Free tool

Server Power Consumption & Rack Space Calculator

Add your servers, storage and switches and get the rack units, the power draw in kVA and the deepest chassis — with the rack elevation drawn for you. Free, no sign-up.

Calculator

Work out rack space and power draw

Add the hardware you run and the calculator totals the rack units, the power draw in kVA and the deepest chassis, and draws the elevation. No sign-up, no email, nothing to submit.

Your hardware Search the catalogue and add what you run. Figures are typical draw at a mid-range configuration.

      Typical figures for a mid-range configuration, not nameplate ratings. Depth is the chassis without rails or cable management.

      Rack elevation — an illustration of what you are racking, not where it sits. Actual placement in the shared rack is ours to decide. Drag a line in your build to reorder it.

      Method

      How the numbers are worked out

      Stated plainly, because a calculator you cannot check is just a number generator.

      • Typical draw, not nameplate

        A 1U server with an 800 W supply rarely draws more than 400 W in a normal build. Sizing from the label inflates every allocation and costs you money in a colocation contract. The figures here are typical for a mid-range configuration — measured figures from your own estate always beat them.

      • Watts counted 1:1 as VA

        Modern server supplies run at a power factor close to 1, so treating watts as volt-amps is accurate enough for sizing and errs on the safe side. Totals are summed across every device first and rounded up afterwards, so rounding is applied once rather than device by device.

      • Rack units are the easy part

        Space is a straight sum of chassis heights. What catches people out is that 42U of hardware does not fit in a 42U cabinet — you lose height to patching, cable management and airflow, and the power ceiling usually runs out before the space does.

      • Depth decides whether it fits at all

        Chassis depth is shown without rails or cable management, and rails add. A 900 mm GPU chassis will not go into a cabinet sized for 700 mm servers, and this is discovered on install day more often than it should be. Check the deepest device against the cabinet before anything ships.

      • Size for the allocation, not the average

        Colocation power is sold as an allocation and billed on it, so the number that matters is the peak a rack can pull, not what it averages on a quiet Tuesday. Leaving headroom for a refresh is cheaper than renegotiating a feed.

      • Real models, not categories

        Most calculators ask for "a 1U server". The catalogue here carries specific models across several generations, because a DL360 Gen9 and a Gen11 differ by around 150 W and that difference compounds across a rack.

      Somewhere to put it

      Colocation from a single rack unit in a carrier-neutral Dubai facility, with 24/7 smart hands.

      Quote builder Colocation Contact us

      FAQ

      Frequently Asked Questions

      How accurate are the power figures?
      They are typical draw for a mid-range configuration — a sensible planning number, not a measurement of your machine. Actual draw moves with CPU count and TDP, DIMM population, drive count and load. For a colocation contract, measure your own hardware if you can; for sizing a cabinet or a feed, these are the right order of magnitude and err on the safe side.
      Why kVA rather than kW?
      Because that is how data centre power is sold. Modern server supplies have a power factor close to 1, so watts and volt-amps are near enough equal for sizing — the calculator counts them 1:1, sums across every device and rounds up once at the end rather than rounding each device.
      Can I fit 42U of hardware in a 42U rack?
      In principle, and almost never in practice. You lose height to patch panels, cable management and airflow, and on any modern build the power ceiling runs out before the space does — which is why the total here leads with kVA rather than rack units.
      My model is not in the list.
      Use the Something else entry under Generic and set the rack units and watts yourself. The catalogue covers the common families across several generations rather than every machine ever built.
      Is this tied to buying colocation?
      No. The calculator is free and has nothing to submit. If you do want the hardware racked, the quote builder takes the same configuration and adds connectivity, IP addressing and installation.

      You might also be interested in the following products and services.

      • Colocation Quote Builder

        Configure what you want to rack in Dubai — space, power, connectivity and installation — and get a written quote.