Patchbox is a convenient solution and I wouldn't say no if someone gifted it to me. On the other hand I can get locally made custom length and coloured cables for a fraction of the price. The real hero to keep it neat are the side hooks and those have been around for forever. Last but not least always use velcro instead of cable ties.
@@janw.443 Just calculate the price per port in case of patchbox and regular cables. Depending on the amount of ports you need you may be surprised by the numbers you get. Patchbox tax is not that high as you may think. The reason why I have no patchbox at home is the fact that it does not have DAC cartridges. That's a showstopper for me.
I've seen Patchbox online a few times. To me, it's still a solution looking for a problem. The way your rack was originally wired was just fine. You could have cleaned up your cabling just by right-sizing some of the too-long cables or by switching to slimline cables, which are good to 10Gbit. That's what I've gone for, with a brush panel below my switch, and they look great. I use black cables and they are truly minimalist. You also could have run a couple of pair of fibre cables rather than all those UTP runs from room to room. I like you idea of a rear patch panel wired to the front patch panel though! Patchbox uses hard-to-handle flat cables that are too wide and have to be artfully routed to look decent. The box is also ridiculously expensive, exceeding the cost of a secondary market enterprise server. I have a 25U rack that's nearly full of gear. I've racked hundreds of devices in data centers during my career, and have seen neat wiring and wiring that was so badly done, it was impossible to trace a cable from start to finish. One of the tricks to good wiring is to label device and patch port number on each side of the cable. It's simple and effective. In most situations, a gentle series of tugs on a cable are enough to be able to trace that cable from end to end. Have cables wound in cassettes eliminates the ability to do this. I have spent many thousands of dollars on my home data center. IT is what I do. I wanted current servers, so I bought and leased current model Dell PowerEdge servers. I have a hardware firewall. Sophos. (I know you like that.) I have storage that's separate from compute, and both are connected at 25Gbit. Virtual Machine disk latency (under ESXi), is generally unmeasurably low. Still, with all the expense, I would not be able to, or want to give up the rack room for, a Patchbox. Christian, I enjoy your videos and your channel. I don't use much open source software and my lab/data center is more enterprise oriented. Still, I learn from you all the time what's out there and what the possibilities are. Thank you.
I recently added a half height patch panel where previously some space was wasted by the fritzbox 1.3u racknex mount. Now i have a dedicated panel to route in-rack ethernet to the inside if the rack, where i can made my own cables of the perfect size to still fully extend the server rails, while keeping everything neat. And above that panel there is space for the switch, followed by the poe injector (i use used hp 2510g switches, and didnt want to pay extra for poe) amd the patch panel that goes to the outside. The result is really neat, and allows tracing even by eye.
Yep. That's what I do with server racks. I put the network switch on top of the rack and patch em from there. Some installers would put the network switches in the middle of the rack while others put em on the top or bottom. I prefer them on top because of the heat exhaust going towards the front of the rack instead of the rear. I wish enterprise grade switches weren't designed like that.
@@Darkk6969 On some switch models for datacenters, you can chose the direction of the airflow (front to rear or rear to front) just by changing the fan modules with the appropriate one.
I was waiting for this video and I expected only nicely done cable management but we got much more. This is a real cable porn video. Patchbox was a cherry on top with those side brackets. It looks cool, but it saves 1U space which is what we need at home racks. Great job Chris!
I know you said the other cable Manger 5hing takes up a unit, but so dies the patchbox module, in all honesty, it is better, but the price makes it hard for me to suggest to people. I actually am doing my homelab inside a tower as well, so I wouldn't need this anyway, at least not yet I guess
I have a 48 port switch and use two 24-port patch panels; one above and the other below the switch. It works great with a cable management loom in between each patch panel and the switch. Is EMI more of an issue in countries with higher voltages and 3-phase power like the Bundesrepublik Deutschland?
I'm surprised to hear you say CAT7 is an industry standard. Last I heard (admittedly a while ago), CAT7/CAT8 weren't even fully certified standards. Was expecting to hear CAT6a was the industry standard. Maybe that's a country-specific thing?
Maybe that's different in your country, here I'd say CAT7+ is the minimum standard in professional environments mostly. But sure, that always varies based on the project.
I like the flat cable for eye candy, but has anyone cover the physics, in regards to magnetic waves, in flat cables versus round twisted cables? Sorry if I don't know the proper term.
