Added a 120mm exhaust fan to my tv stand. Temps dropped by 22ºc / 35.6ºf

[alfa147x]

Had a few case fans laying around + 12v router AC->DC adapter. Put the two together and had some awesome results. I also placed a fan directly on top of the receiver.

Before:

After:

Idea after a few minutes:



Random usage graph. You can see how hot it got before:


This is what is causing the heat:

The Denon 1912 sits directly bellow that shelf. Notice the flexing in the top counter from the LG 50" plasma...

Those pictures were taken after 2 games of Halo 4 multiplayer. Not really scientific but enough to give a good idea of how things are.


Linksys Power Adapter - Ebay - $6
Rosewill 120mm fan - Newegg - $5
Size M DC power plug - Ebay - $4
Total $15

I took the molex adapters that come with the fans to connect the fans in parallel with the power plug. Then just plugged everything in.

 

[vshah]

someone needs a larger tv stand!

 

[alfa147x]

someone needs a larger tv stand!

It's from Big Lots which explains the flexing. Hopefully I'll stop moving so much and then I can save up for this:
http://www.restorationhardware.com/...p?productId=prod2420195&categoryId=cat1850055

 

[purbeast0]

honestly dude that is really bad ventilation, especially for the receiver. there is nowhere for the hot air out the back to go. if i were you i'd get rid of the backing there so at least it can blow out the back since there is not much room around it in general.

today i realized how hot the air is coming out the back of my ps3 lol. i was behind it doing other wiring and it felt like a womans blow dryer set on low. good ol phat ps3.

but all the air flow and space around my rack is part of the reason i got that style, and because im keeping it in a closed closet. although, after using it for like 3 hours straight last weekend i opened the closet door and it was warm as shit in there. may have to do something to get more cooling/air flow in there. pretty sure it is just the ps3 though causing most of the heat.

 

[alfa147x]

honestly dude that is really bad ventilation, especially for the receiver. there is nowhere for the hot air out the back to go. if i were you i'd get rid of the backing there so at least it can blow out the back since there is not much room around it in general.

today i realized how hot the air is coming out the back of my ps3 lol. i was behind it doing other wiring and it felt like a womans blow dryer set on low. good ol phat ps3.

but all the air flow and space around my rack is part of the reason i got that style, and because im keeping it in a closed closet. although, after using it for like 3 hours straight last weekend i opened the closet door and it was warm as shit in there. may have to do something to get more cooling/air flow in there. pretty sure it is just the ps3 though causing most of the heat.

Yeah I agree. The sides of the receiver are cased in because the lack of space. I plan on allocating one more fan to it and I've ordered 2 Temperature sensors for an arduino. This way I'll be able to track how hot it gets down there and then after I have an idea I can have the Arduino adjust the fan speeds accordingly.

 

[alfa147x]

Added 3 more fans. 2 more fans exhausting out of the back of the cabinet and 1 more fan pulling air out of the receiver and pushing that air up the back of the shelf and out the exhaust.

Planning on testing out temps after the super bowl

 

[Number1]

Added 3 more fans. 2 more fans exhausting out of the back of the cabinet and 1 more fan pulling air out of the receiver and pushing that air up the back of the shelf and out the exhaust.

Planning on testing out temps after the super bowl

Wow, this looks exactly like the setup I had in my home entertainment cabinet 20 years ago......

Except they were ac fans and I had a step down transformer at the bottom of the cabinet to drive them.

My 2 years old pioneer receiver still fried. I never bought another Pioneer.

 

[fuzzymath10]

I have been thinking of doing something similar. how did you adapt the fans to the AC adapter? Did you get some sort of power adapter with a molex plug on the end, or just adapt the adapter to molex and then plug in all the fans at once?

 

[mrjspeed]

I did basically the same thing a few years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF8w2ciL4co

The video isn't up to date, but I basically built a on/off switch and fan controller seemlessly into the console, looks pretty slick now.

 

[alfa147x]

I have been thinking of doing something similar. how did you adapt the fans to the AC adapter? Did you get some sort of power adapter with a molex plug on the end, or just adapt the adapter to molex and then plug in all the fans at once?

I used this: Link

I had a bunch of Disk drive connector -> fan adapters which I then connected together inside of the Size M DC power plug. So what I ended up with was the DC female power plug and on the other end 5x 3-pin fan connectors (3-pin Molex connector KK Family). Pretty simple. It allows all the connections to look clean, easily removable and expandable.

 

[wirednuts]

anything sitting on top of an xbox is going to overheat...

 

[alfa147x]

anything sitting on top of an xbox is going to overheat...

The Mini has never overheated. It's been on top of the xbox since august.