Most effective acoustic rack cabinet?

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ectoplasmosis

Active Member
Jul 28, 2021
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I have to stick a few loud switches and servers next to humans on a particular site, no other option in this case.

Have been entertaining the prospect of either lining a standard rack cabinet with a layer of ‘Dynamat’ and acoustic foam, or buying an off-the-shelf acoustic cabinet.

Anyone with experience of either of these things?
 

ecosse

Active Member
Jul 2, 2013
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Both of those mentioned in the link have a UK presence. I have a couple of 12u Netshelter (Kell) racks, a 12u Xserve one and an old Orion? 42u. The Xserve one is more akin to a home grown job as is the Orion; the netshelter's are I think more enterprise and the fans are quieter, though in fairness the Xserve one has more stuff in. If you can wait a while you'll be able to pick a netshelter / Kell up reasonably cheaply e.g. there is one on ebay for £350 (current bid price) at the moment. These will look nicer - if that is a consideration! `
 
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ectoplasmosis

Active Member
Jul 28, 2021
117
53
28
Both of those mentioned in the link have a UK presence. I have a couple of 12u Netshelter (Kell) racks, a 12u Xserve one and an old Orion? 42u. The Xserve one is more akin to a home grown job as is the Orion; the netshelter's are I think more enterprise and the fans are quieter, though in fairness the Xserve one has more stuff in. If you can wait a while you'll be able to pick a netshelter / Kell up reasonably cheaply e.g. there is one on ebay for £350 (current bid price) at the moment. These will look nicer - if that is a consideration! `
Thanks for the tips!

I ended up soundproofing a standard cheap £600 42U cabinet myself, worked out really well.

Used a layer of heavy butyl rubber dampening meant for automotive applications to line all five steel panels including ceiling and floor. Then a layer of 40mm convoluted acoustic foam, and double foam strips around all four edges of every removable panel and front door. The panels and door now fit tightly, with a reassuring ‘THWAPP’ sound when sealed shut.

I used closed-cell foam blocks cut to size to seal the gaps beneath the cabinet, between the cab and room floor, along the front and side edges to block reflections escaping through the bottom air intake.

I also built a simple MDF ‘baffle chamber’ that sits on the roof, covering the ceiling fan tray, internally lined with convoluted foam. This boxes-in the cabinet roof exhaust fans, suppressing reflections from the room walls and ceiling.

Materials cost ~£200, with a profound effect on noise reduction compared to the cabinet before treatment.

I’ll do a write-up with photos once I have time.
 

sth

Active Member
Oct 29, 2015
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The APC net shelter CX enclosures are as good as they get, but not cheap. I have a 12U at home which does a reasonable job of silencing noisy gear.
Available from time to time second hand cheap. They are heavy and expensive to move so folks often take silly low offers just to get rid.
 

ectoplasmosis

Active Member
Jul 28, 2021
117
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I used a layer of heavy 2mm butyl sound deadening mat to load the panels with mass, with another layer of 40mm convoluted acoustic foam, on all five panels.

I also added foam strips on two facets of every removable panel edge, to form a tight seal and remove any gaps.

After doing this, most of the noise was escaping from the roof-mounted 4x 120mm fan tray, reflecting off the ceiling and reverberating around the room. To mitigate this, I built a quick & dirty plywood baffle/shroud, also lined with butyl mat and foam, that fits over the roof fan grilles. This almost entirely eliminates noise from the fan tray.

The gap between the floor and bottom of the cabinet was sealed with cut-to-size chunks of foam to stop sound escaping from the bottom fan tray, with convoluted foam laid on the floor facing upwards to further dissipate high-frequency reflections against the cabinet bottom.

All of this cost hardly anything, and has made a night-and-day difference to perceived sound levels. Three ear-splittingly loud datacentre switches fitted into this cabinet entirely disappear into the background when the door is closed, with the noise floor from the cabinet being way below the aircon fans.

Crucially, all distressing high-frequency whine is completely gone with the door closed.