Cooling the system

[royaltiger]

Hi guys
I'm looking for suggestions on what to use for cooling the amp and other components, they are being housed in a alpherson ambri 1100 cabinet which I have built into a false chimney, I have taken the back of the cabinet off as amp did not fit anyway but need some fans that will push the air around and can be plugged in or connected up to the system, most fans seem to be 12v and compatible with motherboards only, so looking for some sort of system that probaly just plugs in and possibly has a thermostat control of the fan speed, agian noise needs to be kept to minimum

[gareth_alien]

PC fans are quite efficient and the more expensive ones can be very quiet. Also, most PC LCD screens run on a 12v power adapter often easily available. Strip the 12v plug off, wire into the fan with a variable resister (dimmer switch) in series, check you've got the fan turning in the right direction (won't work as well in reverse) and hey-presto! Apparently old phone chargers work too, Nokia chargers are 5.7v so will run the fan slowly (and quietly).

That said, I have yet to try any of this at all.

Good luck!

- Gareth

[vindaloo]

Opinion needed on Alphason ABR 1100-B please

Heat seems to be a theme with this cabinet. Though you're running yours with the back off....

Where are the cooling slots for air intake and exit on the kit? In some ways, proper ducting is a more elegant solution than powering fans. Can you duct from the side(s) of the false chimney and maybe have exits higher up on the sides?

J.

[royaltiger]

I have quite a bit of space behind the plasma to disperse the hot air but I needed a way of blowing the air out of the cabinet and keeping the amp cool, unfortunately the spec on the cabinet is not really described properly when it comes to internal dimensions which is why I bought them thinking they would be big enough, I have the amp and KRP media box on one side with the rear removed and on the right side I have a bluray and vigin V+ box, it was a toss up between the two media boxes, and as the pioneer gives out less heat and was slightly smaller that was the one to have above the amp, but the build up of heat is quite high so I need a way of cooling before I can finish my project.

[sloany1979]

How about something like this Kustom PCs Antec Veris AV Cooler

[royaltiger]

I looked at it and it seems a good idea only problem I have is no room in the cabinet, I literally have 15mm of space left which I will need for airflow.

[royaltiger]

I have now removed the kuro media box and now placed that on top of the bluray with the V+ on top, so will now see how hot it all gets, I might now get away without the need for extra fans

[vindaloo]

You seem to have space in the false chimney, so you could install a couple of large, slow but quiet fans behind/above the Alphason with ducts leading to the top, back of the cabinet.

15mm left seems like very little to rely on convection to cool the components.

Any scope for removing the top completely or almost completely, or replacing it with an MDF version with holes in?

PS: Got any piccies of the install?

[royaltiger]

I'll stick some pics on next, amp still quite hot and so is the roof of the cabinet so I might stick some fans in to circulate the air, not sure what running temperature of amp is but its near on hard to touch as a lot of heat disperses through vents at top.

[nacmacfeegle]

There's a whole thread on cabinet cooling here
A guide to adding cooling to your cabinets - Work in progress
Maybe help inspire something for your situation.

[royaltiger]

Thanks for that, funny enough I have been trawling through that thread for ideas, and so ordered a miniNG and just need the akasa caddy and some fans which I can pick up locally, might also use a fan controller, was looking at the Zalman ZM-MFC3 Multi Fan Controller,It should all work together.

[royaltiger]

hopefully a picture with the media box on top of amp, not sure if I have done this bit right, been a long time since uploaded a picture.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/attac...1&d=1258069591