Cabinet and Racks Review

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Aug 31 2010

Featured Models: Rack-mount Server Cabinet, Wall-mount Server Cabinets, and Open Frame Racks (WN1510, WM645B, WO36AB, WO22AB, WM1560B)

WN1510:
WN Series Cabinet is constructed with high-quality aluminum/steel. With vented doors and cooling fans, WN series provides excellent air circulation for servers and other devices. Cabinet is completely lockable from the front/ rear doors and side panels to prevent unauthorized access. This stylish and secure 19″ rack-mount cabinet protects your investment in computer equipment against environmental elements heat and dust. WN Series offer a superior environment for mission-critical equipment.

CONSUMERS’ RESPONSE:
 The cabinet is extremely well built and rugged. My cabinet holds two four unit chassis, a router, and a switch with plenty of room for cables and ups. The four rubber cable guides on the top and bottom of the cabinet makes cable management a breeze. The cabinet has wheels allowing great mobility for cleaning purposes, moving, and makes it easy to get to servers on the inside from the rear. Overall, I highly recommend this cabinet and would buy it again  in the future.

 

WM645B and WM1560B:
Elegant and dependable, WM Series wall mount cabinet by iStarUSA has easy side panel access made for convenient routine maintenance.  The three-way, cabling tunnels of top, bottom, and rear, enables organized data and cable routing. WM series incorporate optimal cooling design. The partial vented frames and two optional AC fans that can be put on the top panel give the wall-mount cabinet excellent air ventilation. Heat-treated glass door provides extra strength. iStarUSA also offers OEM/ODM service that customizes the door your logos and colors  to boost company image.

CONSUMERS’ RESPONSE:
It looks great! I put an ASUS RS-100 compact server, gigabit switch, and a tray with a few miscellaneous devices for small office active directory setup. It is mounted on wall in closed room with 4 bolts. Fans not included. Before I purchased this for a customer, they had their cabling to a patch panel mounted on the wall then patch cables to two mounted switches on the wall. The cabling was a mess, all tangled and unorganized. After installing this cabinet, mounted the patch panel and switch, installed shorter patch cables; it made a HUGE different. Cabling is now clean and much easier to manage. It comes with a locking door which I don’t think this is meant for high security because it can easily be bypassed if someone really wanted to get in it. This is irrelevant in my situation; I didn’t get this for the security. This cabinet is light and strong, and the door and side panels are removable for easy access. There is good ventilation and cable routing holes, and easy to mount. This cabinet is working great for us as a secondary network switch enclosure. It had plenty of room for the switches, patch panels and APC battery backup unit.

 

WO22AB and WO36AB:
iStarUSA open frame rack provides simplicity with mobility. Setup and assembly is quick and easy. The WO sturdy steel frame construction enforces stability and durability. Steel iron castors come standard to help moving the server easily to any location. Open frame rack has higher thermal manageability and is a flexible and cost-effective solution in place of rack-mount cabinet.

CONSUMERS’ RESPONSE:
Awesome rack for the price. The base is long and allows you to expand the rack to almost any depth that you want. the wheels on the base can also be taken off and changed with the included feet. It comes with a bunch (probably 50 each) of square nuts and matching screws, and the holes are not threaded, which is a plus for me.

Overall a great value, and I will definitely buy again, or at least buy the same brand.

Solid construction and the coating don’t feel flaky. Built in casters roll well and have locks. It is easy to assemble and comes with rubber feet/stands.

Casters are removable and it seems possible to put floor bolts down to make it permanent. It would be tricky though, but possible. Wish I had room for a bigger model, only had enough head clearance for this.

This is a great rack for a home setup in a closet. It can be pulled out if needed and you can have multiple servers in it. I current have 4 4u servers, 1 1u server, and two 2u Tripp-Lite UPS’s.

TC-RAIL Series (20″, 24″, and 26″) Review

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Aug 17 2010

 

  

(TC-RAIL-20, TC-RAIL-24, TC-RAIL-26)
(IS-20-RAIL, IS-24-RAIL, IS-26-RAIL)

CONSUMERS’ RESPONSE:

  • Solid construction fits a standard Compaq/HP square mount rack perfectly. Purchasing second one for another computer.
  • Sturdy and works very well with Dell rack that has square holes.
  • They went into a standard 19″ square hole rack and attached to a standard size rack mount device.
  • Rails are very solid and will fit almost any case.
  • Very Universal
  • Beats the pants off of pulling the whole chassis off the rack every time you want to service it.
  • You can work on a fully extended 4U Case with ease
  • Very extensible – brings a 20″ 2U case completely out of its rack, with space behind it.
  • It’s complete extended length is over 50″, and slides smoothly.
  • It mounts easily, and comes with plenty of nuts, screws.
  • Outermost (of three) part detaches from the set for easy mounting.
  • Purchased four of these for moving several existing tower servers into a rack with 2U cases (specifically iStarUSA D-200-PFS from Newegg). Would (and will) buy again.
  • Low cost 24″ rails for the budget conscious.
  • The max safe load rating according to iStarUSA is 85 pounds and I think that is a conservative estimate. The rails come packaged nicely with all the parts and pieces you’ll need and unlike most the other rails available the installation guide is impeccable with clear and easy to read instructions and diagrams.

