Show me your RACK - Page 9

I have a component that takes up 1 and 1/3 U (four holes) Is there a blank panel that takes up 1/3 U or 2/3 available somewhere that I can buy. I find it really stupid that Impact acoustics made this thing a non standard size. I plan to fill my racks (43U each) top to bottom eventually and adding this component is going to leave a 1.16 inch gap in there somewhere.

This is the component



Dimension: 13 ½” (L) X 7” (W) X 2 ¾” (H)

File a filler panel down to size??

I have thought of that, I didn't want to have that much fun though. I kinda wanted to sit on my butt and click "buy now"

Ok, let me try that again, then.

Buy a filler panel, take it to a metal shop and have them cut it to size, on a shear??

Drop by your old high school. Any school shop can cut that for you, quick and free!

For those of you that use the vertical power strips; Does a power conditioner or UPS work effectively if you have everything running through one outlet?

You can call Middle Atlantic and see if the have a custom fit 2U rack shelf for your unit. If they don't, they can make one for you.

Yeah; it works just fine. It *may* not provide as much isolation of equipment, but every APC UPS that I've opened up just has everything electrically tied together internally anyway, making it electrically identical (*) whether you use a power strip or wire directly to the UPS. And naturally, the first is tidier and easier generally.

* - Within 0.01% to appease the electrical enginerds among us...

Here's another rack picture for the thread. I gratuitously lifted the idea of allthread and MDF from someone on this forum. I'm sorry that I don't remember who it was to give credit.

One tip I found - spinning nuts down 6' pices of allthread takes forever by hand, but a car buffer on a cordless dril makes the job abotu 20x faster.

The front looks pretty nice, although the PS3 USB cord was hanging down in this picture:


The back could use some cable management:

Yea I think I am going to get a custom cut blanking panel in the next order.
I am ordering a few custom cut things next time around.



I got myself one of these

http://www.amazon.com/Playstation-3-...1217207&sr=8-3


I love this unit because I don't need a mess of cables coming out of the front of the rack. I got the OEM MS quick charger for the 360 batteries also.

In my opinion the controllers don't need to be anywhere near the rack anyway, the rack is tucked away and the controllers are out by the couch.

Kevin
That's along the lines I'm thinking....what are your dimensions and what size all-thread did you use?

Ron

The shelves are 22" wide and 24" deep. 22" wide fits through the 24" door and easily gives the 19" necessary fro most components between the allthread.

I used 3/4" allthread for strength/stability. It's pretty solid, but could use something attaching it to the wall so that it doesn't sway and misalign the projector when bumped. (Projector got moved during DirecTV installation - elsewhise it's been fine.)

You can find the allthread on mcmaster.com under part number 98910a036, adn the bolts under part number 90490A436.

Finally got mine done for the most part. Still need to do some cable management around back. Borrowed (..cough.. stole) the idea for the rack from YW84U.





Made the face plates out of sheets of stainless steel that I got from Home Depot. Used a textured metal spray paint from Rustoleum. The plates feel like they were powder coated. The plates are not perfect but it will do for now.

Ok, I just got my MA 5-37 (still in the box). I am planning on framing it into the wall. For the time being I am going to leave the front open but I would like to leave open the option of installing the MA plexiglass door or a custom door that I make myself. I am just wondering, did the rest of you that framed them in make the rack flush with the sheetrock or is it set back a little bit? Should I frame the 2X4s directly to the rack and sheetrock right up to the rails or should I put a 1x4 inside the 2X4 and make it flush with the sheetrock in order to have something to mount a door to down the road?

thanks for pointing out that the plates are available at HD. I was worried id have to go looking for a sheet metal shop. rack looks great, btw.

HD has a couple different sizes but I bought the 12 inch by 24 inch and them cut them down to size. Had to go to a couple HD's to get enough of them though.

Finish it how you want...I am assuming that is a slim 5. The door mounts to the front of the rack and adds 0 physical width/height to the rack. Call them up and they will email you the installation for the door and you will see.

I had the same issue as my builder is doing my basement along with the house and I cant install the rack/door until the house is completely done (sheetrock, trim, etc). So I called MA to be sure I could feed the contractors exact instructions so the Slim5 pdf specs along with the door install guide will get you what you want. PM me if you need any info or the guides.

edit, here is a quick pic of the guide for reference:

Can I ask where you ordered that patch panel plate? that is an awesome way to organize the speaker cables.

The un-populated panel was ordered from Gruber. You can find them here:

http://www.gruber.com/

They have a store on that big auction site call e somthing bay.

Here is a more recent photo of the patch panel, more connections. The nice thing is you can mix and match the connection. any standard Keystone type jack works.

Wow, that is pretty cool. I hadn't noticed that before in the other pics. One question though... I am assuming that you are also using the Gruber keystone speaker jacks. On the rear side it looks like the speaker wire feeds through the back and out the sides. Do they come with caps that screw down over the wire?

The jumper cables between the Sound Processor and the patch panel are monster QuickLock Gold Banana Connectors.



The keystone jack were purchased from smarthome and have a set screw connection on the back. The jack are avaiable with red or black stripes. These were purchased several years ago, today I would check out the ones that Monoprice has.

I usually don't like BUSTY women but I'd make an exception for those two.

I hate it when women try to hide their racks.

I just googled for rack pictures - not a good idea.

So far I have not been able to get a really good shot of my equipment rack. Probably have to do a panoramic do to the angle. Some of these are before I completed the theater.

Current Equipment:

• Mid Atlantic 8 Port Rack Power
• QSC DSP-30
• 2 QSC RMX 2450 Amps
• 2 QSC RMX 1450 Amps
• Onkyo 885 Pre/Pro
• Panasonic BD30 Blu-Ray Player
• Toshiba XA2 HD-DVD Player
• Microsoft XBox 360 Elite
• 2 Mid Atlantic 4U Drawers with DVD Media spacers
• Various 3U & 4U Brushed AL Filler Plates

Here are some pictures:



I've cleaned it up a bit, but I need to clean it up before Art comes over , don't want to get Ron'ed

Not fully stocked or even finished out yet but you'll get the idea...

This is a Mid-Atlantic SRSR-X mounted in the wall with a plywood box surrounding. It has a Samsung BD-UP5000, Xbox 360, Onkyo TX-SR705 and HR10-250.

wow! no RROD on the 360 yet?

Anyone ever seen a Wii mounted with the custom faceplate? I'm not familiar enough with the Wii to have a good handle on how it would work in a rack. The wife wants to get one and I saw that MA makes a custome shelf for it.

^^BTW, I have a 360 that I bought the week they came out. No RROD for me although the DVD drive is getting noisy and has trouble closing on its own now. I was hoping something would crap out on it before my BB warranty expired but no dice.

OK, getting ready to get going on the basement home theater. I want to do an in-wall MA rack, but I'm unsure if I need to buy a Slim 5 cabinet or just the rack rails. As long as the rails are properly fastened to 2x4s to hold the weight of the RSH shelves, do I need the entire cabinet? I used the RackTools program to do it both ways. I'm going to order at Stayonline.com and there's about a $200 difference between the two.

Thanks!