I think that you are confusing a few things about ethernet cables. Cat6 can be both shielded and unshielded. It depends on whether you are using UTP or STP. If you have a Cat6 or a Cat6a STP does not make it a Cat7. Actually Cat7 and Cat8 are a whole other ballpark and none of what you have shown is either. The Cat7 and Cat8 does not even use RJ45. Instead they use GigaGate connectors. Cat6: Thinner copper and less twisting. Perfekt for 1 Gbit/s connections. I would use solid STP for wall mounting and stranded UTP for patch cables, unless you have a reason for the additional cost of STP for these short cables. Cat6a: Thicker copper and much thither twisting. Perfekt for 2.5/10 Gbit/s connections. Again I would use solid STP for wall mounting. For patch cables I don't know about 10 Gbit/s, but for 2.5 a stranded UTP is fine. Cat7/Cat8: Unless you know exactly why you need this, you don't need it. If Cat6a is not good enough for your purpose, use the force of light and go with optical instead.
I love to let my cable find their own way to manage themselves. After all they are free and i love to give them some space to live x) Like & comment, thx for time and content Christian! =)
Ich hab vor einer woche aufgrund deines "reviews" die patchbox bestellt.......mal davon abgesehen dass es viel zu teuer ist für die Qualität die geliefert wird hatte ich folgende Probleme damit: 1.) Die Verarbeitunsqualität ist echt miserabel! Die Toleranzen von dem Frame sind irgendwo....von der breite her hats fast nicht ins Rack gepasst und was die Höhe betrifft haben die Kasetten nicht ordentlich eingerastet! 2.) Weiter zu den Kasetten.......Ich hab nicht den ganzen Frame voll also liegen noch 12 von den 24 Kassetten rum......Gott sei dank denn von den 12 die verbaut sind hat ein Kabel schlichtweg nicht funktioniert! Weiters habe ich dazu eine OM4 Kassette bestellt......bei der man mit freiem Auge sieht, dass bei einem Anschluss eine Glasfaser "Ader" um 1-2mm weiter im Stecker drin ist als die andere Seite.......Verbindung steht witzigerweise, der Speed kommt allerdings nur auf 2Gbit/s statt auf 10.......hab ich natürlich mit einem Standard OM4 Kabel überprüft. 3.) Ein paar kleinere Probleme hab ich auch noch mit dem Ding wie z.B diese Kabelhalter an den Seiten.......passen bei mir im Rack nicht wirklich aber gut.....da kann Patchbox nicht unbedingt etwas dafür......eine kleine Auswahl an verschiedenen Kabelhaltern wär allerdings nett. Weiters ist die Gesamtqualität von den Kassetten nicht das was man sich für den Preis vorstellt vor allem bei dem Kabeleinzug der nicht 100%ig rund läuft.....aber wie gesagt, auch kein Dealbreaker. Zusammenfassung: Sehr gute Idee, leider nur miserabel umgesetzt und viiiiel zu teuer. Wenn das Komplettpaket mit 24 Kassetten 350€ (inklusive Steuer) kosten würde.......dann würd ichs evtl nochmal kaufen......aber nicht FÜR 750€ INKLUSIVE STEUER!!
Bonjour Christian, vos vidéos sont très intéressantes. Pourriez-vous juste parler un peu plus lentement car c'est un peu compliqué pour moi de vous suivre en français. Mille mercis. Je suis fan😃
Better than those super thin wire patch cables that people seem to rave about. The flats in this video is what I would use for patching. Cable runs I'd use standard UTP CAT6.
Our cables meet the ISO and ANSI/EIA/TIA standards, they are available as UTP and STP and there's no issue with crosstalk or similar, due to the short distances covered, unlike with slim patch cables, as another user already mentioned. Feel free to check out our Fluke test results in our blog :)
Optically an upgrade, but technically a downgrade - but everyone has to decide for themselves. Personally, I would not run a new house wiring as CAT6 UTP. A patch cable can be exchanged quickly, but you don't want to exchange the installation cable again in the near future.
Yes, we offer UTP and STP with RJ45 connectors, but also OS2 and OM4 Fiber Optic cables with LC-LC and LC-SC connectors with Corning ClearCurve fibers, some of the very best on the market!
I like your videos and understand the necessity of sponsored videos, but tend to switch off the video as soon as I hear that you are reviewing an item made by the video’s sponsor.
