ecschnei Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 All, I need some advice on rack layout for cable management and heat considerations. I will attach a pic with what I thought would work but any recomendations would be much appreciated to avoid problems with cabling and heat down the road. Thank you, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VINCELdUB Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Looks good. Still pretty tight. Not a lot of room for expansion / changes. How is the area around it, is it enclosed? Happy Automating!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonic30101 Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Pretty good here is mine. All the stuff in dark orange is future so I just left placeholders for it for now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecschnei Posted November 7, 2017 Author Share Posted November 7, 2017 I figure if I need to expand it will be in another rack. Do you all think I will have issues wiring with this layout? Keeping power cables away from network, HDMI, and audio? Anyone have pics of the back of their rack so I can see how to keep cables nice and clean? I'm hoping to do this and not have any major changes for several years...I hope. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonic30101 Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Make sure the rack has plenty of depth, I prefer 30+" if possible. Use multiple vertical lacing strips to separate signal types for ease of service and organization. In commercial AV typically the "standard" is power, lan, control on the left and audio/video on the right. But that is very subjective. I don't have a pic of my rack at the moment because it is a dumpster fire since we just moved and it isn't done but here is another I did ages ago. If you can, have separate vertical strips for interconnecting cables within the rack and field cables coming from the house's whip as well. Layer the cables accordingly so any divers (criscrosses) are hidden. For field cables if the wires come into the rack from the top start with the items at the bottom and use the furthest vertical strip back and work your way forward with items that are higher so bundles dont cross as often, do the inverse if the wires come in from the bottom so you can layer the bundles. Then on horizontal strips work from the furthest out ports from the vertical strip and layer on top of those as you get closer back towards the vertical strips. These pics are just the shop build so most imperfections will be covered by the field cables 128x128 DM matrix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vstar Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 3 hours ago, sonic30101 said: Pretty good here is mine. All the stuff in dark orange is future so I just left placeholders for it for now are these open frame racks or enclosed? no heating issues with only 1u spacing in top vented equipment like AVR's and amps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonic30101 Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Open until I buy the side panels and additional cooling fans for the rack and utility room itself. Never had issues at the old house for the 2 years it was running there without the side panels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 All, I need some advice on rack layout for cable management and heat considerations. I will attach a pic with what I thought would work but any recomendations would be much appreciated to avoid problems with cabling and heat down the road. Thank you, Eric Is this a rack that does not move? If it moves I'd move the patch panel to something mounted on a permanent fixture. Also I'd put the patchwork near where the cables come from top or bottom, maybe even two 24 patches if half is top and half is bottom. Most installs I see have the Ea or Hc top but one and a dealer 1U brand strip above it. I don't see any multizone amp here. I also see two avrs. If part of this is an HT room you may want that in its own near room rack with an EA1 to support that and keep that collection of sources reserved to avoid HDMI downmix issues. You should buy a Motorola / Arris surfboard to replace the TW modem and can put that upright next to the NAS. Weightwise the Dell and Panamaax might want to move lower to the bottom of the rack for stability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecschnei Posted November 8, 2017 Author Share Posted November 8, 2017 8 hours ago, sonic30101 said: Make sure the rack has plenty of depth, I prefer 30+" if possible. Use multiple vertical lacing strips to separate signal types for ease of service and organization. In commercial AV typically the "standard" is power, lan, control on the left and audio/video on the right. But that is very subjective. I don't have a pic of my rack at the moment because it is a dumpster fire since we just moved and it isn't done but here is another I did ages ago. If you can, have separate vertical strips for interconnecting cables within the rack and field cables coming from the house's whip as well. Layer the cables accordingly so any divers (criscrosses) are hidden. For field cables if the wires come into the rack from the top start with the items at the bottom and use the furthest vertical strip back and work your way forward with items that are higher so bundles dont cross as often, do the inverse if the wires come in from the bottom so you can layer the bundles. Then on horizontal strips work from the furthest out ports from the vertical strip and layer on top of those as you get closer back towards the vertical strips. These pics are just the shop build so most imperfections will be covered by the field cables 128x128 DM matrix These pics are what I was looking for. And thank you for the descriptions. All good things to keep in mind while wiring everything in. Thanks Sonic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowitall Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 Ditch the patch panel or like someone said mount it somewhere else. That’s just