Advice on acquiring 4 post rack

[DaveP]

I've been building a pretty sizeable home lab and want to start migrating things over to rack mount chassis. But... I'm having trouble finding 4 post racks/enclosures. I think what I want is going to be a half height 4 post rack(something near 22U I suppose?), no real need for it to be enclosed. Full height wouldn't be a problem if it was a good deal though.

I've read about people getting racks like these pretty cheaply and I've tried looking for deals online. But I'm not really coming up with anything that's not well over $500. Is that kind of pricing normal/good? Where would you look for something like this and what terms would you be searching for?

 

[rune-san]

Full Height is usually a better deal. Look at bigger town or places with Tech Businesses. Alot of times on Craigslist they'll have full racks on offer for at most a couple hundred (sometimes haul away free). Half-Racks are very convenient for Home Labs and have more spouse approval. I often find half racks to cost more than full racks. Full Racks are in all ways a pain in the arse. Heavy to move into a house. A pain to maneuver. A pain to move. A pain to transport. That's why they're given away for so little on places like Craigslist. Because of how much they cost to ship, I wouldn't expect a good deal on anything except local or local pickup arrangements.

 

[whitey]

Yeah don't pay more than $200 for a full rack, 1/2 rack depending on deal can be had for $150-300, startech makes a decent enough 1/4 or 1/2 rack I thought I had seen here although admittedly I don't have PN's to reference.

APC/Schneider or Tripplite even new I thought had decent enough pricepoints/options. Start there or local CL as suggested sometimes will pop up a good deal, but mostly castoff 42U racks that NOONE wants to REALLY deal with in a homelab unless you are super nuts or have a BAD habit hahah

 

[K D]

I see 42u racks for 100 bucks on Craigslist.

I went with 2 half racks. One xrackpro 24u for always on (and noisy) servers and one tripp-lite open rack for stuff that I turn on infrequently.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OB8T72/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_24AkBbTFMMC8H

 

[nthu9280]

In addition to setting alerts in CL, see if you have e-cyclers in your area. They also from time to time get these and get rid of them to scrap.

One thing to keep in mind is 1. the mounting holes type - round vs Square (newer)
2. Depth - 1070 mm or 40" are the full depth. You need the extra room for cable management etc.
Older Compaq 24u racks are short depth and some of the rails may be too long for those racks.

 

[mackle]

I’ve only bought one thing from Facebook market place- a full enclosed rack for $50.

Just make sure you have a way of transporting it - took up the whole back of a Honda Odyssey.

 

[DaveP]

Thanks all! I'll keep a better eye on Craigslist and now Facebook Market too. WAF is definitely taken into consideration on what I can get away with. If I don't see something soon though, I might have to go with that that 22U rack Priscilla110 linked to. That's not too shabby I think.