P100 Rack Mount II - Server Screws for 19" Square Punched Vertical Rails, Cage Nut Replacement, Mount Studs - Purple 3.2mm/0.126" 100-Pack

Like many people, these cage nuts peaked my interest when I saw them, so I decided to buy them for my 4U rack.I'm going to keep them, but I'm not sure if these are exactly what I need for this particular rack.On a positive note, they're easy to install and once they're on, sliding 1U components into your rack becomes easy because the red screws are so long.It's easy to screw the black caps on too, but it's no quicker tightening the caps up than using a Phillips screwdriver with regular M6 screws. Of course, with the rack studs, you don't have to worry about finding a screwdriver.The benefit to using this method is that once the rack studs are on, you won't have to deal with washers and screws falling to the ground and sliding things in an out becomes simple. So I can see why so many people opt for them if they're changing things around a lot.So why am I torn?Well, from a cosmetic point of view, I don't think they look as good. Whereas regular M6 screws only pop out a few millimetres from your rack, the rack studs will make your rack appear 25mm/2.5cm deeper (around 1 inch ). If the red screws were shorter, it would be perfect.I don't think this will be a big problem for large rack setups, but with my rack only being 15cm deep to start with, it kind of looks out of place. The yellow washers look a little out of place against black racks too.I'm still in the process of setting my rack up and will possibly be adding a power strip and router, but when things are setup, I don't see me changing things around that often.Due to this, I'll probably revert back to M6 Cage nuts and screws as they're more discrete due to their smaller footprint.As I said, I'll probably keep them as I may be setting up a second rack setup somewhere else in the house later and could use them for that.If you don't mind the caps sticking out, these are undoubtedly a practical alternative to regular M6 Cage nuts and screws.

It has always been a nightmare with the nuts and screws for server racks, do you have the correct ones for metric or imperial measures? Can you get the old cage nuts off without breaking your knuckles?These marvelous little things do away with all that fuss and can even be done one handed, which is great if you are solo installing a piece of kit worth several thousand of your local currency!They are also surprisingly strong, able to take the weight of a couple servers quite comfortably... though I still recommend caution if you are going to do that.The colour of the pieces is also quite helpful if you drop the pieces as they stand out... as long as you don't have a mass of similar colour cables to search through!

As a tech nut, I have a few racks in my house and cage nuts are by far the worst part of the rack mounting experience. Nuts move around, lots of fiddling, trying to line up the bit of equipment and screws so that you can get at least two in while holding the bit of kit with the other hand. Then if you have a badly behaving cage nut, it flails around, misalignment everywhere.One fateful day I happened to stumble upon these and bought a pack. Instantly it's so much easier. You pop in the studs and slip over the shim, giving you an opportunity to just slide your equipment in and then popping over the screw bit and it just stays in place. I immediately started replacing all my cage nuts with these and bought another pack.Why not five stars? These ones are rates at <2.2mm, if your rack thickness is much less, then you will get some sag even though they'll hold the equipment. With rack thickness approaching it, the studs might need a little bit of extra push to click in place. Obviously depends a lot on the rack rails and how even they are, paint thickness, etc. Finally while they have screw heads, they are very much plastic, so it is extremely easy to strip them, which I have nearly managed to do a few times.

Never going back to cage nuts for anything but the heaviest front loaded rack items.Patch panels, switches etc... just slide on so easily.Have a couple of shelves which are supported front and rear and have no qualms about loading those pretty well.I wouldn't feel comfortable using just these on a big amp, or a server which wasn't on rails.

Stumbled across these while looking for some cage nuts for a new audio rack. I like to keep my audio gear well looked-after in case I want to re-sell it in the future and having unsightly marks from the rack screws doesn't look good. These are really easy too install, are a good fit with the holes in the equipment (diameter of the projecting bolt) and don't appear to leave any marks. They are holding some heavy gear okay (an audio compressor with lots of transformers). They are expensive as one other reviewer commented but given the price of the equipment they're holding, it's peanuts.