Good vendor/brand for rackmount equipment?

[subflava]

Hey guys,

Any recommendations for rackmount equipment in regards to the brands? What about vendors you've worked with?

I'm currently looking for a full sized cabinet. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, but it I'm looking for something smartly designed with good build quality. I've worked with some crappy equipment before with cutting edges, weird screw thread sizes, etc.

I've seen ones with wheels which seem nice. Any thoughts?

 

[bgroff]

Talk to your local Anixter rep. If you need anything wiring and infrastructure related, those are the folks to talk to. They carry a variety of cabinets, racks, whatever. I personally can vouch for CPI cabinets. No wierd screw threads or rough edges there.

 

[subflava]

Thanks, I'll take a look at the Anixter stuff.

I've been looking at the APC and Dell cabinets (Dell told me APC makes their racks, but their documentation says Rittal makes them??) and they look pretty nice. Anyone use these before?

 

[cmetz]

Chatsworth (CPI) seems to be the name brand. Their metal-finish racks are a better idea than their painted black finish racks; the latter require you to do some drilling out on the rack holes to get back to the fully correct thread tolerance. And they're not out of line with the rest on cost - you'll have to go really ghetto to save enough money to be interesting.

I have Middle Atlantic shelves that were cheap and just work.

subflava, I would be surprised if APC manufacturers their own racks.

 

[SolarisGuru]

http://www.electronmetal.ca/

 

[azangerle]

anixter is a good supplier

racal cabinets are fairly solid

 

[randal]

We use APC racks and they're pretty good. Sometimes non-APC rails don't fit though, which is highly aggravating.

 

[ScottMac]

CPI Racks and cabinets are pretty decent ... the "Chevrolet" of racks and cabinets, so to speak. They look good and last if they're not abused to heavily.

Rittal is a top-end brand. They make the cabinets for APC, to APC specs. They also appear to make the cabinets for Compaq.

My main pain with Rittal is their "clip nuts;" They are the nuts that are clipped to the rail to back up the screws for holding the equipment. If you don't use the supplied tool (it looks like a bent piece of spring steel ~3 inches long) to insert / remove the clip-nuts, your fingers will be raw and / or bleeding after a couple components.

It is great stuff though ... built like a tank.

Depending on what you are going to mount, you maywant to go with a Telcom cabinet (23" rails instead of 19") with 19" rail reducers. The extra space around the equipment makes it a litte easier to work with and cable, and provides better ventilation. Go big on the top-side fan, you can't have too much airflow ... too little airflow and you'll need to leave the doors open (noisy and looks bad).

Don't forget the cable management stuff.

Good Luck

Scott