Racks and Stands

[noshali]

I am looking for a rack that I can put my A/V equipment in. I checked the avsforum and got lost. So what are you guys using.

Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly apreciated.

regards

[jkmonroe]

what kind of rack? i have a couple at the office i can get rid of. :)

edit: the racks that i have are 48U fully enclosed with power and cable management. they weigh about 550lbs, so shipping will be kind of ridiculous and it is 'recommended' that you bolt them to the floor.

[lpott6]

Are you looking for one that is out in the open and visible or one that is in an equipment closet?

I just recently purchased one for my TV/Movie viewing room that is decorative and fits in the the decor of the room. I looked at racks ranging in price from $50 to $500. Taste and budget will dictate what you end up with.

[Ripper]

http://www.middleatlantic.com/ makes some excellent racks depending on what you need and how many components you have.

I use a large server rack about 6' tall, standard 19" width and 24" deep..this allows me to rackmount some full size work servers I also have...in my opinion I say buy the biggest one you can because you will fill it in no time :-)

Another thing you will need to consider if all your equipment is not rack mountable you will have to buy shelves to sit your stuff on something like these

http://www.middleatlantic.com/rackac/storage/shelves2.htm

Many people do things differently, some buy the middle atlantic stuff and build it in while others have free standing racks with castors they just stick in a room like I have done..be aware once you load a rack with all your equipment it might weigh 500+ pounds depending on what you have so if they say "Do you need castors"...yes please :-)

Here is few pics of my wiring in process and the amount of gear in my rack..like I said they fill up fast in my situation because 1/3 of my space is used for work servers.

http://www.ncrypt.net/touchscreen/cqc/images/rack1.jpg

http://www.ncrypt.net/touchscreen/cqc/images/rack2.jpg

This rack cost about $700 cdn last year but they can be had cheaper of course..this rack is heavy duty and can support over 1 tonne of weight..full depth servers and UPS weigh alot!!

As you can see I only have about 6U of space left above my 3 channel amplifier so before long will need another rack as I still have some other components I havent stuck in the rack yet.

[noshali]

I am sorry...i should have clarified. It will be for my living room so has to be something that the head office will approve.

regards,

[Ripper]

How much equipment do you have? does your CQC server sound like a jet airplane or is it silent?

The noise from my equipment rack would never work in a living room situation and definetly no WAF if I ever tried :-)

If you want your rack in the living room best solution I would think is middle atlantic mounted so it is flush to the wall but be aware depending on components and servers and such you may raise the decibel level alot in the room.

When you have alot of equipment you need fans to cool it and either they are noisy or your gonna pay a bit of cash to make it all silent and even then it wont be totally silent...also if you don't have a door covering components it may look like you have a airport landing strip on one side of the wall that can be distracting in a darkened room.

Are you looking for an actual rack mount or an Audio/Video shelf setup? big difference...

Are you looking for something like this instead?

http://www.audiovideofurniture.ca/Plateau-DS-6A-DS-Series-6-Shelf-Audio-Stand.htm

[jkmonroe]

if youre looking for a component rack, i highly recommend these guys:

http://www.salamanderdesigns.com/

check out the synergy series. their stuff is all modular, so you get what you want and nothing you dont. also, their single width racks can be enclosed to help with sound while looking fantastic.

[lpott6]

I am sorry...i should have clarified. It will be for my living room so has to be something that the head office will approve.

regards,

ripper made some important points about noise and heat from a rack of equipment. These must be considered!

If you want to check out what is available, look at the results of this search on Google: a/v racks You will get lots of sites with lots of options. I ended up buying one from American Furniture arehouse. It is wood and glass and wide enough for 2 components on each of 3 shelves for $99.

[noshali]

It goes in a corner int he living room. Such a PITA. It has to be at a certain height as I have a one year old poking a finger in everything. I could move it to the pantry but re running the wires would be a nightmare.

I only have my receiver, the sta recevier and an HTPC that I still have to build.

regards,

[zaccari]

I had a custom cabinet built into the wall. I modeled it to be a bit wider than a 19" rack (wide enough for almost everything) with adjustable shelves. Home Depot has the pins that are used by most furniture shelves and that's what I used. It's basically a box mounted to the back of the wall (under the stairs going from the basement) with framing and I'm impressed with it so far. The intent is to monitor heat issues but there's enough room around the back of the box that I'll put quiet fans as required. Only the interactive stuff will go there. The VOIP equip is actually sitting on top behind the wall as it doesn't really fit in the rack next to it. That's the other thing, the wall w/ the rack in it backs up to my patch panels and computer rack. It also *should* be bolted to the floor but I'm not even going to consider how to bolt to a concrete floor. I'm hoping to pick up a DVD changer for Christmas so I can get rid of the DVDs laying around. I never really planned for that.

