Open Frame Racks

Blanking panels are compatible with our open frame racks to help manage airflow. If you leave open space in open frame racks, hot air can drift towards the front of the servers or linger creating hot spots. 

Cable management bars fit on the back of our 2 post and 4 post open frame server racks. These dramatically improve organization and appearance of setups which use lots of networking cables, making it easier to find the ones you need to adjust.

Fans are available in horizontal and vertical arrangements. Both variants help direct exhaust and prohibit hot spots from developing. 

Our Keyhole PDU bracket allows power strips to be mounted in the keyhole slot of your open frame rack. Additionally, horizontal rackmount power strips can be mounted on the back of your rack in a similar fashion to cable management bars.

For our non-threaded, square hole racks, you will need cage nuts in order to mount shelves and rails. These are available with 10-32, 12-24 and M6 threads depending on what your specific equipment requires.

The front and back of server racks have either square, round or threaded holes that are used to secure equipment. A “rack unit” or “U space” is 1.75 inches of vertical space on a rack which contains three holes. It’s an easy way to measure space taken up by equipment and helps standardize sizing in the industry 

You need to be familiar with how much U space your equipment will take up in order to save money while making sure everything fits. If you end up with too much open space, you might need blanking panels to keep airflow contained. 

We carry racks with U heights from 1U to 90U, meaning that there are plenty of options for the home, office or data center.

Depth is just as important as U space because not having enough room means that you might be returning or reselling your rack. When considering necessary depth, you will need to not only find the dimensions for your current hardware, but any hardware that you might get in the future. If you don’t, your equipment might end up sticking out of the back of your rack. 

RackSolutions’ server racks range from 0-50 inches. The average depth for a server rack is about 36”. On top of making sure there is enough depth for your equipment, make sure that any rails or shelves you would like to use are compatible.

Most server chassis have a width of 19 or 23 inches in order to keep things consistent. On our website, you can filter racks by mountable width. So our 19” width rack will mount 19” width servers, but it is not representative of the total width of the rack.

External width is relevant to the space that the rack takes up inside of a room. It can extend up to 32 inches to provide space for cable management, power supplies and other accessories. This can be customized more through individual item pages. 

To summarize, check the width of your equipment to determine your internal width and your floor space for the external width.

All of our racks have static load capacity ratings on their product pages. You will need to estimate the sum of your equipment's weight in order to determine what capacity your rack will need.

Purchasing a rack with a higher load capacity than necessary is recommended. One reason is because racks that are capable of being moved have lower weight capacities while in motion. Additionally, it is impossible to predict future weight needs and racks can last much longer than the equipment itself.

2 Post racks, also known as telco or relay racks are built to house lightweight equipment. This includes routers, switches, controllers or very thin servers. Additionally, 2 post racks are great for mounting shelves that support non rackable equipment. 

You can also mount servers on 2 post racks as long as the cumulative weight falls within capacity. We offer plenty of adapters and hybrid rails to help mount servers in 2 post racks.

4 Post racks are the standard for full servers. They can support thousands of pounds, reach 70U in height and fit any kind of IT equipment that needs to be mounted. 

If you need extra security, expandability or a high weight capacity, open or enclosed 4 post racks are the best option. You can purchase them in sizes small enough to fit in an office and large enough to satisfy a data center.

Server Racks that are protected from all four corners are called “enclosed frames.” These are available with locks one or two locks on the front, back or both. 

Because of the extra metal, enclosed frame racks are a bit more expensive and allow less airflow. The walls allow for more cable management, fans and sensor accessories to be mounted.

Our server racks are compatible with all leading OEM servers and equipment, such as Dell, HP and IBM. Open frame racks allow for more airflow and space while enclosed racks enhance security. You will likely want a 2 post (telco) rack if mounting lightweight equipment and a 4 post rack for full sized servers. 

Check the height, width and weight requirements of your equipment before making a purchase. Dimensions of our server racks can be found on specific product pages.