Add Cooling Fan to A/V Cabinet - Page 19

Here is a picture of my solution for keeping my A/V cabinet cool...



4 SilenX 90mm computer case fans with speed controller (hidden behind cabinet). They are triggered on/off automatically by the AVR. These fans are just a whisper at 1' and completely inaudible from 2'.

The camera flash greatly exaggerates how visible the back of the cabinet is...

Have anyone used Notebook Cooling Pad with built-in fans for their A/V equipment? Will this be a good option in place of making changes to cabinet?

This is what I use:

http://www.amazon.com/Antec-Profile-...3465447&sr=8-4

How good is it? From reviews I found that the fans don't move much air around. I am not too excited to pay $75 for something that work so-so.

I don't know how to exactly quantify how good it is. I have my Onkyo in a cabinet with the Cooler sitting on top of it and haven't had any heat issues. Also, what I like about it is it allows me t o stack another device on top of (something I wouldn't do if I didnt have the cooler in between)

I tried reading through this thread some, but it was a bit too much information for me. So I apologize in advance for being under-educated on this, but I'm in a hurry and need a quick recommendation. I'm looking to buy a cooling fan for inside my AV cabinet. I want it to blow air out of the cabinet, thus I will mount the fan flush to the cabinet wall.

The fan must:

-be very quiet
-be USB or plug-in power
-turn on when a certain temperature is reached, and turn off when it is cool

At first I thought this Thermaltake fan would work, but I'm not sure it is thermal activated, and it looks like it has a speed knob protruding out that would prevent this fan from being flush mounted to a cabinet wall. Anyone have an alternate suggestion?

After a bit of searching I found the solution from coolerguys.com:

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556082491.html

I use three of those. One in each section of my cabinet. They work great and are very quiet.

Here is a pic of my 360 in my stand (temp display while listening to music through NET was up to 57C then began to drop to 43...volume at 27).

[IMG][/IMG]

I am going to buy some 120mm fans and power them from usb cables. Any fans you guys recommend that move a lot of air and are quiet?


Which do you think would work best:

1) Cut hole in the back of the cabinet where the receiver is located, mount 1 fan in the hole pulling air out, then have the other fan sitting on top of the receiver pulling hot air out of the receiver

2) Cut hole in the back of the cabinet where the receiver is located, Mount 1 fan on the back panel of the cabinet blowing forward over the top of the receiver, then have the other fan sitting on top of the receiver pulling hot air out of the receiver


Any other ideas?

I just installed this kit from the CoolerGuys: http://www.coolerguys.com/840556092810.html
I couldn't be more pleased. Yes, I can hear it when there is no sound playing, but it is not obnoxiously loud. I also have an HTPC in the cabinet. The four 120s are louder than my very quiet HTPC. The thermostat works great. I mounted the fans on the back of a Salamander 339 with mesh doors. Not the most efficient air path, but it makes a noticeable difference.

The Enermax Enlobal fans from Coolerguys are very quiet, can't hear them running, have to look and see if they are spinning. I went positive pressure ( i have glass doors on my cabinet to enclose them. Fan in the side blowing in and and one of the blower fans (made to sit on top of the equipment, draws air up through it). Your can hear those fans when its quiet. I have some holes in the back of the cabinet, filtered screens on the fans drawing air in, so the air thats blowing in should be relatively dust free.

This thread seems very informative. I thought I'd post my question here rather than start a new thread that way if someone else has a similar question, they'll find it easily like I found this thread.

First, my horrible MS paint illustration of where my AV Receiver will go:



My receiver will be in the bottom compartment. There is about 1" clearance between the back of the shelf and the top compartment. The front is encolsed by a solid wood door. (I will be using an IR repeater.) There is only a small hold near the top left corner where the cords go through. There will be an inch or two of space between the top of the receiver and the bottom of the shelf.

This thing really gets hot in there. I want to install a cooling system but I don't know if I should install fans blowing in and out, how many of each, and in which compartment. I'll probably go with something that coolerguys sells to keep my life simple, but I'm a little overwhelmed by all the choices.

I have had a fan setup in my tv stand since i purchased my VSX 32. I hate heat when mixed with electronics. My setup is very simple.