I've included a picture of the shelves. The monitor isn't going to stay there. It actually gets mounted on one side of the box and what you can't see is the touch screen that was supposed to get mounted on the other side. I really would rather not have 2 screens there but I wasn't able to find a touch screen that is wide format. I think it'll work out better this way as I can't switch the source on the monitor easily and I never wanted to have the projector as the only display source in that room. When I started this, I never really thought about switching sources between the computers (that monitor currently hooks to a KVM switch that has all my rack equipment connected). I also never wanted a keyboard.

Russ...
--
http://www.zaccari.net/russ/private/IMG_0048s.jpg

[penngray]

I have 2 wall mounted swing door racks from here....

http://cableorganizer.com/computer-cabinets/wall-mount-open-rack.htm



Here is the pics of when I installed it.....
http://www.penngray.com/house/AV%20project/wall_mount_swing_door_rack2.JPG

I will post more picks when Im finished the closet.

[penngray]

I am sorry...i should have clarified. It will be for my living room so has to be something that the head office will approve.


Nevermind, mine is for a closet.

[jscheller]

How much equipment do you have? does your CQC server sound like a jet airplane or is it silent?


Not to hijack the topic here, but I'm using the Middle Atlantic ERK series racks and I've got noise issues.

I don't currently have any doors or side panels on racks. They're in a separate room, but the fans from my main server and the routers and other equipment in here are really loud. In fact, the PowerEdge 2850 I've got in there DOES sound like a jet engine when all the fans kick up.

Unfortunately, my equipment room adjoins the theater room and the sound is audible through the closed door. :-(

Do the side panels help with the sound attenuation much? Any other suggestions for damping the noise inside these racks?

[Ripper]

jscheller you could try to cut the fan speed in half if the server will stay cool enough..I had a really noisy one and some resistors were added that halfed the fan speed so it sounded less like a jet...could also try to find low DB fans.

I have no side panels either and equipment is located in the utility room beside the theater downstairs..usually I have everything loud enough I'd never hear anything but some things I plan to do are.

Add sound insulation to wall at rear of rack(facing theater)

Add sound skirt or whatever you call them for the bottom of the doors so less of a gap...actually considering totally replacing the door with something more solid and soundproof.

I also have alot of Sonex foam(expensive!!) from years ago that I used to tone the noise in one of the penthouses I lived in..I have about 8 feet x 12 feet square and may first insulate with Roxul sound insulation..add a layer of Quietrock sound drywall and then add the Sonex foam on the outside of drywall.

http://www1.roxul.com/sw34142.asp

http://www.quietsolution.com/html/quietrock.html

http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/products/foams/sonex.asp

Other than that try to block all open cavities in the room and get it down to a whisper or just crank it a bit louder :-)

[jdmontague]

Unfortunately, my equipment room adjoins the theater room and the sound is audible through the closed door. :-(


When I had my equipment room put in, I had the contractor put in an exhaust fan on a thermostat to try to keep the room temperature low enough so the component fans don't get too loud. I will find out within a few weeks if it will actually work.

[jscheller]

Unfortunately, I think a lot of my noise isn't necessarily tied to heat. The fans in most of the network gear seem to just run full bore all the time. The server does spin up a little bit when it's under load, but even at idle it's more then just a little noisy. Unfortunately, that guy's got something like 12 fans in it... I'd probably just replace the box rather then the fans... :-(

Still, if I could replace the router and switch fans it'd probably help. Does anyone have a source for extra-quiet replacement fans?

My wall construction's pretty solid. I've got a 2x4 stud wall filled with fiberglass, plus an extra layer of 3/8" plywood on one side under the drywall. No wall penetrations between the rooms except the door. I'll probably try putting some weather stripping and a threshold on it this weekend. I'm hoping the door is most of the transmission problem. Fortunately my rack is on the other side of the room (it's not adjacent to the theater wall).

Overall, just getting the noise level down in general would be positive. "Welcome to my home theater! Here, take a look at the equipment that makes it all possible..." Door swings open... "BHHWHWHIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRR...."