Do you prefer a chassis with front or rear I/O ports?

[SRussell]

Looking to move several of my tower systems to 1U chassis. This is my first rack setup. What are the advantages and disadvantages of front vs rear I/O ports? Should I mount my switch to the front or rear of the rack?

 

[AndrewX192]

I prefer rear IO as I have a short depth (20”) rack that has to fit in a tight space, and any excess cables would get damaged between the rack and the wall. Otherwise I’d go for all IO on the front and use more cable management, potentially with the switch on the front, as that allows for easy configuration changes.