure the equipment and relieve strain on the cables.