Equipment Racks VS. Equipment Cabinets
Posted by NavePoint on Oct 12th 2020
Both racks and cabinets are structures designed for mounting standard 19" rack-mount equipment like servers, routers, UPS systems, audio/video amplifiers…etc.
Why Choose a Rack?
The main difference between a cabinet and a rack is that racks are open framed and have no sidewalls and/or doors.
Top 5 reasons why people choose a rack
1. Racks have better airflow, which helps improve equipment cooling
2. With comparable mounting capacity, racks are often less expensive than cabinets
3. Occasionally, rack designs can have adjustable rack depth and rack units, therefore, they offer a unique level of flexibility and expandability that cabinets cannot match
4. Without sidewalls and doors, racks offer more access or full access to the equipment from all sides
5. There are more 2-Posts rack variants to meet application needs compared to cabinets
NavePoint is one of the leaders with our in-depth rack product portfolio that includes several different types of racks with distinctive features to meet a variety of applications.
Why Choose a Cabinet?
A cabinet is often called a rack enclosure and below are the top five reasons why people choose a cabinet over a rack:
Top 5 reasons why people choose a cabinet
1. Cabinets provide access control and equipment security through side panels and doors that include a lock and key.
2. Cabinets hide cabling and equipment inside providing a cleaner appearance, especially in applications where the units are highly visible.
3. Cabinets help contain equipment noise compared to open racks.
4. Cabinets can accommodate add-ons that control the air quality going into the enclosure.
5. Most wall mount cabinets provide 4-post fixturing compared to the 2-post on wall mount racks.
When choosing a cabinet, consider the internal capacity. Since everything is enclosed in a cabinet, it is recommended to allocate additional space in terms of rack depth for cable management.
NavePoint offers different types of cabinets to meet your install requirements.