DIY Rack Cabinet

spoffle · 18 Jul 2013 at 11:10

I've been wanting a rack cabinet for a little while to set up a few servers in.

Has anyone got any DIY experience of rack cabinets?

I'm considering making a cabinet out of MDF, but I'm not sure of the stuff I'd need.

Any advice?

spoffle · 18 Jul 2013 at 11:21

They do look pretty cool! I've just been checking them out.

At the moment I'm thinking a cabinet with solid sides and a back would suit my needs a bit more.

spoffle · 18 Jul 2013 at 11:29

Oh yeah, I had a look at those ones, they looked incomplete to me though with just the metal strips up either side, I can't see those taking the weight of like rack mount server cases full of hard disks.

Or can they? I'm not at all familiar with how rack cabinets are constructed.

spoffle · 18 Jul 2013 at 11:41

Ooh thanks for that link, that's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.

His stuff is all done from the bottom up too meaning the weight wouldn't be an issue anyway.

I think I will do something similar, I might even do a project log.

Would you have any advice around the networking side of things?

Is a rack mounted switch connected to my modem all I need to network computers up and have them internet connected?

I feel really dumb asking the last bit, but for some reason I feel like there's more to those 24/48 port gigabit switches than just being large versions of 5-8 port desktop switches.

spoffle · 18 Jul 2013 at 11:52

Yeah, unmanaged sounds right for me. I'll just be running file servers to stream videos/music and to use remote desktop to manage the servers like I currently do with my file server and cheapo netgear switch.

Thanks again

spoffle · 18 Jul 2013 at 12:00

Oh yeah of course, my current cheapo switch is already gigabit anyway, no way I'd give that up.

spoffle · 3 Jan 2014 at 19:55

RimBlock, did your custom racks arrive? I'd love to see some pictures of them.

I haven't got anywhere with my rack yet in terms of actually doing something, but a friend has found a rack cabinet at the back of a shop he's renting, so he's giving it to me, which will save me time and hassle setting one up myself. I'll just make an MDF box for it. I'll do a log of it when I get around to setting it all up.

/necromancy