Thanks for the honest feedback! I know I have been a bit too crazy on sponsored videos lately. I still need to finish a few projects that I have accepted in the past. But as soon as that is done, you will see much less sponsored reviews or videos that solely are made of sponsored products! A short Ad clip is just necessary to keep making videos for free, but I will stop making paid reviews or paid videos just about a product!
Patchbox is a convenient solution and I wouldn't say no if someone gifted it to me. On the other hand I can get locally made custom length and coloured cables for a fraction of the price. The real hero to keep it neat are the side hooks and those have been around for forever. Last but not least always use velcro instead of cable ties.
Same, stopped watching the moment patchbox was mentioned. Sadly too pricy for the homelab.
Agreed - super expensive for homelabs!
@@janw.443same cause Patchbox got more and more flooded into my ads and I’m done with it. The prices are ridiculous dumb.
@@janw.443 Just calculate the price per port in case of patchbox and regular cables. Depending on the amount of ports you need you may be surprised by the numbers you get. Patchbox tax is not that high as you may think. The reason why I have no patchbox at home is the fact that it does not have DAC cartridges. That's a showstopper for me.
@@G00glieSwhy would you want to have DAC cartridges instead of just using fiber optics?
Incompatibility between brands would be horrible.
I found keystone patch panels way more preferable.
Same. I also recently found out there is a half height keystone patch panel, that paired nicely with my Fritzbox racknex mount that uses 1.3U
@@klaernieLINK!? :O
@@scottxiong5844 just be aware: it's actually .5 U high - so only the top OR bottom holes will line up with a 3-holes-per-U rack.
I've seen Patchbox online a few times. To me, it's still a solution looking for a problem. The way your rack was originally wired was just fine. You could have cleaned up your cabling just by right-sizing some of the too-long cables or by switching to slimline cables, which are good to 10Gbit. That's what I've gone for, with a brush panel below my switch, and they look great. I use black cables and they are truly minimalist. You also could have run a couple of pair of fibre cables rather than all those UTP runs from room to room. I like you idea of a rear patch panel wired to the front patch panel though!
Patchbox uses hard-to-handle flat cables that are too wide and have to be artfully routed to look decent. The box is also ridiculously expensive, exceeding the cost of a secondary market enterprise server.
I have a 25U rack that's nearly full of gear. I've racked hundreds of devices in data centers during my career, and have seen neat wiring and wiring that was so badly done, it was impossible to trace a cable from start to finish. One of the tricks to good wiring is to label device and patch port number on each side of the cable. It's simple and effective. In most situations, a gentle series of tugs on a cable are enough to be able to trace that cable from end to end. Have cables wound in cassettes eliminates the ability to do this.
I have spent many thousands of dollars on my home data center. IT is what I do. I wanted current servers, so I bought and leased current model Dell PowerEdge servers. I have a hardware firewall. Sophos. (I know you like that.) I have storage that's separate from compute, and both are connected at 25Gbit. Virtual Machine disk latency (under ESXi), is generally unmeasurably low. Still, with all the expense, I would not be able to, or want to give up the rack room for, a Patchbox.
Christian, I enjoy your videos and your channel. I don't use much open source software and my lab/data center is more enterprise oriented. Still, I learn from you all the time what's out there and what the possibilities are. Thank you.
Omg, I wish I knew about patchbox when redoing the wiring in a companies server room in the past...
Okay. That was likely the most useful ad I’ve seen in a while. I’ll have to bookmark this video so I give credit appropriately when I buy one.
Thank you 😊
I recently added a half height patch panel where previously some space was wasted by the fritzbox 1.3u racknex mount. Now i have a dedicated panel to route in-rack ethernet to the inside if the rack, where i can made my own cables of the perfect size to still fully extend the server rails, while keeping everything neat. And above that panel there is space for the switch, followed by the poe injector (i use used hp 2510g switches, and didnt want to pay extra for poe) amd the patch panel that goes to the outside. The result is really neat, and allows tracing even by eye.
I need this in my life Christian. Haha.
I would mount everything with the Networkports at the back. That way I would save me the Patchpanel from front to Back and keep the front Cable free
Yep. That's what I do with server racks. I put the network switch on top of the rack and patch em from there. Some installers would put the network switches in the middle of the rack while others put em on the top or bottom. I prefer them on top because of the heat exhaust going towards the front of the rack instead of the rear. I wish enterprise grade switches weren't designed like that.
