Data-center cabinet guides.
Practical, vendor-neutral guides to specifying and buying data-center cabinets: dimensions, load, airflow, access, cooling and power. Written by the team that welds and builds them.
How to specify a data-center cabinet
To specify a data-center cabinet, define eight things: rack-unit height, width, depth, load rating, door and airflow type, mounting-rail depth, access and security, and power and cooling. Get those right and the rest, colour, baying and cable management, follows.
Read guide DimensionsRack depth: 1000 vs 1200 vs 1400 mm
Choose rack depth by your deepest device plus rear clearance for cabling and PDUs. 1000 mm suits network and shallow gear, 1200 mm is the general-purpose default, and 1400 mm is for deep servers, rear-mounted PDUs and heavy cabling.
Read guide AirflowMesh vs solid vs glass rack doors
For air-cooled equipment, use an 80% perforated (mesh) door front and rear. It maximises front-to-back airflow. Use solid doors only where airflow is handled another way (e.g. rack-door cooling), and glass doors for display or low-heat use.
Read guide CoolingRack-door cooling explained
Rack-door cooling replaces a passive rear door with a cooling unit that removes heat as air leaves the cabinet, so hot exhaust is neutralised at the source. It is used for high-density and HPC racks whose heat load exceeds what perforated doors and room cooling can handle.
Read guide PowerMetered vs switched PDUs
A metered PDU measures power draw (for monitoring and per-tenant billing); a switched PDU adds remote on/off control of individual outlets. Choose metered when you need visibility and billing, and switched when you also need remote power cycling and outlet control.
Read guideDatasheets, CAD & the RFQ checklist.
The DX-Series and W-Series datasheets are emailed to you immediately. CAD models (STEP / DWG) are released by our engineering team, normally within one business day.
Ready to specify a cabinet?
Put these guides to work. Send us your spec for an engineered quote, or book a call with our team.