It is possible that many of you have at home a tower-type NAS server, a multi-port rackable manageable switch, and a router, all on a table without any order and with all the network cabling in between. When we have a large amount of computer equipment at home, it is highly recommended to buy a rack cabinet to put all this equipment there in a centralized way, and have a certain order in our home. Today in this article we are going to explain what rack cabinets you could buy for your home, depending on the needs you have.
A rack cabinet is specifically designed for the installation of computer equipment such as routers, switches, servers, and also all the cabling that these equipment need, both at the level of network or fiber cabling, as well as power cable for the different equipment. Depending on the needs of your home, it is possible that some rack cabinets are more related to the use and the location where you are going to put it than others.
If you have few equipment and little space
If you have few equipment to rack, for example, a router, a manageable switch and a NAS server, then the rack cabinet you should buy is the wall rack. A wall rack is very useful for domestic environments and also small and medium-sized companies, they can be placed directly on the wall, and can even be placed on a table. This type of cabinets do not have too many U, that is, units of height to install a large number of equipment, but if you do not need to put several switches, routers and servers, this type of cabinets are the ones you should buy, both by size and for price as they are very affordable. Let’s imagine that you have a room where you have all the computer equipment such as switches, NAS server, a UPS to protect different equipment and more, then a wall-type cabinet is ideal for you, because it will provide you with a certain order of all the computer devices that you have. at home.
We must bear in mind that the wall rack cabinets are 19 ”, but depending on the model, we will have different U and different depths. We must remember that the U is the standardized unit of height in cabinets, and they measure 4.4cm. The more U we have, the higher the rack will be, but they will always be a multiple of 1U adding the extra height at the bottom and at the top to be able to pass the wiring.
In wall-mounted rack cabinets, we normally have the following models of different U:
- 6U cabinets
- 9U cabinets
- 12U cabinets
- 15U cabinets
- 18U cabinets
We must take into account the weight of the wardrobe and of the equipment that we are going to install inside if we are going to anchor it to the wall, the most normal thing if we buy a wall-type wardrobe with many U is to put it on a table to give stability and have no problem with weight. Regarding the measurements of this type of cabinets, they are usually 600mm wide, but the depth varies between 300mm, 450mm, 550mm and even 600mm. Depending on the equipment that we are going to install in these cabinets, we will have to buy one model or another, always monitoring the bottom of the cabinets and leaving about 150mm with respect to the equipment with more depth, to be able to manage all the wiring correctly and not have problems.
Wall cabinet accessories
There are accessories that you can buy for a wall cabinet that are very interesting, the first is the trays , whether they are fixed or sliding, depending on the depth that you have bought the cabinet, you will have to buy some trays or others. You can also buy wheels for this type of wardrobe, because by default they are not incorporated, in addition, we also have the special feeding rules for rack cabinets and also the typical patch panels, brush grommets, blank panels and more.
If we do not have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) or a NAS server, it would be highly recommended to buy a rack type so as not to waste the few U that have this type of cabinets. Currently all the professional range manageable switches are rackable, in fact, they come with the typical supports to place them already in a rack, and the same happens with hardware WiFi controllers, since they come with everything necessary to put it inside this type of wardrove.
If you have a lot of equipment and a lot of space
If you have a lot of equipment and a lot of space to have a rack cabinet, then you will have to decide between two possibilities:
- Wall-mounted rack with 15U or 18U, these cabinets are the same as the previous ones, but they are the “tallest” to install a large amount of equipment inside, therefore, we should have enough space for a domestic environment. We must bear in mind that an 18U cabinet is approximately 1 meter high.
- Floor rack with few U, this type of racks go with wheels and are designed to be placed directly on the floor of the house, office, etc.
Floor racks are a type of cabinets that are specifically dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses, but you can locate it in your home if you have enough space for it. You must bear in mind that a floor rack is always going to be placed on the floor necessarily due to its weight, in addition, it comes with wheels to greatly facilitate its movement wherever we want.
Floor cabinets usually come prepared to put a cooling unit on top, to catch the hot air from inside the rack and expel it to the outside. If we activate this cooling, it is a very bad idea to put any object just above these fans. We say this because the floor racks with few U can ask for 1.2m or 1.5m, ideal to put decorative things or any object to “take advantage” of the space up to the ceiling, and this is a very bad idea because we will be compromising the refrigeration.
If you have a router, one or more manageable switches and several NAS servers with their corresponding UPS, it is very likely that you need a floor cabinet because the wall type ones are too short for you. This type of cabinets have many U, normally from 22U to 47U, depending on your needs and budget, you can buy a closet with more or less U, but always keeping in mind that you should not put anything at the top of the closet preventing the flow of air from the ventilation. The most typical rack cabinets have the following U to store equipment:
- 22U
- 24U
- 32U
- 42U
- 47U
If each U is 45mm, we can calculate that 22U measures approximately 1 meter of effective height for the installation of equipment, but the real height is somewhat higher when adding the height of the wheels, the lower part of the cabinet and the upper part of the cabinet. closet. We should add an additional 15-20cm to the effective height of the closet.
We must bear in mind that the floor rack cabinets are 19 “, therefore, we will have 600mm wide and with different heights, however, there are also 19” cabinets with 800mm width that will allow us to manage the wiring much better than it goes on the sides. In addition, in these cases we have different depth measurements, from 600mm depth to 1,200mm depth, therefore, they are ideal for installing really large equipment.
Floor cabinet accessories
The accessories that you can buy in this floor cabinet are exactly the same as for the wall cabinet, you can buy fixed trays, sliding trays, adjustable depth trays, blind panels, cable grommets with a brush to organize the wiring correctly, patch panels, power strips. additional power supply, and also the possibility of purchasing a fan unit if it is not included in the rack.
In the case of floor cabinets, we have the possibility of buying them with many U’s, therefore, here it is less necessary to buy rackable servers or UPSs, which are usually much more expensive than the “tower” type, although it would be advisable to save space if you have a lot of equipment, but it will depend on your needs and your budget.
As you have seen, we have two main possibilities of buying a rack cabinet for our home, or we opted for a wall cabinet with few or many U, or a floor cabinet with few U (because cabinets with many U are specifically designed for companies that will be installing a lot of equipment, and you rarely need this in a home environment).