Start by measuring all the equipment that will be going into the cabinet - height, width and depth. Next, take the deepest (measuring front to back) piece of equipment and add at least 130mm to calculate the minimum depth of rack cabinet required. The depth of the equipment will determine which cabinet range you will need, whether it's a data cabinet or server cabinet. For equipment over 670mm deep will need one of our server rack cabinets.

Once you have worked out the depth, you will need to work out the height. Our racks are categorised into U heights. 1U is equal to 44.45mm so you can add all your equipment heights together and divide the total by 44.45mm to work out the nearest U height. You should then add in a few U spaces, at your discretion, for future-proofing and cable management space etc.

Lastly, you can choose which width cabinet you need - either 600mm or 800mm - depending on how much additional space you want inside the rack for cable routing and also based on where the cabinet will be stationed and whether or not there is enough space on site, through doorways etc. (many of our racks can be flat-packed if required). Most 19" rack mountable equipment is designed to fit directly into the racking so should be of standard width and anything else can sit on shelves within the rack. the 800mm wide racks only offer additional cabling space either side of the racking, but they tend not to fit through standard single doorways.

You can find further information on how to choose the right rack cabinet in our Server Rack Buying Guide or contact us for further assistance.

The shelves should be selected based on your equipment and the cabinet depth. Our FS, VS and SR cabinets have an internal racking depth of up to 130mm less than their external depth i.e. the 450mm deep fixed shelves are the largest that can fit into the 600mm deep cabinets. Please contact us for further advice by using our Live Chat facility, sales@orionuk.biz or call us on 0113 2320555.