The idea of making computers rackmounting for studio use is not a new one, but the necessary hardware tends to be expensive. After session musician (and SOS reader) Whyman Baker casually commented on the astronomical price of existing rack kits, Powermaster decided to produce their own version, which is now on sale at a more realistic price of £199.
In these days of RAM raiding there's a security benefit from rackmounting your computer, especially if you use security rackmount screws such as the ones available from Studiospares. Designed to fit the Centris/Quadra 650 and 7100‑style models (other versions are being developed), Powermaster's contribution to the protection racket is effectively a satin‑black sheet steel shell, enclosing the whole computer aside from the front panel and the connector area of the rear panel. The parts of the shell are held together by simple bolts, and once the hardware is mounted in a rack cabinet, there's no way the computer can be removed without first taking the hardware back out of the rack.
Of course, security isn't the main idea behind computer rackmounting — it also helps keep things tidy by moving the clutter off your desk and into your rack. If you're taking a computer on the road, rackmounting has obvious practical benefits, though to prevent transit damage, you should always use the type of rack system with an inner cabinet shockmounted inside a larger cabinet using foam or springs. This consideration applies to any shock‑sensitive audio equipment, not just computers.
Having assembled and used the Powermaster Mac racking system, I'm impressed by how solidly it is constructed and how much neater my system looks because of it. Now I have my Mac and my rackmount hard drives in the same box, which keeps SCSI cabling runs short and cuts down on exposed wiring. This is a simple concept, but the implementation is well designed and well engineered at less than half the cost of the previous competition. Paul White