A blade-system computer component with a chassis and a blade. The chassis has a housing for a blade, chassis electrical contacts for making electrical connections to the blade, and two rails for engaging the blade along two sides of a length of the blade. Each of the two rails has a slider portion and a rack portion that both engage the blade, and are both disposed along an entire length of the two rails. The blade has blade electrical contacts for making electrical connections to the chassis, two glides disposed along the entire length of the two sides of the blade, where each of the two glides engage the slider portion of each of the two rails, and provide stability to the blade during relative movement between the blade and the chassis. At least one pinion engages the rack portion of at least one of the two rails, and provides dampening to the relative movement between the blade and the chassis.