Good quiet squirrel-cage fans?

[flot]

Can anybody recommend a source for good (quiet) "squirrel-cage" fans? These are the ones that look like little blowers, where they suck air in through the big side and out through a small opening?

Not for my PC, but for my new home theater setup... going to store all my audio gear inside a hutch, and want to mount fans on the back sucking air through the console - and then blow it straight up to cool the TV mounted above...

 

[FDF12389]

Ive used a few CM Jets. At full spped its really loud but combined with a really nice HS and AS5 you can turn it down and its pretty quiet. get the 80mm, they make smaller ones but the sound like lawn mowers. Hope that helps.

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

Lian li makes a 120mm one but I dunno if it's what you're looking for; they're designed specifically for their own cases.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Quiet and blower fan don't go together. They are made to drive air down ducting and thrive on discharge resistance. In 12V they can be undervolted but cfm drops. They can be quieted down by really restricting the discharge side and making the air come out like a jet but now that the fan is well loaded the jet of air will need to be experamented with.

allelectronics.com has several in stock, one is a NIDEC iirc, very top grade name. Prices are resonable.

Why not check the audio forums to see what they use. I would think a 120x38 @ 50+cfm ducted to where you want it would be much quieter.


...Galvanized

 

[flot]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Quiet and blower fan don't go together. They are made to drive air down ducting and thrive on discharge resistance. In 12V they can be undervolted but cfm drops. They can be quieted down by really restricting the discharge side and making the air come out like a jet but now that the fan is well loaded the jet of air will need to be experamented with.

allelectronics.com has several in stock, one is a NIDEC iirc, very top grade name. Prices are resonable.

Why not check the audio forums to see what they use. I would think a 120x38 @ 50+cfm ducted to where you want it would be much quieter.

...Galvanized

Hmm, thanks for the thoughts. I probably should have been more specific - you have a very good point about a standard fan being better for the cabinet w/electronics. I was trying to kill two birds with one stone - the cabinet will be 1" away from the wall, and mounted on the same wall above it is a plasma tv that could use a bit of "helper" airflow as it gets quite hot. My thought was to use the exhaust from the cabinet and direct it straight up along the wall, so that it would pick up some cool air on the way up and just increase circulation.

I could probably do something similar with ducting but that adds a bit to the complexity... maybe 2 small blowers pointing up and then standard fans to actually keep the enclosed electronics cool... The cabinet will need forced circulation, but the TV just needs some airflow going around it. The back has 10,000 vent holes in it, but still gets hot to the touch.