I used a old PSU from a old comp. Grounded the motherboard signal wire to the psu's ground. This allows me to run the PSU with out the need of a motherboard. I just flip the switch on the PSU to turn the fans on.
I also had a old belkin laptop cooler. I opened it up and on one half there are vanes which where used to duct the heat away from the laptop. They are raised so it creates pathways that air can flow through.
I mounted two 120mm fans to that half then screwed it to the top of my cabinet where the AVR sits.
So now the fans sit about 1.5" above the AVR, sucking the heat right out of the top of the AVR and then blows it through the ducts on the laptop cooler and then directly out of the cabinet.

It made a huge difference, it went from the AVR being very warm/hot to slightly warm after being on for a few hours watching movies at high volumes.
Since I am using a PSU i can add numerous fans. So any additional amps or hots spots i can keep cool.

I would recommend 4 120mm fans two for each shelf. have them blow out the back.
The reason I say 4 is because you mentioned that the door will be shut and that you will use a repeater. If thats the case then you need to move alot of air since there will be no flow through of air other then what the fans do.

Some will say that 120 are over kill but there is a reason i use them over smaller fans. The 120 will spin slower but move more air then a faster smaller fan. The slower the fan speed the quieter it will be.

I know I said we would have the IR repeater, but we'd still try to use the equipment with the door open. Invariably what happens is that the door gets closed and sometimes we leave the equipment on for days without knowing (not producing sound output of course). Still, having no intake fans would concern me a little.

you have to be careful with having intake fans with exhaust fans. You want to make sure that you dont have more air coming in then going out. That creates heat pockets where air hot air cant get out. The idea is to create a slight vacuum by having more exhaust. So you dont have to have a intake fan for the cooling to be functional.

I have a wooden Ikea A/V unit (I know, I know) and while I've taken care to space out all the devices in there that generate large amounts of heat (AVR, xbox, ATV, Tivo), it still only has a few small cutouts in the back (homemade, I needed more spaces to run cables).

Should I look into getting some smaller exhaust fans to put on the back of the cabinet to help cool things down? There's no front door blocking airflow, so am I getting enough airflow? My stand is some what like the one niceguymr so expertly drew out, in which the bottom shelf leaves some space in the back for air from the bottom to rise up. Without the front door blocking the airflow, should my equipment be relatively safe?

I put a 200MM fan in my AV cabinet under the dish unit sucking air in from under the cabinet also a 120MM fan in the back pulling air out. My AVR sits ontop the cabinet with a 200MM on it pulling hot air out. I got a 12V converter cut the end off and hooked up all the fans. Just make sure that the converter will handle enough amps for the fans.

Could someone advise what else I would need beyond the following to add 3-4 of these fans to my cabinet. It is 2 seperate cabinets put together so I want to do 2 fans per cabinet, one pushing in and 1 pulling out most likely.

I believe I just need an adapter to go from the power adapter to the fans and that should be it.

Power Adapter - http://www.amazon.com/USB-2-0-SATA-C...6094066&sr=1-2
Temp Controlled Fans - http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/ca...ctic-f-tc.html

WOW! This thread has been a huge help.
Here is what I am solving:

The rear end of a Heathkit cabinet. Speakers are seperate cabinets.

Components are ~5-10 years old; SONY. New Polk RTiA3 will replace the 1970's era jensen speaker.

I'm still planning, but if anyone has extra ideas, let me know. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks to all the bright bulbs posting useful notes!!!

***maybe this will work
http://www.flickr.com/photos/codycoyote/6730900167/

IME it's rarely necessary to use forced air cooling with HT systems. First of all the components are designed to work properly with a nominal amount of ventilation. Perhaps more important is the amount of dust and other junk that fans will stir up and drop on the equipment. I like to open up the cases of my various components and computers, and blow out the dust once or twice a year. Quite often I find there's nothing to clean out!

I use standard 19" mount Anvil cases to mount most of my equipment in, even at home. (They're there, why not use them?) The biggest concession that I make to cooling is to install a perforated plate over the bottom few RU to allow cold air that collects on the ground to flow into the case. The rest is done by the chimney effect that causes a column of hot air to rise up the back of the case, carrying away the heat and replacing it with fresh cool air to make a continuous cycle.

