Hello all. I recently purchased a rack that most have not seen or considered, and I thought I would post a mini-review about it with some pics and my initial impressions. I didn't take a lot of pictures as I was setting it up, so most of my pics are of it set up with the shelves arranged as I desired.
After deciding not to go with permanent DIY shelves for my new system setup, I started looking at racks and stands. Eventually, after looking at everything from the value-oriented to the excessive, I purchased the
Sanus CFR127 because I wanted to get a true rack for its flexibility/modularity.
This rack appeared to be the absolute best value because it included eight shelves (5 1U and 3 3U) and eight blanking panels (also 5 1U and 3 3U), along with a locking glass door and lots of removable panels for running wires and setting everything up.
I ordered the rack from
Amazon.com for $622 with free shipping (it has since gone up to $638 and is currently out of stock). This was a pretty good deal considering the retail price of $800, especially because this retail price is far lower than most competition, even without the shelves and panels.
It shipped about two days later via truck freight. It took about a week to get from Ohio over here to the west coast. The shipping company phoned me on a Friday and scheduled the delivery for a Monday, and they were kind enough to let me know they would call me 30 minutes before so I could run home from work and wouldn't have to hang out at home for an entire morning waiting for them. They were very polite and professional.
It arrived on a pallet in a small-refrigerator-sized cardboard box. I checked it for damage and the shipping fellow was on his way.
I assumed there would be a large amount of assembly required, but it turns out, after stripping off the outside box, there wasn't much that needed doing. Score!
The only assembly that was actually required was to attach the heavy duty casters and leveling feet. They went on relatively easy and they are beefy enough to handle anything you can throw at it. Instructions were pretty much useless, but I had no use for them anyway, as everything is pretty straightforward with this thing. It was strongly recommended to always use the leveling feet for stability and safety once it is positioned, rather than allowing it to rest on the casters.
The rack came populated with all of its shelves and blanking panels installed, and with the back panel screwed on. After removing the back panel and setting it aside, I went to removing the shelves and panels and configuring it for my gear. As is standard for most EIA-spec racks (which this one basically conforms to), there are front and back mounting points for shelves, panels, and/or rails. I mounted three extra shelves, including one in the reverse direction just in case I needed them (which I did) and even had two 1U shelves and a 1U blanking panel left over. As a note, I was able to directly mount my power conditioner, which would have otherwise taken up one more shelf.
The metal is tapped directly for each mounting point, unlike some of the more expensive rack options that have replaceable threaded inserts or captive nuts. I am certain this is a compromise that was needed to keep the price low. One just has to take greater care not to strip out the threads, as this will result in yelling and throwing things, as well as probably needing to drill out the hole and using a nut to correct the issue. Fortunately, I was able to get it configured without such problems.
I got all of my gear installed and wired up, and the little cable management that I did was a breeze (I could have probably done a bit more, but I was ready to get things up and running). There are plenty of locations for velcro straps or zip-ties to keep things neat, as you can see.
Also, the side panels release with ease. Two spring clips release each panel. These can be removed for extra cooling, further wire management, or any other occasional adjustment that is necessary. The back panel screws on with 8 screws, so for post-setup tweaking, the side panels and the front give the quickest, most painless access. As a side note, the side panels may rattle if the system is cranked up, but if so, this will be easily remedied by some foam bumpers around the panels.
With the gear installed, it was time to put it in its final resting place. Unfortunately, I had about zero clearance the rack in the closet, and I was forced to move all the wires from exiting the small holes in the back frame to one of the removable panels on the top of the rack. These panels are also needed if you have cables that are too big to fit through the small wire holes in back (as was the case for the ferrite cores on my HDMI cables). The results are not quite as pretty with all the cables coming out of the top, but that was my only option and it works quite well. There is also an identical panel on the bottom of the rack, and also a larger panel on top that can be removed for extra cooling or wiring.
Speaking of cooling, there are vents on the face of the rack to allow natural convection to pull any heat up and out, and all the shelves are perforated to allow air flow. I will see in time how effective this is (coupled with the wire panel removed) once things get fired up in there.
The glass door in front has a locking handle to provide a little security and safety.
My only gripe is that I cannot leave the handle unlocked, as the key cannot be removed in the unlocked position and the handle will not set back into the door with the key removed and in the locked position.
This causes issues for me because of my absolute zero-clearance between the rack and the closet door.
Overall, I think this rack is a great value and includes everything one needs to get their system set up, and it looks great, too! Build quality is also excellent. It is far more solid than I expected, and I have very high standards (aka enginerd/quality snob). There is also plenty of room to fit almost any amount of gear one could collect, and enough removable panels to keep that gear cool. I would definitely give it my highest recommendation!
