Rack FAQS

Portable Rack Cabinets

Art Munson — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:53:21 +0000

Portable rack cabinets are an ideal solution if you need to move your sensitive electronic equipment from room to room or across the world. Especially important, for long distances, are rack cabinets that feature shock mounts. This will protect your equipment from damaging shocks, jolts and other hazards while traveling. There are many many manufacturers of portable racks including, Kendall Howard, SKB, Middle Atlantic, Gator and many more.

Kendall Howard

Art Munson — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:42:44 +0000

Kendall Howard started business in 2003 as a manufacturer of IT Furniture, Server Racks, and Rack Accessories. Their stated goal is to manufacture more functional, cost effective and innovative products that will increase productivity, reduce costs while saving money. They are a leader in the IT Rackmount Furniture industry that operates in a 60,000 square foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. They also offer a Limited Lifetime Warranty.

Network Cables – CAT5 – CAT6

Art Munson — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:48:18 +0000

CAT5 (Cat-5) or category 5 cable maintains a high signal integrity by using what’s known as a twisted pair. The twisted pair design helps with noise rejection because most cables are unshielded. Category 5e (CAT5e or Cat-5e) has replaced the category 5 specification. Category 5 cable includes twisted pairs in a single cable jacket. A high signal-to-noise ratio is maintained by the use of balanced lines. They are mostly used in 100 Mbit/s networks.

CAT6 (Cat-6) or category 6 cable is used for Gigabit Ethernet. It is also backward compatible with category 5, category 5e and category 3 standards. CAT6 has a much more stringent specification.

Rack Spacer Blanks

Art Munson — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:33:43 +0000

Rack spacer blanks are used to cover unused spaces in a server racks or enclosures. They not only give a better look and strengthen the rails but help with alignment of components as well as spacing.

Desktop Racks

Art Munson — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:32:44 +0000

Desktop racks are handy when you do not need a lot of rack space. You can buy open desktop racks or enclosed desktop rack cabinets.

If you need open racks then the DR Series from Middle Atlantic is a cost effective choice. They are available in either a 8U (DR8) or 12U (DR12) and are very inexpensive.

They are the standard 19″ rack rack with 10-32 threads and will support about 35 or 45 lbs.

Wallmount Rack Servers

Art Munson — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:44:05 +0000

A wallmount rack (sometimes referred to as a wallmount cabinet) is an ideal solution if you do not need a full size server rack or server cabinet. You can find them either enclosed or open racks and they can save you money as well as space. Wallmount racks are available in many sizes from manufacturers such as Kendall Howard and Middle Atlantic.

EIA – Electronic Industries Association – Racks

Art Munson — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:52:17 +0000

The Electronic Industries Association (or EIA) publish standards for the electronics industry. They cover a broad range of equipment and EIA-Wiring and Interconnection Documents.

A standard rack specification is defined in EIA-310 and has been around for many decades. Several important features of 19″ racks are standardized. The Rack Unit (RU or U), horizontal and vertical hole spacing as well as the front panel width and rack opening. Tolerances are also set for each dimension.

Rack mount drawers

Art Munson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:41:14 +0000

Rack mount drawers (sometimes spelled as rackmount) are manufactured by a number of companies such as Middle Atlantic and Kendall Howard. Rackmount drawers come in a variety of depths from 3.5 inches to as deep as 7 inches. They are very convenient for storing numerous items. Some drawers are fitted with locks for security purposes.

Other convenient rack accessories are Rackmount lock boxes and keyboard trays.

Monitor Display Mounts – VESA

Art Munson — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:33:21 +0000

Manufacturers produce monitor and video displays to an industry standard set by VESA. VESA is an acronym for Video Electronics Standards Association. This allows compatibility across the various products and manufacturer. If one makes the display and another a mount, the two products will be compatible.

The VESA standard has several different hole patterns. Please see table below for the most common.

Diagonal	Weight	Spacing
12″ to 22.9″ 305mm to 582mm	< 30.8lbs 14kg	2.95″ x 2.95″ 3.93″ x 3.93″	75mm x 75mm 100mm x 100mm
23″ to 30.9″ 584mm to 785mm	< 50lbs 23kg	7.87″ x 3.93″ 7.87″ x 7.87″	200mm x 100mm 200mm x 200mm
31″ to 90″ 787mm to 2.28m	< 250lbs 113kg	15.74″ x 7.87″ 23.62″ x 15.74″ 31.49″ x 23.62″	400mm x 200mm 600mm x 400mm 800mm x 400mm

Rack Shelves

Art Munson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:44:01 +0000

Rack shelves or server rack shelves are use to mount components that are not equipped with rack ears. These would ordinarily attach to the rack rails of a rack cabinet or server rack.

Sometimes referred to as 19 inch rack shelves, they may be either fixed or sliding. This is a very convenient way to rack mount a PC (either horizontally or vertically), audio and video components as well as test equipment and many other items. The width must not exceed 17.7 inches. Weight is a factor to consider. Many shelves can be secured in the front as well as the rear of a rack cabinet.