A Mini Rack for Your Home!

over the years I've gone from machines on a shelf to racking machines in an open rack to centralizing everything and racking it in an enclosed 36u rack to what I am building now and it's this 12u closed rack it's a smaller version of my 36u rack with a few changes that make this the perfect rack for a small office home office or even just at home but is it right for you let's check it out and see this is the sysracks 12u 24 inch wall mount 19-inch enclosed server rack it measures almost 24 inches wide almost 24 inches deep and almost 25 inches tall it's a standard 19 inch rack and if you're wondering why they call it a 19 inch rack 19 inch refers to the mountable width of servers and Equipment it's made of steel but has a powder coat finish in either gray or black it has two brush panels with cable managers at the top and bottom to help with cable management and blocked us from coming in all around the enclosure you're going to see lots of perforated edges especially around the front doors this helps to passively cool the entire enclosure it also includes active cooling with this top 120 millimeter fan module that connects to any standard outlet now some models especially the larger units like my 36u rack come with temperature control units but I opted to keep this one simple and will probably add temperature sensors and smart switches to control a fan if it ever gets to that point wait I thought I said it was keeping this simple speaking of power it also comes with a pdu where you can plug in up to eight devices and has a secure on and off switch covered in a detachable cap on the back we can see wall mounting hooks which makes this easy to wall mount if you choose to do so but I'm choosing to attach some casters to it so I can move it around freely in my office if I need the back panel is attached with screws but can be easily removed if needed on each side we have locking removable panels that can help you secure your enclosure and prevent anyone from getting in while still giving you access to get inside and make adjustments to your equipment coming around to the front we have this nice glass door that has perforated edges on the side and has a handle that can also be locked if needed I like having a glass panel door because it lets me easily see inside to check on all of my Equipment Plus it looks really cool with Blinky lights inside the rack has four posts to rack up to 12 view of equipment making it great for small servers networking equipment DVRs AV Equipment and anything else that can fit into a 19-inch short depth rack it also comes with the shelf or equipment however I'm not sure if I'm going to use it yet putting this rack together was much easier than my 36u rack you can do it alone but it might help to have someone there for the very first step and that's putting together the frame don't worry though I was able to manage it alone after securing the frame you'll then need to mount all of the posts so you can rack your equipment before you go too far like I did if you're going to use the supplied shelf be sure to adjust the posts so that you can mount the Shelf later if needed the back panel can then be attached with a few screws while I would have loved to see a door like on the 36u model it makes sense for this to be a panel since it's also wall mountable the sides are removable and you can easily pop them in and out with these clips it also comes with a lock and key to secure it if you like this model supports both legs and casters however it only ships with legs so if you're going to use casters too you'll need to pick some up or buy them separately I did choose to go with casters because I want to move this around the room when needed the casters lock in place and are very secure like so secure that I didn't even worry one bit about assembling this on top of my workbench attaching the front door is pretty easy too it is a little bit challenging using the shims to get the door to hang just right but I figured it out after a couple of minutes now I love the look of the rack and I think that the perforated Edge and glass give this a premium look and feel the door has a handle to keep the door shut and it can also be locked with the included keys so once it's all put together it's pretty easy to work on this and get inside the rack when it's empty there's plenty of room to work on everything that I plan on installing you can see the vents on the top for cables as well as the fan for cooling so I'm glad I have a fan however it doesn't have a switch to easily toggle it on and off so I'll just end up wiring up some smart switches and put a temperature control inside if I really ever need to turn this fan on so now that it's all assembled it's now time to install some equipment I started out by installing my unified 24 Port Poe switch this was a switch that I replaced to my other rack but decided to hang on to it for this rack I don't think I'll be using all 24 ports here in my office but it's better than buying another switch as you can see I'm using rack studs for the install rack studs reach out to me and sent me a few packs of studs including their new 1u rack studs these are awesome and simple to use you just squeeze them pop them in and then hook up your devices these new 1u rack studs are great for one new device this like my switch and my pdu that I put in the back but then I decided to put them to the test I wanted to rack up my UPS and that thing weighs 22 pounds and only has rack years in the front rather than front and back so I installed the ups and tightened all four up using their combo pack studs and so far so good the rack studs are able to hold the UPS in place without issue and even without sagging oh and I wasn't paying attention when racking my UPS and I racked it upside down which I then quickly flipped around after noticing but it was super simple to reattach with rack studs if you're interested in the ones I use I'll have some links Below in the description after installing my UPS the network switch and my pdu I took a step back and took a look at the rack it's a really nice option for short depth items not to mention that you can use shells for anything that can't be rack mounted natively I'm really impressed by the build quality and attention to detail the glass door and all of the other features especially at the price at just two hundred and ten dollars I was expecting a lot less but what I got was a perfect rack for my office at this price I can't think of anything I would change well maybe the paint job make a mat instead of a high gloss option that would be pretty awesome matte black and Matt Gray even white this is going to house a few projects coming up so be sure you're subscribed to see what else I'm gonna throw in this rack got some pretty cool stuff well I learned a ton about racking smaller components building a mini rack and I hope you learned something too and remember if you found anything in this video helpful don't forget to like And subscribe thanks for watching

Channel: Techno Tim

Views: 84,422

Keywords: homelab, server racks, wall mount, enclosuer, mini, mini rack, modern rack, home server rack, small business server rack, sysracks, sysrack, low cost, wall mount enclosure, home lab, server rack, cabinet, floor standing, portable, 12u, rack studs, rackstuds, server cabinet, av, data rack, dvr, audio video, home, home server, small rack, quiet rack

Id: PjldIGDwkLk

Length: 6min 38sec (398 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 26 2023