Emc2Net HomeLab - Rack cabinet

A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple electronic equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is 19 inches (482.6 mm) wide.¹

A rack unit (abbreviated U) is a unit of measure defined as 1+3⁄4 inches (44.45 mm). It is most frequently used as a measurement of the overall height of 19-inch rack frames, as well as the height of equipment that mounts in these frames, whereby the height of the frame or equipment is expressed as multiples of rack units. ²

The Rack cabinet I chose for my HomeLab was the Toten G6 19" 18U 600x800x988mm³ with Glass door.

The most important question when buying a standard 19" cabinet is: How much space do I have for the cabinet? And then base on the space you have available, find out the heigh and depth of the cabinet you can affort to have ;)

The depth will define the type of servers you will be able to use with the rack, and the height the amount of servers and other components you will be able to mount in the rack.

In my case, I didn’t have a lot extra space in my Home Office, so I decided to have a “half-height” rack with 18U and a total depth of 800mm so I could place it under the Main distribution board in one of the corners of my office.

I decided to cover the inside of the rack with a 20mm soundproofing material to dampen sound and possible vibrations. The outer layer of this material is aluminium-coated polyester foil with self-adhesive reverse side. It withstands temperatures between -30 °C to +120 °C. ISO 3795 and the flammability is [mm/min < 100 / Standard: F MVSS302]

This material does not allow heat from the electronics in the rack to dissipate through the metal of the rack body. Therefore, you will need good ventilation and airflow inside the rack to help cooling the electronics. I have not had problems with this, living in Norway and having around 21-22C in the basement probably helps a lot.

The distribution of the rack nowadays looks like this:

I still have some extra space for future upgrades, in the meantime the empty rack units help with better air flow and the cooling of the rack.

I also got some accessories to use in the cabinet:

• 2 x Rack cable management rings
• 2 x Brush Strip Cable Management Panels
• 1 x Rack Power Distribution Unit (rPDU) 10A/250V 50/60Hz, Max.2.500W
• 1 x Startech Rack-shelf 19" 22.6kg

Some pictures of the Rack cabinet:

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1. 19-inch rack
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19-inch_rack ↩︎

2. Rack unit
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_unit ↩︎

3. Toten G6 19" 18U 600x800x988mm
   https://aurdel.com/no/no/19-g6822gm ↩︎