Show me your RACK - Page 7

Splotto, do the side panels come off that rack? You could hinge one side panel and move the rack off to one end of the closet then frame it in with a wood surround to fill the gaps in. Then add a closet door to still open side of the existing closet. Should be a neat and tidy solution with access to wiring. You'd need to give some consideration to ventilation of the redone av closet, possibly a MA fan rack at the top of the rack itself, where the power conditioner currently sits.

So I've posted my rack before, but thought I'd show what it looked like in Racktools. Great planning tool that can be found here:

http://www.racktools.com/

Here is the comparison of planned versus actual (should have used Autostitch to show the complete rack, but my demo expired and its blanks below the shelf anyway:



Bud

Hello:

The side panels don't come off. So the only way for me to have rear access is to set the rack 90 degress from where it is now and either break through from the other closet or from the room behind the seats.

I already have the fan unit on the top. However I need to put a vent in the closet space since hot air is accumulating in there.

A few months after I bought this rack I noticed that MA has a pivoting rack that I think might be perfect for me.

http://www.middleatlantic.com/enclosure/wall/sr.htm

This would allow me to mount the rear of the rack to the wall and pivot the rack out as needed.

In the end I might just buy that one.

Splotto

Here is my home made in-wall rack. It was of the "Hey, lets cut open the drywall and see what we can fit in there!" type of projects. I ended up with two 26u racks, much better than the drywall that was there before! (-:
It's made from 25mm MDF with the center section made from two 25mm sheets laminated together. I had to remove a wall stud to fit it in so the rack had to be strong enough to support the remaining wall and ceiling. At the moment cooling is by convection only, there are vents at the bottom and at the top and cold air is drawn in from the HT and warm air is expelled out the top. This isn't a perfect situation, and since getting a new Integra DTR-8.8 AV receiver that runs VERY hot, I have had to re-think the convection idea and will be adding some active cooling solutions, with the hot air vented into the office at the back of the HT which is also air-conditioned.
Access to the back of the rack is via my office and when the back is on, it's totally light-tight. Excuse the dusty equipment in the pictures, I usually get all the equipment out every 12 months for cleaning... this must at the 11 1/2 month mark!

Michael.

I hope you have the game consoles set up differently for day to day use. The way you have it placed is a quick way to kill a PS3 and an XBOX 360.

Hey, I finally finished something that I could post in one of the "Show me" threads! Everything about my build is small - it has to be when your room is 8' wide and 6 1/2' tall. In keeping with this theme, my DIY rack is ultra-tiny and ultra-minimalist:





PureAV PF60 power conditioner, SciAtl 8300HD PVR, dual Airport Express routers for iTunes, the empty shelf is waiting for a Playstation 3, and my beloved NAD T562 transport and T762 AVR. Shelves are on pilasters, adjustable by the half inch. Convection cooling vents and no heat problems so far, but I might add an exhaust fan or two soon.

This weekend I finally finished the rack. I will however have to replace the Xbox HD DVD player with a PS3 given the result of the format war. So there is still work to be done on it.

Check out the moulding work:



Next I need to do some cable managment around back. I have the velcro, now I just need the motivation...

I have taken to the liking of this Omnimount RSF 30 Shelf Rack System (link below). I have done extensive online searching for a similiar rack/shelving unit that looks similiar to this one but for a better price. I am most likely going to go ahead and get it but I was wondering if there are others out there that I may have overlooked. The good thing about this rack is that it comes with the shelves and the caster wheels. Unlike MA where you would have purchase every individual item.

http://www.omnimount.com/consumer/pr...urrentId=4.5.1

jjcritch - nice set-up, what are you using for the LCD monitor?

Hello:

Looks fine. My only concern would be the availability of accessories and parts.

MA Stuff is everywhere.

Otherwise the rack looks good.

Splotto

Yea well i contacted Omnimount for that very reason and they said I could add up to 2 more shelves, a top and sides if I wanted to enclose it. I guess the back would still be open though. I saw it in person at the local TWEETER store the other day and it looks very nice and sturdy. The thing I don't understand with MA products is that you have to basically build everything from scratch which may result in a higher cost. But I do like their products too!

Does anyone know if Middle Atlantic accessories like shelves be used with the OmniMount RSF stands?

Just finished the front of my rack off.





