Startech 42U adjustable depth (4POSTRACK42)

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nry

Active Member
Feb 22, 2013
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Anyone own this Startech rack?

Product details: 42U Adjustable Depth Server Rack | Server Racks | StarTech.com United Kingdom

I'm seriously considering buying one as it's flat pack which means I'll be able to get it upstairs, unlike the 42U I forgot I bought years ago and left it in a garage :rolleyes: (Anyone in the UK interested, message me ;))
Also I can get it for £190 new delivered from eBay!

Have a few questions for anyone who owns one:
1) What the build quality is like?
2) Says weight capacity of 600kg, without weighing some of my servers and other kit I'm a little unsure on if this is a little low, what have you mounted in the rack?
3) Do all racks use standard mounting holes? I'm a little concerned the rack rails for my servers (Xcase/Norco and Supermicro) won't fit
4) Are there mounting holes for a APC PDU at the rear?
5) How is cable management? As most racks I have seen have the inner rack and the outer shell which helps to keep cabling tidy

Thanks :)
 
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QueBall

New Member
May 28, 2015
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nry said:
Anyone own this Startech rack?

Product details: 42U Adjustable Depth Server Rack | Server Racks | StarTech.com United Kingdom

I'm seriously considering buying one as it's flat pack which means I'll be able to get it upstairs, unlike the 42U I forgot I bought years ago and left it in a garage :rolleyes: (Anyone in the UK interested, message me ;))
Also I can get it for £190 new delivered from eBay!

Have a few questions for anyone who owns one:
1) What the build quality is like?
2) Says weight capacity of 600kg, without weighing some of my servers and other kit I'm a little unsure on if this is a little low, what have you mounted in the rack?
3) Do all racks use standard mounting holes? I'm a little concerned the rack rails for my servers (Xcase/Norco and Supermicro) won't fit
4) Are there mounting holes for a APC PDU at the rear?
5) How is cable management? As most racks I have seen have the inner rack and the outer shell which helps to keep cabling tidy

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
Late reply, but I think I can comment.

Startech racks are ok. I like the tripp-lite ones a bit better but it's not really going to make much difference when we are talking a simple open frame. Usually it's a matter of what is in stock with reasonable delivery.

600Kg will break your floor before it breaks the rack. That's a serious amount of weight on your floor. That is over 1300 lbs of equipment or 30lbs per U of rack space. You would actually want to concern yourself with the structure of your floor if you were considering that kind of weight on a second floor location. Yes you can get ultra dense storage boxes and cram it full of multi platter hard drives. For example the maximum weight of a Dell md3060e 4u storage enclosure with all 60 bays filled with heavy multi-platter drives is 105.2Kg. But you would NEVER want to run a box like that in a home environment, the noise and cooling would drive you crazy. That would be like 36,000 BTU of cooling required if you maxed out the 600Kg weight limit.

The mounting holes are standard square caged nut style. That is what you want for equipment. If you have equipment with rapid mounting rail features they usually require square holes. For round threaded hole you insert a cage nut into the space. Looks like this package includes a pack of 50 cage nuts and bolts to get you started. Usually you need 4 per device or 8 per device if it needs round holes with both front and rear supports. But most server equipment that requires 4 post seems to prefer square holes and doesn't need to have the nuts these days. Bigger concern is making sure you set it up with sufficient depth for your longest equipment. Modern 1U servers often require 32-36" usable depth that rack can be setup at 40" maximum so it's going to work for just about everything.

Rear mounting of a PDU depends on the style. If it's a vertical 0u style that usually means it's intended to be mounted in the space on edge of the rack frame. Keyhole slots are a common option for this and the startech rack has these keyhole slots at regular intervals along the vertical rail. Often they include a bracket that can be bolted to the rack edge in any available hole, there is no common industry standard for vertical mounting holes for vertical PDU's so pull the installation manual of the rack and the PDU you plan to buy and see what you can figure out. Racks tend to have lots of random holes for bolting and bracing equipment so in general it usually isn't too hard to figure out a mounting spot. Horizontal PDU mounts the same way as a network switch. You just mount in the rear rails of the rack with cage nuts taking up 1-2U of rear rack space. Usually you can have a shallow depth device on the front side if your rack is tight for space.

Cable management is usually a detail you must figure out as you go. Again, racks tend to have lots of holes and pass throughs you can strap cables to or mount cable ducts to. According to the installation manual of the startech rack it includes some cable management hooks. You can mount them yourself however you find most convenient. Best advice is to use cables that are the exact length needed. Excess cable length tends to lead to cable mess. For work, I have a cupboard stocked with every available length of patch cable from 1' up to 14' and PDU power cables in 2' 3' 4' and 6' lengths. My racks are not cable management show pieces but they are not ugly spaghetti messes either (Ok, earlier in my career there were some pretty ugly jobs that started ok but got worse as the years went on due to some rookie equipment mounting decisions that lead to cable hell over time as changes are made) My tip, do not locate your network switches far from your patch panels. Best advice is to actually alternate your network switches with patch panels so your network cables from patch panel to switch are only 2ft. So Patch panel above horizontal cable manager and network switch below then another switch, then another manager, then the next set of patch panels repeating that pattern of panel, cable manager, and switch. Usually on a separate 2 post cable management rack from where the servers go. Chassis switches (Big block of switch ports in one dense area either as a group of switches or a multi slot switch) suck for cable management. Distribute the switches throughout the patch panels is the way to go for long term cable management sanity. If you need long cables to reach from your patch panel to the switch then it gets messy over time as you make changes day to day. My favourite patch panel cable management product is the neat patch horizontal cable manager. It's a 2U cable manager with an internal cavity to hold a loop of cable which makes it dead simple for all the staff to always keep the patch panels looking decent. No fancy cable lacing or cable combing skills required.
 
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N

nry

Active Member
Feb 22, 2013
312
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Thanks for the in-depth response!

Weight wise I'm still a little concerned, given the weight of all of this kit and my current rack (as an open frame) 600KG feels like nothing. I'm going to try weigh some equipment and get an idea of where I'm at.

I couldn't find a nice way to mount the PDU in my current rack so built up some flat brackets which work perfectly.



Noticed other racks have a little more space to mount the PDU in, this certainly won't be the case with the Startech!

The lack of cable management within these racks is putting me off, I like how you have all available lengths of cables to hand. This would certainly make life a little easier.
 
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