Soundproof Server Rack Quiet - Acoustic Sound Proof Cabinet for Servers - Up to 36% Noise Reduction - Locking Server Enclosure - Silent Networking Cabinet - Noise Sound Dampening Box (15U)

I have a 1U server that sounds like an jet turbine at idle with fans that can spin at 20,000 RPM. Since there is no way to replace the fans without the server failing to boot I wanted to find a way to better contain the noise.The Sysracks Soundproof rack claims 36% noise reduction. There were no video reviews that I could find but the price was better then a few other options and the build quality looked decent, so I decided to give it a chance.The rack was delivered in two boxes. One box contained most of the inner frame and panels. The other had the outer panels, doors and mounting hardware. It was all packaged very well and arrived well protected. The rack shipped with a PDU with a 15A breaker with was a nice bonus.Assembly was a bit of a task but it was not too bad. Directions were basic but useful. Doors were problematic but eventually got them to go on the hinges. In all build quality is excellent. But the build process could use a little refinement.After getting the rack built and getting my equipment mounted I am very pleased to hear very little other than the cooling fans in the top of the rack that control the rack temperature. They are not as loud or as annoying as the server fans. The noise from my servers and network switches is easily reduced to 50% or more with this rack. Of course this is subjective but very close to how it feels to me so that is how I rate it.Equipment installed:Unifi UMD ProUnifi XG-16Unifi 24-250w gigabit switchQuanta 2-node 12-Bay 2U serverHPE DL325 1U serverCyberPower UPS 2000 w sinewave24-port patch panelPros:Quiet.Looks nice.Temperature control for the entire rack works.Mid range cost.Supports 32 in long servers and rails.Perfect for Home Office or small office space near employees.ConsAssembly instructions could be better.Doors mounting is a pain.Conclusion: I would absolutely buy one again if I needed another rack for a home office or an office space near people.

I bought the 15U variant for my personal use at home, with no prior personal or professional experience working with rack mounted hardware. However, I have dealt with consumer-grade computer hardware for decades, and I have needs that justify a server rack in my home, so I knew what to research in advance.Even for the price, I'd say that this still falls short of expectations. It is barely acceptable for my current needs, but only just, and I will not be able to do as much with it as I had originally hoped.I read about other reviewers' installation experiences, so I knew that I needed to be careful and expect a frustrating experience. I still managed to make a major mistake that prompted a lot of rework: I had put on both side panels facing the same way, and so I would have only been able to attach one of the two doors, and I only noticed that I had made this mistake after I had put one of the two doors on.Other than that one major mishap, the whole installation process was a chore, but again, not unexpectedly so. Per another review, I made sure that my partner would be available help with this. I can't imagine doing it alone. The biggest sources of frustration here were the plethora of screw holes that seemed too far out of alignment, but ultimately we managed to get it all together with careful tension applied to the right spots of the right panels, with only one screw needing to stick out partway.Once I had everything installed, I was a bit disappointed with the acoustic dampening performance, but I can't say I'm TOO surprised: it only advertises "up to 36% noise reduction". This is a profoundly meaningless way to communicate the performance: competitors advertise using units of dB or dB(A), which makes a lot more sense. I figured that I would still go for it despite this ambiguous statistic, on the basis that some reviewers were satisfied with it.In case it helps anyone else (it sure would have helped me), I've done my own acoustic test using my own very basic tools. I measured out 3ft. from the cabinet's front door and set a SPL meter on the ground at that point. It outputs values in dB(A), so I will list out all the numbers it gave me*. With everything unplugged, it read 38.9. My equipment makes some noise when it's plugged in but powered-down, so after just plugging it in (not powering anything on), cabinet front door open: 45.4, cabinet front door closed: 42.1. Powering on my single server in there, it goes through a predictable cycle where the fans start off kinda low and then ramp up massively at a certain point, so I'll give two numbers here. When the fans are low, the readings hover somewhere around 65 with the cabinet front door open, 58 with the cabinet front door closed. The highest reading reported throughout this test was 72.5 with the cabinet front door open, 60.9 with the cabinet front door closed.*As a caution to those reading these numbers without having been given this spiel before: the decibel scale is logarithmic. Adding 10 dB (e.g., going from 60 to 70, OR from 50 to 60) is equivalent to a 10x increase in the sound pressure level from where it was before (though we perceive it as only a 2x increase in the "loudness"). Also, while I'm already infodumping, note that I reported "dB(A)", not just "dB". Look up "A-weighting" to understand what the difference is.So my measurements showed that, rather than "36%", the actual performance was -3.3dB(A) for the first set of numbers (that's -53.2%), about -7 dB(A) for the second set of numbers (that's -80%), and about -11.6 dB(A) for the third set of numbers (that's -93.08%). I should mention, of course, that the cabinet is still doing some dampening when the door is open, so this crappy test will understate the cabinet's performance by some margin that's probably significant. I imagine that if I had an actual lab (and actual training), I could devise a better test to give a single number instead of a range from -11.6 to -3.3, but hey... I'm just some guy who knows a thing or two about this stuff, and this already feels more useful than what I had to go off of before buying it.Finally, I need to mention that the thermal conductivity inside this cabinet is unacceptable when installed with all the pieces, following all the instructions. Since I also know a thing or two about airflow, it struck me as a profoundly bad idea to near-COMPLETELY block all places where the ambient (cool) air can freely enter into the cabinet, choosing instead to ONLY force hot air OUT. I understand that good acoustic dampening will necessarily mean a sacrifice to thermal conductivity. With that said, this cabinet is sized for 15U of equipment, and in a test where I was ONLY pulling 300W from the wall, the ambient temperature inside the cabinet (measured from a spot far away from the exhaust) exceeded the 35°C (95° F) threshold that's the maximum temperature that my server documents as safe. After some chats with Sysracks, they suggested taking out a foam cover at the bottom of the cabinet; this allowed the same 300W load to only bring the temperature up to 32°C (89.6° F). I'm having a hard time coming up with a clear way to communicate how unsatisfying this performance is... let's say that one server in the rack sports a 750W power supply and takes up 2U of the 15U available space, and leave it at that. I'm sure that if I went all-out on modifying this to enhance airflow like a different reviewer did, then I might be able to make it work for loads higher than 300W.Overall, I do not recommend this. It's certainly far cheaper than the competitors' offerings, and that's why I went for it (again, it's my first time touching server racks), but based on the advertised characteristics of those competitors, I think that it would have been wise to go with something else.