In 2012 we took a look at B&R’s Ausrack Floor OnyX 19″ rack cabinet and how it could help the modern technophile store their rampant computer gear. Today we are looking at the Ausrack Floor Onyx’s smaller sibling, the Ausrack Wall OnyX.
Read on for our review.
As the name aptly suggests, the Ausrack Wall Onyx is primarily designed to be wall mounted. The Wall series of Ausrack OnyX cabinets are available in heights ranging from 6RU to 18RU with a uniform depth of 450mm across the range. While most of the range comes with lockable swing frames as standard, the 6RU and 12RU units are available without swing frames. As the images will attest, our 6RU review unit was of the non-swing frame variety.
The 6RU non-swing mount Ausrack Wall OnyX measures 370mm high, 600mm wide and 450mm deep. A swing frame mounted unit has a depth of 550mm to accommodate the 100mm swing frame mechanism. Other than the safety glass on the front door, the Ausrack Wall OnyX is constructed from powder-coated 1.2mm SPCC rolled steel which can be felt in the unit’s respectable 18kg weight.
The unit comes completely assembled, with one shelf secured in place by four cage nuts. Other than the unit itself, B&R supplies two sets of keys to open the locks as well as a generous bag of additional cage nuts.
BUILD AND USE
The front of the OnyX Wall is dominated by the safety glass door which can easily be adjusted to swing left to right or vice-versa. Framing the door on the left and right are two 80mm metal panels, one of which houses a 25mm camlock. Above and below the door are two vents which run slightly farther than the width of the glass.
Both the left and right sides of the OnyX Wall are identical. Each side has a relatively large removable side panel which is locked in place by a combination of a 25mm camlock and two plastic sliders. Like the front door of the cabinet, vents are located both above and below the side panels. Note that the camlocks on the side panels are both keyed the as per the front door.
The rear of the cabinet is made up of two main parts, one large back panel and a smaller top panel. A number of screws are visible on this face which allow for both large and small panels to be removed, albeit with somewhat more effort than the locable side panels.
Two 120mm square vents (along with fan mounting holes) are centrally located on the top face, with a 65 x 345mm gland plate located towards the rear of this face. Other than eight shiny bolts holding the unit together, the rest of the top face is unremarkable.
Bar the omission of the two fan vents, the bottom of the cabinet is identical to the top.
Considering its size, the Ausrack Wall OnyX is quite spacious, with all six rack unit (RU) slots easily accessible and clearly labelled on the two front mounting rails. There is one grounding wire to the right front of the cabinet and all internal (and external) edges are generally well finished – We found nothing overly sharp to cut yourself on.
As we experienced with the OnyX Floor, all doors and panels fit relatively well and have a good standard of build quality. All surfaces are evenly powder-coated and smooth to the touch.
While the Ausrack’s depth naturally precludes many larger rack mounted devices from fitting within, our recently reviewed two bay RS214 NAS (with its 288mm depth) from Synology managed to fit in the 450mm deep cabinet without any issue whatsoever.
Also, the inclusion of a vented shelf is welcomed as it allows non-rack mount equipment to be housed within the Ausrack Wall OnyX straight out of the box. This shelf can be placed in any horizontal position within the marked bays, although it has to be said that placing the shelf near the very lower or upper positions can be a little tricky without going to the trouble of unscrewing the rear panel. Having said this, we managed to fit the shelf in the 01 bay without removing the aforementioned rear panels.
While this unit can be wall mounted as the name deftly suggests, when placed on a shelf of adequate depth, the unit’s sturdy construction and solid build quality resulted in no rattles or obvious audible reverberations – Our tests with two Synology NAS devices running under load resulted in no unwarranted noises or excessive vibrations, at any rate.
FEATURES
EIA-310-D standards compliant
Flexible mounting with swing frame options
Vented top to suit 2 fan units
Safety glass door (reversible) with keylock
Key lockable and removable side panels
Adjustable 19″ mounting rails (x4)
Lockable swing frame (on selected models)
Fixed shelf included (2 shelves for 18RU high units)
Cable cutouts on enclosure and swing frame with easy to remove gland plates
CONCLUSION
Like the previously reviewed B&R Floor standing cabinet, the Ausrack Wall OnyX is a solid and well built unit which can safely (and via its keyed locks) securely store your gear.
The B&R Ausrack Wall OnyX costs just over $260AUD plus GST (for the 6RU unit as tested) or $360AUD plus GST for the 6RU lockable swing frame variant.
For more information about B&R’s Ausrack Wall OnyX 19″ Wall Mounted Rack Cabinet, including where to purchase, you can visit B&R’s product page.