Equipment (from top):

Motorola DCT-6416III
Motorola DCT-6416III
Panasonic BDP30
XBox 360
Pioneer VSX-49TXi Receiver (Family Room)
Onkyo PR-SC885P Pre-amp (Theater)
B&K Components Reference 200.7 Amp
Control4 Multi-tuner
Control4 Multi-Channel Amp
Belkin PF60

strange,

How did you get it so neat??(the back that is)

scott

The key thing is to make sure you have your components in their final position so you can terminate the wires to length. Then I took ALL the wiring out of the rack. I put the speaker wire in first (yellow and green wires). That took care of the bulk of it. Then I did the Cat5 and anything else coming "into" the rack from somewhere else (e.g., HDMI / Comp from PJ and Family Room Plasma). Last thing was the interconnects between the components already in the rack. And they just kind of fell into place by routing where the rest of the wires were already running. Power cords I ran down the sides and to the PF60 at the bottom.

Its pretty time consuming though - took me an entire day.

What I've found is that it is time consuming but fairly easy to keep everything tidy when you are just dealing with Audio, Video and game consoles.

Where it gets very hard is when you throw in a HTPC or home controller PC with a bunch of USB periphrials, a NAS box, your router, you have everthing ( 2 Tivos, HTPC, XBOX, XBOX360, Blueray / HDDVD player) plugged in to the internet and some kind of multi room video switching and distribution equipment.

you have more than quadrupled the number of cables, some of which you don't make yourself. I think the key is for things to be laid out well. I have all my power (lot of cables given all the other stuff in the rack like modulators, slingbox ...) on 1 side of the rack and signal cables on the other, with a bunch of stuff down the middle that won't fit on the sides.

It just takes time. i've redone mine about 4 times now because I am a tinkerer and constantly replace stuff. My pics are in here somewhere.

However, Strange's cable management is very good.

Yeah, definitely. What you don't see in this picture is the relay rack to the right of my main gear that houses all of that stuff you mentioned. I'm just working my way through that right now. I bought some 24 port rackmount keystone blanks to use for interconnecting a lot of that stuff. But its going to be more challenging, no question.

So Strange_Brew,

Are you running an outlet strip behind your rack somewhere? I was just curious how long some of your power cables were for example for the component at the very top of the rack. I agree that careful planning will yield greater results. I just bought a rack (picking it up tomorrow) and I can't wait to get it here so I can finish ordering the rest of my cables. As for the outlet strip, I am going to look into mounting it to the rear of the rack since it will be on casters so I can pull it out from the wall. I couldn't see how you had all your power cables routed in your pics. But I liked the attention to detail in your layout and rack wiring plan!

Craig,

Fantastic job on the wiring on the rack... sadly it just reminded me that I have to do that one day to mine (I wouldn't show pictures of mine publicly yet , Heck I'm considering paying Connect AV to spend the day doing it for me at $60/hour ). Right now I have an advanced tactic called "closing the door behind the rack and turning off the light"....its been working pretty good so far

Terrific job with the entire HT the rack is just more of the same

Cheers
Calvin

I have a Belkin PF60 at the bottom of my rack, so all the power cables are terminated there. I ran the cables down the sides (forward of the yellow and green wires in the pic) of the rack. I did that to keep them away from the A/V interconnects. They can't be seen unless you shine a flashlight into the back of the rack - then you can see them running down either side. I didn't have a problem with length getting to the PF60 for the uppermost components (Motorola DCT-6416's).

C'mon, bite the bullet and spend a day cleaning it up. Very cathartic experience

I purchased this rack on ebay today for cheap.
I am going to get it on tomorrow morning


I think I will probably paint it black. I looked at the Slim 5 rack by MA a lot but when it came down to it I wanted more space and a rack that doesn't use pre tapped holes. I like the square hole / cage nut concept. Furthermore I want to put 4 4U computers in the mix as well as network equipment and a preamp with 4 stereo power amps. All together I calculated that I want to put 60U worth of equipment into the rack. This rack gives me 86U total.

Art I do not think I have ever seen a photo of the back of your equipment rack. Does such a photo exist?

PS. here is an updated photo of the back of my rack:



The last photo was two or three years old. A lot has changes since then. The biggest change was HDMI and Blu-ray.

Just gorgeous neat work !!!!!!!!!!!! I'm assuming these are all custom terminations.

Art

That was fast but it is not your rack.

My rack built into an IKIA cabinet. On castors so you can roll it out and get to the back. It's attached to the mini-bar outside the theater.

That looks nice snooprob. Are there real rails in there too, or did you use the Ikea shelving...it looks like real rack parts. What's the Ikea product name ('Racken'...'Shelven', something like that?)

Avatar8481

Thanks, and you should do names for IKEA, I think you have a knack for it! I don't recall the actual model but the link below sure looks similar. I did put normal rack rails inside, but they did not allow me 19" between them when installed... So I had to cut off about 1/2" on each side removing all the pre-threaded holes. Not ideal but I am very happy with the stability, accessability and looks. The price was tough to beat.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S79811860

Sanus Systems