Newbie to cabinet cooling, suggestions on best way to vent/cool? (w/ pics of setup)

well to be honest, i wouldnt even consider using a cabinet like that to put that many things in...granted they wont all be on at the same time but they arent going to have any room to breathe (theyll all be so close together) which could make all that hot air stick around longer than desired even if you put in a decent amount of fans.

BUT, if u must! put the receiver on top without a doubt as it will probly be the hottest thing...you can buy coolers that are made to plug in on the plugs in the back of your receiver that will pull the air out and push it up...but then it wont have anywhere to go...ummmmm ya...different cabinet my friend! the amount of time and effort put into properly cooling this cabinet would be better spent by simply buying one that can be easily vented/cooled...or better yet, already comes that way! just my 2 cents

Hot air risers so cabinet exhaust fans go up high, intake vents down low.

You want to find some quiet cabinet fans. Also something that only runs when you need it either off a switched outlet on your receiver or a thermostat.

google cabinet or equipment rack fans. Here are a couple of hits:

http://www.smarthome.com/8734FCC/Cab...-System/p.aspx

http://www.rockler.com/search_result...er=cabinet+fan

I vent my closed equipment cabinet with two of these 120mm computer fans: http://www.coolerguys.com/noctua120.html. You'll also need a power supply: http://www.coolerguys.com/840556029977.html. One of these power supplies with run multiple fans. I run these fans 24/7 and they are literally inaudible from more than a foot away.

I mounted the fans on the back of the cabinet as near to the top as I could manage. The fans are oriented to pull hot air out of the cabinet. Fresh air is drawn into the cabinet at the bottom. All of the shelves have holes to allow air flow to all of the components. If you have a powerful drill, you can buy a big hole saw to cut the holes to mount the fans. Otherwise, I guess you would use a jig saw to cut the holes.

I have a 7.1 setup and my receiver (Denon 3805) tends to run hot when it's pushing all of those channels. To give the receiver some extra protection, I cut some holes in the receiver's shelf and mounted two 92mm computer fans (http://www.coolerguys.com/840556086468.html) to the shelf under the receiver, positioned to push air up through the receiver's case. Those fans are powered from a separate power supply that is plugged into the receiver's switched outlet. The 92mm fans come on when the receiver is turned on and turn off when the receiver is switched off.

This works very well for me.

cut the entire back out.

I'm with vcook. On my cabinet, which is all enclosed I just drilled several large holes in the back for ventilation. While I don't run an AVR on the plasma, and the BD and HD players don't really get that hot, you still want some sort of air movement. Take off the back and replace it with peg board or something similar that can breathe. I don't think you need any fans.

I'm not 100% sure you will get enough air exchange with peg board you may need bigger holes. If you can save the original back for future replacement it might be worth a try.

I would say put some of the equipment in the side cabinets if you can. I would try to get the PS3 on it's own as they displace a lot of heat. Not sure about the Wii. I am very particular about my equipment placement. I believe every piece should have it's own shelf. Don't know why, I just believe in unclutered and functional equipment placement.

Bigmouth had a great idea of carefully removing the original back panel so you can use it later if you need. On the peg board you may want to make the holes a bit bigger like he said. Just take a drill and go to work. I used a 2 1/2 holes saw for mine. Great for fishing cable through too. Good luck and post some pics when you are done.

You could probably just do without any back, no? You can't see it from the front anyway. If it doesn't feel stable without the back you could put in a cross brace to keep it from racking.

You could try to do it with no back on it, but I'm guessing unless it's really really well made you'll need some sort of bracing. Generally the back of any piece of furniture is a structual and needed piece.

I agree with Whiskey Alpha. If you're going to try opening the back, I suggest you cut out the middle section and leave a 3"-4" "frame" around the perimeter to provide some structure.

FWIW, my original cabinet design had the equivalent of a couple of square feet of openings in the back. My receiver still got hot enough that I was worried about its longevity. That's why I retrofitted the fans.

If you remove part of the back, I think you need to leave at least 3"-4" intact at the top, to support the top of the cabinet and provide some lateral stiffness for the entire cabinet. (If you lose too much lateral stiffness, you might find that, for example, the doors on the front of the cabinet no longer line up correctly.) If you leave this much structure at the top, though, heat wil accumulate behind that 3"-4" instead of flowing out the open back. I think this was part of the problem I had before I installed the fans.


I would certainly spread them out if I could possibly do so. Heck, with that many components packed into that small a space, it could be a challenge simply to keep enough air moving. I might put the known heat producers like the receiver and the PS3 into one enclosure and cool it with fans, and then put the cooler-running components into a separate enclosure and just open up the back of the cabinet to allow some air exchange.

I would personally put the hottest things down the bottom, as they need the coolest air the most.

Due to convection the heat must rise, hopefully bringing cooler air in from below.


I'm just wondering if that cabinet has air space beneath it, as well as letting air get in to it, then one option to look at is to add holes in the bottom/floor of that cabinet, and as the heat rising from the receiver combined with a fan up the top blowing the hot air out will drag in cooler air past the receiver.

The shelf in the middle will also need to have holes added so that the hot air from the receiver can easily rise up towards the exhaust fan, and therefore more air will get brought in from below.