We picked up a 42U Compaq rack enclosure at an auction for dirt cheap and now are wondering if our servers (from qsol and starbox) are going to fit in there. Preliminary results are that if it works it'll be a pain... anyone have any experience with trying to do this?

The Compaq racks we have at work are standard 19" racks. We have both Compaq and non-Compaq equipment in these racks just fine. The main thing I think that would be incompatible would be the slide rails for Compaq equipment. We've found that even among Compaq's servers there on rails that won't work on different models.

Either way you got the rack for dirt cheap and if it doesn't work out put it up at ebay;)

Jeff

I just remembered you may also have to order the little screw hole inserts for the front side of the rack for the rails to bolt into.

Jeff

We were lucky and got the little square screw hole things, but the rails seem like a lost cause, and the mounting brackets that accompanied our qsol brackets are too short (in depth) to rack the machines in.

Guess we'll try a Starbox next.

Ebay is always an option, but I bet shipping this thing will be more than what we paid for it...

You should be able to move the back rails forward (I think they are adjustable).

I was able to use the compaq rails with the Starboxes with some success.

I contacted QSOL.com for help with getting their boxes in the rack. After going back and forth a bit on the nature of the issue and taking some measurements, check this out:

> John,
>
> We tried a bunch of rails here and none worked. Some of the chassis
> even had no hole mounting for the slim 1U's.
>
> The only other way I can suggest is I will have our metal shop custom
> build a few for you and other customers. There happens to be one more
> customer with a Compaq cabinet, doesn't happen often :)
>
> I can have out metal fab build a copy of the one you have that is too
> short and just extend it a little. It may be a few days, I will be
> happy to do it for you at no charge.
>
> Sorry you are going through this, but I will try to help as much as
> possible.
>
> Thanks