 

OTHER COMMENTS: 

  • These rails are covered in lubricant oil. Just have a rag handy while installing and you’ll be more than fine.
  • As mentioned by a previous reviewer, these sliding rails are intended to mount in square holes on the rack rails, which is typical for server cabinets. I bought them for use in an office/studio style equipment rack which typically uses round threaded holes. Recognizing the difference in design purpose.
  • I have made it a habit of lubing my rails anyway so just a couple of squirts of silicone lubricant fix them right up.

Introducing the WJ Simple Rack Series from Claytek by iStarUSA

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Aug 03 2010

BPU-350SATA 3×5.25″ to 5×3.5″ SATA 2.0 Hot-Swap Backplane RAID Cage Review

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Jul 22 2010

 

CONSUMER’S RESPONSE:

  • Excellent designed case with well seated trays
  • Great use of space getting 5 drives down to 3 5 1/4″ bays.
  • Choice of 2 Molex or 2 SATA for power
  • It looks good, and has individual activity LED per drive
  • The lights on the front of the carrier are great; they show the health of each disk the fan and the power
  • The fan toggle (HIGH/LOW) is very handy
  • Been running 24/7 for over a year
  • Absolutely no issues with cooling
  • It is shaped and acts as a giant heat-sink for your drives
  • It has its own 80mm cooling fan
  • This thing is SOLID ALUMINUM
  • This is a quality item. I’m glad I took the plunge.
  • You feel the solid construction every time you work with it
  • This is a REALLY high-quality item
  • Don’t risk your critical data on some low-quality $70 plastic one

 

OTHER COMMENTS:

  • There are small power buttons next to each drive bay. You need to use a paper clip to depress each power button to power up the drive in that bay, otherwise you’ll be left thinking your unit was DOA

  • There is no guide rail on this unit, so do know your case/chassis before purchasing

Happy 4th of July!

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Jul 06 2010

T-7M1-SATA / 1×5.25″ Bay Audio Series SATA Mobile Rack Review

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Jun 30 2010

BUYER’S RESPONSE:

  • Very well built for the price
  • Fan system is well positioned on the bottom of the sleds
  • External power button gives greater convenience
  • Easy to Install
  • A solid value for removable hard drive rack
  • I like the solid aluminum construction
  • Quiet Fans
  • Rebuild drives without shutting down
  • iStarUSA answered my email about extra drive trays in just a few minutes
  • Hot swap works with Linux 2.6.21
  • SATA Interface is far faster than USB or 1394
  • Sturdy, good connectors, top quality, best price

OTHER COMMENTS

I bought a blue and a red one so I can have different operating systems to boot from for my testing. I contacted the manufacturer about additional slide-in trays and they do have them for direct ordering.

WINDOWS 7 TIPS:

In the BIOS you must set the SATA mode to either RAID or AHCI to allow for hot swapping. Do not just simply enable AHCI in the BIOS if you installed Win7 while SATA was in IDE mode. To switch to AHCI you must:

1) Set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci\Start=0

2) Reboot, enter BIOS, and change SATA mode to AHCI

3) Save and Exit BIOS

4) Boot into Win7 and after MS AHCI drivers get installed either stick with those or download and install your chipset’s AHCI/Raid drivers.

Introducing 4U Vertical Rack for Rack-mountable Equipment from iStarUSA

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Mar 01 2010

For more info please visit http://www.istarusa.com/server_cabinet/wallmount_rack_wv/wv420.aspx

D-Value Series from iStarUSA- Solid Construction Rackmount Chassis Meets Affordable Price

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Feb 18 2010

Introducing OEM/ODM Cabinet Parts-Latches & Locks from iStarUSA

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Jan 11 2010

For more information please visit http://www.istarusa.com/newsletter/oem_parts_ad/oem_parts_ad.html

Come visit our partner SSIUSA at CES!

Uncategorized | Posted by admin
Jan 05 2010

  

 iStarUSA partner, SSIUSA will be exibiting at CES 2010 in Las Vegas Convention Center, Nevada from Jan.7~10.  

 We invite you to come visit our booth #20555.

  International CES 2010

Las Vegas Convention Center

Jan.7-10

Booth # 50111 South Hall 1