2Post Racks

For our non-threaded, square hole racks, you may 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. 

Horizontal Rackmount Power Strips are a good way to organize cables on your 2 Post rack. These mount just like any other rail or shelf and you can plug up to 8 devices in them. 

2 Post Rails allow you to fit full sized servers in a 2 post rack. These come in universal and server specific variants. 

There are many kinds of 2 Post Shelves for various use cases. Some are cantilevered, meaning that it protrudes out of the front like a traditional shelf, some protrude out of the front and back and others only protrude out of the back. 

We specialized shelves for the Mac Mini and servers switches that are tailored to fit your IT equipment perfectly.

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, width is filtered by which server chassis the rack can fit. 

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. 

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.

Both 4 Post and 2 Post racks have open frame options. This means that all sides of the rack are open to the environment around them. Open frame racks are less expensive than enclosed frame racks, but sacrifice security. 

If you want easy access to maintenance, unobstructed airflow and aren’t worried about equipment being tampered with, open frame racks are the most cost effective.

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.