RakworX RCS72107 42U Rack Review

The RakworX RCS72107 is a 42U rack that comes pre-assembled and ready to go. The build is excellent and the service was fantastic.

RakworX recently reached out to see if we’d like to review their RCS72107 rack. Typically we’d jump on the chance, more racks better right? But these days we’re tight on lab space so we offered the rack, and the review, to our Discord community. We found a great candidate that would put the rack to good use. What follows is the review from Orion Graves. – Brian Beeler

Recently, we got the chance to take a look at the RakworX RCS72107. RakworX is a data center rack manufacturer based in California primarily marketed toward the SMB space. As someone who works with loads of data center gear in the SMB space, I was a little surprised to not know the RakworX brand. While relatively new to the game, starting in 2016, they have quite the operation. RakWorX generously shipped us this 42U rack for review, as a bonus, they included their intelligent AP3002-2004 0U PDU solution as well.

Unboxing the Rack

Unpacking the unit was easy enough upon arrival. The unit shipped bolted down to pallets wrapped in cardboard, plastic, and four dense cardboard corner protectors. RakworX ships the cabinet fully built from the factory for immediate deployment upon arrival. The bottom of the rack features four heavy-duty castors, providing easy movement across flat, smooth surfaces. We did note some issues with rolling across our asphalt parking lot.

As hard as RakworX tried, the delivery encountered some bumps along the way. During shipping, the unit took a direct hit of some kind. This is also where we had our first encounter with the sheer strength of this massive cabinet. The hit dented one of the four removable side panels and bent the leveling feet. Realizing how industrial the side panels are, it would have taken a fair amount of force to cause this damage.

Although there was damage during shipping, the rest of the rack was still perfectly square, showing how well-built these units are and the quality of the materials used. Weighing around 300 lbs, these units are similar in weight to the 42U racks in the StorageReview lab.

RakworX support quickly assessed the damage based on the pictures we provided and immediately shipped a replacement panel.

Abundant Features

The unit is a standard 42U cabinet with a maximum mounting depth of under 42 inches (1048mm). The bottom is open to allow cables to come up from a data center-raised floor, and five bristled openings on the top panel allow cabling from a drop ceiling or ladder rack. The rear of the rack has tie-downs for cables and mount points for their PDUs. The side panels can be locked and removed to provide easy access.

The removable doors (single door on the front and a French door style split on the back) provide open access for installation and maintenance. The door panels are grounded to the main assembly with an easy toolless disconnect grounding wire. The front and rear doors are circular mesh patterns for plenty of airflow and a quick view of all equipment while helping to maintain security. All three doors are removable by removing two pins (one on the top and one on the bottom half of each door) and disconnecting the grounding wire at the midpoint.

The removable top panel is also toolless for easy installation and removal. All panels and rails are black powder coated with a flat metallic finish. There are options for other colors upon special request (Editor’s note – had I known this at the time, I would have ordered Orion neon orange – Brian). All units ship with top and bottom, front and rear, joining brackets to attach multiple racks for added stability and conserving valuable floor space.

Mounting hardware was made more accessible by removing all four side panels and simply opening the front and rear doors, providing plenty of room to work. Our cabinet was straightforward, with a compute-heavy configuration of four 2U HPE DL380 Gen 9 servers at just under 27 inches deep and three 30-inch HPE ML350 Gen 9 servers.

Even with the deeper servers, there is still plenty of room in the back to work cable management, made possible by the two top-to-bottom cable management panels built into the rear of the rack. This made it easy to keep the installation tidy and allow easy access.

For our data center in a box concept, we loaded the cabinet with three 1U Cisco SG series small business switches, a FortiGate 100D Firewall, two APC 1U PDUs, and a 2U Cyber Power 1500VA UPS. For backup, we threw in a Synology eight-bay DS series NAS. We added a 1U shelf with a display, keyboard, mouse, and a KVM.

With more than 650lbs of equipment, the castors still provided easy movement over the carpet making it easy for one person to adjust placement without any issues. Even with all that equipment, we barely scratched this cabinet’s rated 2,600 lb limit.

An Impressive PDU

Now, onto the PDU. The AP3002-2004 0U PDU is a massive, impressive 42U PDU sitting at 1785mm or just over 70in. It features a 10 AWG 3-meter cable ending in a NEMA L6-30P connector. The PDU itself is built from folded sheet steel with a galvanized finish.

There are 20 standard C13 female PDU-style outlets and four standard C19 outlets. These outlets are split across two banks with independent 20A switchable 2-pole breakers. Both banks are color-coded and labeled. Do note that the unit requires 200-240V 24A single-phase power for functionality and is not adaptable for 110-130V.

The intelligent PDU features two temperature/humidity sensor ports, an RJ45 networking port for remote management, and a power and base configuration readout display.

The fully managed PDU has embedded management for real-time remote monitoring of connected loads. Users can access, configure, and control Switched Rack PDUs through MODBUS, complemented by RakworX Centralized Management platforms using Data Center Expert, Operations, Capacity, and Energy Efficiency. The management platform lets users remotely switch each socket and set up the power-on order following an outage and the power-off order in case of excessive circuit usage. Alerts can also be configured for individual outlet and circuit usage.

The PDU features a handy toolless mounting mechanism via two ridged pegs that fit into dedicated mounting points on either side of the rear cable management panels for multiple mounting points.

Unfortunately, we could not test the PDU in a real-world environment due to the power and plug requirements. However, between build quality, feature set, and utility, it appears to be a quality PDU that is competitive with similar offerings from more prominent vendors. We would have liked to see an option for adapter plates to provide mounting with standard rack nuts.

Conclusion

After working with the RakworX RCS72107 for just over a month, we were impressed with its ease of maneuverability and modularity (it’s been moved around the office, and other equipment has been swapped in and out for testing). Racking hardware was a pleasant experience and made the whole process from start to finish simple. The cabinet’s quality speaks for itself, having survived the punishment during shipping and remained square as die, which is a testament to the quality and care that went into it. There’s peace of mind that the installed equipment is safe and secure. The cabinet arrived in a decent amount of time, and even with the shipping damage and request for a replacement panel, we had it in hand in less than a week.

If you are considering a data center cabinet option, RakworX has excellent quality and maintains a lower cost than many competitors. The usage and build process was a great experience and easy enough. Interacting with RakworX and the warranty process was excellent.

RakworX

Authored by Orion Graves, Portsmouth Computer Group

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