If I feel that it's really necessary to hasten the cooling process, I'll use an inexpensive 6" clip-on fan that can be bought at Walgreen's every spring. I'll position it to blow up and away from the case, and take care not to blow into the case.

If you have an A/V closet, you should add a vent panel at the bottom of the door, and a duct at the top of the closet to circulate the air. Run a length of sound dampening flexduct from the top vent to the attic, and attach an exhaust fan at the far end to keep noise to a minimum. An always-on, thermostatically controlled variable speed fan is ideal. Just set it up and forget it.

I'd have to strongly disagree with your statement. Unless the cabinet has tons of circulation the air becomes trapped inside and continues to heat up with nothing circulating the air. I have a cabinet which i've cut holes in the back to run wiring etc. yet with the doors closed the AVR, Laptop, PS3 all give off a large amount of hot air. I've even received a warning when using my PS3 for extended periods of time to turn it off for awhile due to the temperature.

A simple fan pulling the air out the back should suffice for most applications, I doubt it's necessary to run more than 1 per cabinet.

For anyone looking for a simple kit I think this is a pretty good one that's been posted before - http://www.amazon.com/Cabcool-1201-2...7303423&sr=8-4

If you want to DIY then this is what I put together. Total cost $49.90 Shipped.
-http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002G1YNQS/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details
-http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V6T5HW/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details
-http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MGG6SC/ref=oh_o03_s00_i00_details
-http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NPEBM4/ref=oh_o03_s00_i01_details (x2)

I did the same as I had all these parts laying around from all my previous pc builds. Except that now I am waiting on x2 200mm fans with red LEDs that I will be adding. Overkill maybe.

FWIW, found this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s00_i00

Which is used with a few computer fans and 12V power supply from Acopian (Model DB12-50). I place the switch in line from the A/C wall plug to the power supply. The power supply referenced above is 1/2 amp, but download the spec sheet and it'll help you find the one you need off Ebay.

Hey!

I'm looking for 3 small fans I can use to cool down the equipment.

Any ideas? The media player is fanless and is sitting on top of my NAD C275BEE power amplifier so it is getting a little bit hot...

I want to mount the small fans on the back of the tv-bench.

It is important that they I don't hear the fan noise. They don't need to move THAT much air to keep things cool..

Here's what I used...

http://www.amazon.com/Silenx-IXAFCEX.../dp/B0030EZLSO



http://www.silenx.com/quiet.fans.asp?sku=ixp-76-14

No miscellaneous parts needed - it's plug and play.

I use a "smart strip" with my AVR to automatically turn the fans on whenever my AVR powers on. The fan controller lets you adjust each fans speed individually so you can slow them down if they are too loud (these Silenx fans are very quiet though - even at full speed I cannot hear the fans (I run 4) unless I stand right in front of my cabinet). The blue LEDs next to each pot are bright - I face them down on the carpet/floor so they don't glow behind my cabinet. A piece of tape would solve this too I suppose...

Thanks!

I don't understand what you mean by "smart strip" Can you explain? Picture?

Here are two different takes on Smart Power Strips. I have both of these and I think they often go on sale. There are many others too.

Smart Strip SCG4

APC BE750G Power Saving Battery Back-UPS

You'd plug your receiver into the master socket and your fan(s) into a slave socket. Leave the fan On. Your fan will now turn on and off just as if they were part of your receiver.

*Oh yeah, you can get the same results if you have a switched power outlet on the back of your receiver.

.

Thanks for the help!
Think I'm going for 4x IXP-52-14 fans because of the thin size 2 for NAD power amplifier, 1 for media player and 1 for decoder.

Anyone have any tips on switching a standard PC case fan on via the 12v trigger on the back of my Denon AVR2313? Not looking to power the fan via the trigger....just tell the fan to turn on. I know it's possible and the AV cooler guy on ebay sells fan kits that include a module to do this....but he doesn't sell said module seperately as far as I can tell and I'd like to use different fans/speed controllers. Any tips?