ᐅ Planning the Network Cabinet and Its Contents

ruppsn schrieb:

APs are probably these "Ubiquiti Networks 2.4GHz/5GHz, 867Mbps, 122m (400ft) 1x 10/100/1000, 24V Passive PoE, UAP-AC-LITE".

I wouldn't recommend them right now if there are Apple devices in the household. They don't get along very well.
This becomes noticeable because FaceTime, for example, doesn't really work properly and there are frequent dropouts.

Otherwise, these devices are really great.

matte1987 schrieb:
I wouldn't recommend it at the moment if there are Apple devices in the household. They don't work very well together.
You can tell because FaceTime, for example, doesn't really function properly, with constant interruptions.

Otherwise, the devices are really cool.

Hi @matte1987,
thanks for the tip, as there are indeed several Apple devices in the household. I’ll have to look for an alternative...

I fitted a similar selection of components into a 21U rack and there is still plenty of space left.

Even though this is extremely oversized, you answer the question of how to conveniently install a patch panel with the pictures on the blog: First screw the patch panel lower down to lay the cables, then raise it (or leave it lower if the cables are fed in from below). The time required is maybe about an hour.

Keystone? For that price, you might as well have an electrician do the work.

Mycraft schrieb:
No, you’re not overlooking anything, I’m also completely satisfied with my QNAP for end users. I can’t recall ever fully utilizing the CPU. But to each their own.

The difference is that a 19" enclosure fits much more neatly into such a cabinet. The performance of a self-built device costs only about half as much and is infinitely upgradeable – power consumption is almost identical. And if you like the software, just google xpenology. It runs perfectly here on a custom build (currently as a mini tower, soon to be a 2U enclosure, for example, Inter-Tech 2U-20240).

Not maxing out the CPU but using a NUC for this, a Pi for that... in my opinion, that’s tinkering. I just run one more VM.

Or you buy a 21U cabinet to place an HP MicroServer on a shelf…

Alex85 schrieb:
Or you can buy a 21U rack cabinet to place an HP Home Server on a shelf inside ...

Nice, right? The cabinet was cheap (€100) and the home server was already there.

Which server are you using and what is its power consumption? Unfortunately, the home server consumes about 25W, so it doesn’t run 24/7. QNAP and similar devices would probably use about a third of that...

Robbaut schrieb:
Which server are you using and how high is the power consumption? Unfortunately, the home server consumes about 25W, so it doesn’t run 24/7. QNAP and similar devices would probably use about a third of that…

I built my own with an i3-4130 and 8 GB of RAM. The cost was around €300 (about $320) plus drives. A comparable QNAP or Synology would cost at least twice as much, more likely three times.

Power consumption in normal operation is also around 30W. When the hard drives are idle and spin down, and the CPU throttles accordingly, it drops to about 10-15W. It runs 24/7.

No, QNAP and similar devices are not much better. The power consumption mainly comes from the drives; there’s nothing they can do about that. Low-power CPUs naturally consume a bit less energy, but it doesn’t really make a significant difference and never, ever compensates for the higher upfront cost.

But that’s the difference between building your own and buying ready-made. However, when you see additional devices like NUCs, Pis, and others collected alongside, I find that more than absurd. The thread title is “Network Cabinet Planning,” not “Putting Collected Boxes into a Cabinet.” That’s without a clear concept.