TRIPP LITE 48-Port 1U Rackmount Cat6 110 High Density Patch Panel, 568B, RJ45 Ethernet

Nice to have this product as an option for when you need the density of 48 ports in a 1U space. I needed one of these for a small wall cabinet where I could only dedicate 1U for the patch panel to go with the other stuff I needed in the limited area. Worked well. Only thing that can be improved is that the plastic of the punch down block is a bit soft so the impact tool leaves a larger that usual dent on the cut side. I would not advise you to ever remove a terminated connection and try to re-terminate the cables. It's a single use only type of thing. (But that's pretty much true for all patch panels) I would like to see a more durable material used on the puch down block. The white soft plastic just seems a little bit too soft. I really liked two things. The notches at the back for lacing a cable tie on each individual cable made sure that all the individual cables have strain relief and you are able to keep things nice and neat back there which can be a hazard when you increase the density like this. The second nice feature is how the top ports lift out in a tray so you can do the terminations on the bottom row. I found it was easiest to plan out the cabling so I could terminate the bottom row of cables first and then move to the top row last. If you use a high density patch panel I advise you stack the network switch right above or below with a cable manager in between so you do not need to cram all the patch cables into a vertical manager. For a larger job you can alternate patch panel, cable manager, and then network switch rather than clustering all the patch panels in one part of the rack and the switching equipment in a separate part of the rack so you can use the shortest patch cables possible to avoid massive quantities of patch cabling running through vertical management which gets very ugly especially over the years of changes that happen. Short cables, with horizontal management is the way to keep things neat over time. I find the longer the patch cables and the worse things get even if you do a neat job initially. I try to avoid putting as much cable as possible into vertical space. When doing a cable management rack I do the following pattern: 48p patch 2u horizontal management 48p switch 48p switch 2u horizontal management 48p patch 48p patch 2u horizontal management 48p switch etc. Keep building groups of patch, management, and switches so that 2ft patch cables with a single loop can be used for all patch ports. It may not fully utilize the switching ports but it's the best way to keep things looking neat over the long term. In general I would stick with the standard density of 24 ports per U of rack space and only use this high density arrangement where required, but it's great that the high density options exist for special circumstances.