@@Darkk6969 On some switch models for datacenters, you can chose the direction of the airflow (front to rear or rear to front) just by changing the fan modules with the appropriate one.
I was waiting for this video and I expected only nicely done cable management but we got much more. This is a real cable porn video. Patchbox was a cherry on top with those side brackets. It looks cool, but it saves 1U space which is what we need at home racks. Great job Chris!
Thank you 🙏 glad you enjoyed it so much
Cat 6 is also rated to run 10G at 50m....which for a lot of residential applications shouldn't be a problem.
Really interesting product. Probably so expensive that you are just better off just quoting the old-school work hours.
Patch panels, running twisted pair, punching down. Brings back fond memories.
Old rack: *chaotic mess* - Ok christian ^^ that was also clean :D
I know you said the other cable Manger 5hing takes up a unit, but so dies the patchbox module, in all honesty, it is better, but the price makes it hard for me to suggest to people. I actually am doing my homelab inside a tower as well, so I wouldn't need this anyway, at least not yet I guess
My Switch is just below the patch panel and I use very short cables, this removes the need for cable management etc.
So satisfying!
Wow. Very slick setup. I love it
I have a 48 port switch and use two 24-port patch panels; one above and the other below the switch. It works great with a cable management loom in between each patch panel and the switch.
Is EMI more of an issue in countries with higher voltages and 3-phase power like the Bundesrepublik Deutschland?
where did you get that pegboard at 4:49?
Looks fantastic. Thank you for sharing.
I'm surprised to hear you say CAT7 is an industry standard. Last I heard (admittedly a while ago), CAT7/CAT8 weren't even fully certified standards. Was expecting to hear CAT6a was the industry standard. Maybe that's a country-specific thing?
Maybe that's different in your country, here I'd say CAT7+ is the minimum standard in professional environments mostly. But sure, that always varies based on the project.
If I may ask, what do you need such an extensive home server for?
Good stuff Christian, I've been struggling with how to do that correctly. I'm not the best cablegami artist in the world.
I like the flat cable for eye candy, but has anyone cover the physics, in regards to magnetic waves, in flat cables versus round twisted cables? Sorry if I don't know the proper term.
If the cables meet the industry certs and standards, that's enough for me to trust them :)
I think that you are confusing a few things about ethernet cables. Cat6 can be both shielded and unshielded. It depends on whether you are using UTP or STP. If you have a Cat6 or a Cat6a STP does not make it a Cat7. Actually Cat7 and Cat8 are a whole other ballpark and none of what you have shown is either. The Cat7 and Cat8 does not even use RJ45. Instead they use GigaGate connectors.
Cat6: Thinner copper and less twisting. Perfekt for 1 Gbit/s connections. I would use solid STP for wall mounting and stranded UTP for patch cables, unless you have a reason for the additional cost of STP for these short cables.
Cat6a: Thicker copper and much thither twisting. Perfekt for 2.5/10 Gbit/s connections. Again I would use solid STP for wall mounting. For patch cables I don't know about 10 Gbit/s, but for 2.5 a stranded UTP is fine.
Cat7/Cat8: Unless you know exactly why you need this, you don't need it. If Cat6a is not good enough for your purpose, use the force of light and go with optical instead.
This looks cool but I don't have the foundation to understand half of that server/cables wizardry. I would love a server rack 101
Love it !! Nice work !!
Thank you so much 😊
Nice Video, thanks. Can I use this on all server racks?
Almost the full video is an advertisement? :P Great video, like usual!
Thanks, Christian! This is awesome. Quick question, is still possible to join your discord server? The link in the description is not working.
It should still work, but maybe try this here: christianlempa.de/discord
@@christianlempa Thank you! I’m in now.
I love to let my cable find their own way to manage themselves. After all they are free and i love to give them some space to live x) Like & comment, thx for time and content Christian! =)
Thanks :D
Wow. Looks very good.
Verry clean networkrack, can you make a video to Unraid?
Uww what is that board mounted to the wall with the holes in it? I see a zima board mounted on it.
