Home Lab - Looking for a rack solution?

[Nomisf]

Hi All,

I was wondering what everyone else uses for their home Lab racking needs ?

I have a half height cabinet in the garage but is enormous and ugly - so it won't be making it indoors any time soon and the garage is in a block so running decent Cat6 cable to it is a no go.

I have experimented with building a "LackRack" but I would much prefer a proper mounting solution,

So far I think I have settled on a open frame 4 post rack of some sort , as I don't mind the industrial "super cable managed" look , but the only two I can find are the StarTech 25U Open frame that's out of stock everywhere and similar Tripp Lite gear that seems only to be available in the US,

This will be housing a UniFi USG-Pro 4, UniFi PoE 16 Switch, HP DL 360G7 (800mm Depth Min) , and in the future some custom 2-4U server cases ,

The DL360 may go at some point in the future , but I'd like to keep the depth for the custom servers !

Any ideas ?

Thanks

 

[memyselfandi]

I have the Startech 25U open frame rack and it is showing as one in stock still on Amazon.

Whilst it is quite good and seems reasonably well made I would say it would really help to have two people there when you assemble it (particularly for the first couple of corners where you are trying to join three heavy bits of metal together and do the bolt whilst holding them).

Mine has a DL380G7, a shelf with 2 microservers, a shelf with 3 NASes, a couple of 19" PDUs and a Unifi US-48 switch.

 

[Nomisf]

I have the Startech 25U open frame rack and it is showing as one in stock still on Amazon.

Whilst it is quite good and seems reasonably well made I would say it would really help to have two people there when you assemble it (particularly for the first couple of corners where you are trying to join three heavy bits of metal together and do the bolt whilst holding them).

Mine has a DL380G7, a shelf with 2 microservers, a shelf with 3 NASes, a couple of 19" PDUs and a Unifi US-48 switch.

Appreciate the first hand experience Unfortunatley, looking at the seller on Amazon - it looks like that 1 left is coming from Spain, and carries a £50 postage charge - so I might just have to wait for them to come back into stock a little closer.

Just looking through the form (Show Us Your Racks Thread) I came upon the picture in this post (https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/28563959), was quite a while ago, but wondered @hellarda do you recall the Make/Model of the cabinet ? Or if not does anyone else recognise it ?

 

[hellarda]

I can't remember the make of it unfortunately, but if you're looking to move away from big and bulky - it's definitely not the one you are after! Its 1000mm deep and very bulky

 

[Caged]

Do you know any joiners/kitchen fitter types? You could just buy the rails and have someone else make a cabinet for them:

https://www.penn-elcom.com/default.asp?PN=R0883&LG=EN

Or build your own open frame one out of a kit and two types of rack strip

https://www.penn-elcom.com/default.asp?PN=R8230&LG=EN