Time to Rack It Up!
There are many reasons that people use rack enclosures now a days to help tidy up their automated world. While TVs continue to get thinner and more beautiful and soundbars are making surround sound more discreet, the components we connect to them, such as our Blu-ray players, cable boxes, game consoles etc...have largely remained dull black or silver boxes. And there are still all those ugly wires to manage! So now we have these neat and tidy solutions to all these issues, and putting them on display can have lots of great advantages as well! Lets learn more..
What is a Rack?
Racks are frame structures designed for mounting standard 19" rack-mount equipment-servers, routers, UPS systems, switches, audio/video-regardless of vendor. They provide rack equipment organization, security and cable management while enabling airflow. There are two basic types: rack enclosures (also called rack cabinets) and open-frame racks.
Where are Racks used?
- Server rooms and data centers
- Audio/video installations
- Closets housing telecommunications equipment
- Industrial environments such as a factory floor
Types of racks:
What size rack do you need?
The height of a rack, and the height of equipment in it, is expressed in "rack units" (a rack unit is 1.75 inches, or 44.45mm). The actual height of a 42U rack is therefore 42 x 1.75 = 73.5 inches. A 2U server would occupy two of the available 42 rack units.
Be sure to make an accurate assessment of the amount of rack space you currently need, and allow for future growth.
Rack Depth
Determine the maximum rack depth required to mount your equipment in a floor-standing or wall-mount rack enclosure cabinet.
Floor-Standing Rack Depth Designations
| Rack | Depth (in.) | Ideal for... |
| Shallow | 27 | A/V equipment, limited space |
| Mid-depth | 31 | Limited space |
| Standard | 37 | Servers |
| Deep | 42 | Extra cables, improved airflow |
Wall-Mount Rack Depth Designations
| Rack | Depth (in.) | Ideal for... |
| Patch-depth | < 16 | Patch panels |
| Switch-depth | 16 - 23.99 | Switches |
| UPS-depth | 24 - 31.99 | UPS systems |
| Server-depth | > 32 | Servers |
More info on our Rack & Roll Blog last year! Check it out: http://isstenn.com/blog/item/are-you-read-to-rack-and-roll
CALL 865-690-0154 to get yours or to learn more!