Just a metal wall mount plate
@@christianlempaI like it! I want a whole wall like that! The possibilities of mounting things are endless. 😁
Ich hab vor einer woche aufgrund deines "reviews" die patchbox bestellt.......mal davon abgesehen dass es viel zu teuer ist für die Qualität die geliefert wird hatte ich folgende Probleme damit:
1.) Die Verarbeitunsqualität ist echt miserabel! Die Toleranzen von dem Frame sind irgendwo....von der breite her hats fast nicht ins Rack gepasst und was die Höhe betrifft haben die Kasetten nicht ordentlich eingerastet!
2.) Weiter zu den Kasetten.......Ich hab nicht den ganzen Frame voll also liegen noch 12 von den 24 Kassetten rum......Gott sei dank denn von den 12 die verbaut sind hat ein Kabel schlichtweg nicht funktioniert!
Weiters habe ich dazu eine OM4 Kassette bestellt......bei der man mit freiem Auge sieht, dass bei einem Anschluss eine Glasfaser "Ader" um 1-2mm weiter im Stecker drin ist als die andere Seite.......Verbindung steht witzigerweise, der Speed kommt allerdings nur auf 2Gbit/s statt auf 10.......hab ich natürlich mit einem Standard OM4 Kabel überprüft.
3.) Ein paar kleinere Probleme hab ich auch noch mit dem Ding wie z.B diese Kabelhalter an den Seiten.......passen bei mir im Rack nicht wirklich aber gut.....da kann Patchbox nicht unbedingt etwas dafür......eine kleine Auswahl an verschiedenen Kabelhaltern wär allerdings nett.
Weiters ist die Gesamtqualität von den Kassetten nicht das was man sich für den Preis vorstellt vor allem bei dem Kabeleinzug der nicht 100%ig rund läuft.....aber wie gesagt, auch kein Dealbreaker.
Zusammenfassung:
Sehr gute Idee, leider nur miserabel umgesetzt und viiiiel zu teuer.
Wenn das Komplettpaket mit 24 Kassetten 350€ (inklusive Steuer) kosten würde.......dann würd ichs evtl nochmal kaufen......aber nicht FÜR 750€ INKLUSIVE STEUER!!
16 seconds in: Ha you didn't have seen our setup...
Bonjour Christian, vos vidéos sont très intéressantes. Pourriez-vous juste parler un peu plus lentement car c'est un peu compliqué pour moi de vous suivre en français. Mille mercis. Je suis fan😃
No issues with using thin cables?
Nope works fine!
Better than those super thin wire patch cables that people seem to rave about. The flats in this video is what I would use for patching. Cable runs I'd use standard UTP CAT6.
Our cables meet the ISO and ANSI/EIA/TIA standards, they are available as UTP and STP and there's no issue with crosstalk or similar, due to the short distances covered, unlike with slim patch cables, as another user already mentioned. Feel free to check out our Fluke test results in our blog :)
Optically an upgrade, but technically a downgrade - but everyone has to decide for themselves. Personally, I would not run a new house wiring as CAT6 UTP. A patch cable can be exchanged quickly, but you don't want to exchange the installation cable again in the near future.
Hi! Replacing a cable takes less than 10 seconds with a PATCHBOX, it's a modular system :)
@@PATCHBOX_SimplifyIT But not his wiring through the house
That's why you use conduit and put a dummy pull or two in them.
@@LackofFaithify Theoretically yes. Unfortunately, this does not always work in practice. There is nothing to see in the video either.
Patchbox is ok but you waste more space using that vs using a properly sized 24Ru patch panel then switch then another patch panel
utp rj45 cable ?
Yes, we offer UTP and STP with RJ45 connectors, but also OS2 and OM4 Fiber Optic cables with LC-LC and LC-SC connectors with Corning ClearCurve fibers, some of the very best on the market!
easy, clean & expensive as hell
True xD
Step 1= Get a server rack xd
:D
I like your videos and understand the necessity of sponsored videos, but tend to switch off the video as soon as I hear that you are reviewing an item made by the video’s sponsor.
Thanks for the honest feedback! I know I have been a bit too crazy on sponsored videos lately. I still need to finish a few projects that I have accepted in the past. But as soon as that is done, you will see much less sponsored reviews or videos that solely are made of sponsored products! A short Ad clip is just necessary to keep making videos for free, but I will stop making paid reviews or paid videos just about a product!
This I feel is way over engineered for residential applications. I can’t stand the labels as well..
I dont get patch panels. Just route them from back to front with a brush panel and be done. Guys throwing 500 dollars at non existent problems