42U Rack and Cabinet Guide
When selecting a rack or cabinet there are several factors to consider.
Rack Height
A 42U rack or cabinet can house equipment whose total height when placed into the rack is no more 73.5inches or 186.69cm (18.67m) with 1U=1.75inches or 44.45mm. Care therefore has to be taken when selecting a rack to make sure that there cabinet height is sufficient to house the IT server, networking peripheral or IoT device.
Rack Width
The standard rackmount width is 19inches (482.6mm) and cabinets are typically available in 600mm or 800mm width. Most products will either fit to the front rack pillars using cage nuts onto flanges attached to the rack-mountable device, or slide rails running from the front to the rear pillars or sit on internal shelves or slide-out trays. Room should be left around the rack for adequate air flow and access.
Rack Depth
The depth of cabinet available range from 600-1200mm. Care should be taken when selecting a rack depth to ensure that it is suitably long enough for the equipment to be housed including any necessary space for cables (bend radius) and connection access. How to manage cables is important for any rack size for easy cable identification and to avoid accidental disconnection.
Open or Closed Racks
The majority of server racks and data cabinets supplied are enclosed rather than open frames. An enclosed cabinet with a front and rear door and side panels is more secure and will provide with more efficient airflow management.
42U Server Cabinets
We supply a wide range of 42U server cabinets made to order and stocked in the UK. The typical lead time is 5-7 days unless the cabinet is ex stock at time of order. Please also view our server rack accessories range for optional extras to extend the functionality of your cabinets. Options available include shelves, blanking plates to improve air flow, brush strips, cable rings, cable trays, and cable management items, lockable drawers, fan trays, patch panels and plinths. We also supply a wide range of rack mount UPS and PDUs to provide you with a complete server rack for you server room or data centre application.
Data Cabinet Sourcing
If you have a preferred brand of server cabinet we can source a matching cabinet through our extensive supply chain. Typical brands supplied include APC, Schneider, Eaton, HP, Legrand, Panduit, Rittal, Tripp Lite and Vertiv.
If you cannot find the 42U server rack or data cabinet you need please contact our projects team who can also arrange for an on-site build from a flatpack server cabinet kit.