clutter in a rack imo. Also not recommended for HD base T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecschnei Posted November 8, 2017 Author Share Posted November 8, 2017 44 minutes ago, SMHarman said: Is this a rack that does not move? If it moves I'd move the patch panel to something mounted on a permanent fixture. Also I'd put the patchwork near where the cables come from top or bottom, maybe even two 24 patches if half is top and half is bottom. Most installs I see have the Ea or Hc top but one and a dealer 1U brand strip above it. I don't see any multizone amp here. I also see two avrs. If part of this is an HT room you may want that in its own near room rack with an EA1 to support that and keep that collection of sources reserved to avoid HDMI downmix issues. You should buy a Motorola / Arris surfboard to replace the TW modem and can put that upright next to the NAS. Weightwise the Dell and Panamaax might want to move lower to the bottom of the rack for stability. This rack does have wheels and it is a 4 post open frame but the hope is that it will not move. All the cables that run to my living room (upstairs) come in the top as well as all of the network cables that run throughout the house. The Game room is literally right beside it and so the HDMI and speaker wire will run out the bottom for that zone. I was trying to keep the controllers close to the receivers to minimize length of cables between all components. The EA-5 runs everything but the GUI is on the one receiver that goes to the living room. The HC800 is for the game room GUI on the second receiver and it's sources. The bottom amp will just run my outside speakers and maybe another zone off of the EA-5 directly. The TWC modem is a arris and my only reason for putting it up top was to keep a short run from it to my Gateway Since I was using full length shelves for the amp and 2 receivers I thought that would stabilize the rack and the dell server could be a little higher. *Please let me know if this is not an efficient way to wire up a 3 zone project* Thank you all again. This kind of brainstorming with lots of great suggestions and experience is exactly why I love this forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecschnei Posted November 8, 2017 Author Share Posted November 8, 2017 @sonic30101, The thin horizontal bars that you tied the cables to at the back of the rack...what are they called so I can search for them? Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 [mention=137980]sonic30101[/mention], The thin horizontal bars that you tied the cables to at the back of the rack...what are they called so I can search for them? Thanks, Eric Lacer bars Horizontal Lacer Bars ("L" Bar) Bars LPB-1A (one bag of 10 bars) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000J17OG8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_k0LaAb392SC80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 This rack does have wheels and it is a 4 post open frame but the hope is that it will not move.Then you want a patch panel separate from the rack. Avoids the 48 cables coming into the rack and avoids moving all that solid CAT cable and then troubleshooting it. Install test and forget All the cables that run to my living room (upstairs) come in the top as well as all of the network cables that run throughout the house. The Game room is literally right beside it and so the HDMI and speaker wire will run out the bottom for that zone. I was trying to keep the controllers close to the receivers to minimize length of cables between all components. The EA-5 runs everything but the GUI is on the one receiver that goes to the living room. The HC800 is for the game room GUI on the second receiver and it's sources. The bottom amp will just run my outside speakers and maybe another zone off of the EA-5 directly.That makes sense though most all rack runs of HDMI are by default short. Likely 3 ft runs. The TWC modem is a arris and my only reason for putting it up top was to keep a short run from it to my Gateway Since I was using full length shelves for the amp and 2 receivers I thought that would stabilize the rack and the dell server could be a little higher. *Please let me know if this is not an efficient way to wire up a 3 zone project* Thank you all again. This kind of brainstorming with lots of great suggestions and experience is exactly why I love this forum!Weight wise you are likely balanced. It was a suggestion. There is already 100lbs at the bottom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonic30101 Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 They make them straight as well as different depth standoff as well depending on the depth of the equipment the wires are going to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekki70 Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 Honestly I hate to jam all that into one rack, but if you have to, make sure you get the doors on it, and a really good fan cap at the top to suck all the heat out when you put the doors on.and a fan at the bottom to suck cooler air from the floor in. Good Air flow though the rack will help dissipate the heat. if you have the room I would use single space between each cable box, unless its a DVR, then double space. Each amp I like double space, AVR a single space and a single space Fan to suck out air directly above it. Depending on your network switchs, you could stack them as some don't have heat issues. The surge protectors, I like to definitely space if I'm using panama because they can run warm to hot. I mostly use Wattbox and mount them in the rear. everyone is different, its just my simple plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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ecschnei
All,
I need some advice on rack layout for cable management and heat considerations. I will attach a pic with what I thought would work but any recomendations would be much appreciated to avoid problems with cabling and heat down the road.
Thank you,
Eric
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