> Whoa Nellie! > > Here I agree with John. Having worked with both cabs and relay racks, in > large datacenters and my basement, I have to disagree pretty strenuously. > > The only reason I can see to favor relay racks over cabinets for anything > but patch panels is $$$.
ditto. anybody ever set foot in the old harvardnet (now hosting.com)? about 3 years ago it was utter insanity: 10000 sqft of data center, rented out to customers, no cages separating anything, and every rack a relay rack. heh. they even bragged about it on their web page. something about their 'custom depth racks' -- regular relay racks (3" deep aluminum rails) with 6" deep steel spacers screwed to the back. *nothing* fit these things, but that's not the worst of it: the aluminum rail's screw holes were coarse thread. the stamped steel rails had fine thread. the only screws h'net ever purchased were the fine ones. it was quite a site to behold. shelves all over the place had pulled the fine screws out of the aluminum holes leaving big gear like sun ue450s dangling by the rear only... 4 post racks are the way to go. thermal issues don't have to be any different than with relay racks: just don't put sides and doors on it! i'm partial to products made my martin enclosures in NH. they can make and deliver custom cabinets fairly quickly, they're affordable, and their stuff is all nice welded extruded aluminum, rather than stamped steel. mike martin is a heck of a nice guy to deal with and he stands behind his product (personal experience). $/50 /chris --- Send mail for the `bblisa' mailing list to `[EMAIL PROTECTED]'. Mail administrative requests to `[EMAIL PROTECTED]'.
