What product can I use to cool down my home theater components?
My home theater system is a pieced together and in a cabinet and is running HOT. It includes a tivo, receiver, cable box, a PS3 (large and loud) and a Wii. The system is just ok. It's not something an audiophile would tolerate but it does the job for me. I've taken the back off the cabinet to increase airflow but it's still getting too hot for my comfort. Is there a thermostat/fan system out there that might do the trick to cool the system that's not too loud?
You need to get some airflow through there, which means a way for cool air to get in and a way for cool air to get out.
You could buy an expensive, but fantastic cooled media cabinet from Standout Designs
Or you could cheap out like me and modify your existing media cabinet to do the job a bit better. I mounted the front doors an inch off the front of the cabinet by drilling new holes for the door hinges, and made 1" tall bumpers out of wine corks colored black. It looks factory-clean, and there's now a large airgap at the front that you can't see unless you're standing over it. Next, I used a circle saw to cut 2 120mm holes in the back panel of the cabinet, and screwed in 2 very quiet PC fans of that size. I powered them with a 12vdc molex power supply, which is plugged into a switched surge protector (some outlets switch on when one of the outlets draws power -- some receivers have an AC outlet on the back built in that you could use). So now whenever my receiver is turned on, the fans spin up and draw cool air through the front air gap, over all the components, then out the back.
You can get the fans and power supply from NewEgg . Depending on the material of the back panel on your media cabinet you could get away with a drywall circle saw or you might need a hole saw or dremel.
It took me about 30 minutes to do, and now my cheap ikea media cabinet can house everything silently with the doors closed.
13 Answers
You need to get some airflow through there, which means a way for cool air to get in and a way for cool air to get out.
You could buy an expensive, but fantastic cooled media cabinet from Standout Designs
Or you could cheap out like me and modify your existing media cabinet to do the job a bit better. I mounted the front doors an inch off the front of the cabinet by drilling new holes for the door hinges, and made 1" tall bumpers out of wine corks colored black. It looks factory-clean, and there's now a large airgap at the front that you can't see unless you're standing over it. Next, I used a circle saw to cut 2 120mm holes in the back panel of the cabinet, and screwed in 2 very quiet PC fans of that size. I powered them with a 12vdc molex power supply, which is plugged into a switched surge protector (some outlets switch on when one of the outlets draws power -- some receivers have an AC outlet on the back built in that you could use). So now whenever my receiver is turned on, the fans spin up and draw cool air through the front air gap, over all the components, then out the back.
You can get the fans and power supply from NewEgg . Depending on the material of the back panel on your media cabinet you could get away with a drywall circle saw or you might need a hole saw or dremel.
It took me about 30 minutes to do, and now my cheap ikea media cabinet can house everything silently with the doors closed.
I was looking into this a couple days ago, as I noticed my home theater was getting really hot. I found a couple solutions I wanted to try out:
1. A custom cooling system from www.coolerguys.com
2. Antec Low Profile AV Cooler
You can probably build a nice cooling system with some components from the Cooler Guys, but the Antec Low Profile AV Cooler seems like a quick fix if you have 1 or 2 components getting hot and don't feel like having to modify your cabinet too much.
There are several fans designed to sit under your components or slip between stacked consoles. Middle Atlantic makes a disc fan (http://www.middleatlantic.com/rackac/cooling/qcool.htm) and Cooler Components has several options, including these simple fans (http://www.coolcomponents.com/Econo-Cooler_p_185.html). alternatively you could buy a bunch of CPU fans from your local discount computer store, screw them inside your cabinet and wire them all together with a cheap power source.
Most AV components will be fine under quite extreme heat (too hot to even touch), so you usually don't really have to worry about them. Since, all of your components are digital, it won't distort your signal either. Unless it shuts down itself because of the temperature, I think you can just use current configuration.
Cooler Guys, definitely. If you're a do-it-yourselfer, you'll love the customizable options. Combine this programmable controller.
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556090885.html
With a couple fans and you'll be good to go.
Are you worried about the heat affecting the performance of your equipment? If that's the case I wouldn't worry too much about it. I worked in the mid-high end electronics industry for a 5+ years and it's rarely an issue with the majority of people's systems.
Electronics are so efficient now that as long as you have at least an inch of space between the top of your components(provided that's where the vents are) than it's not a problem. It's good that you have the back of your cabinet off so air can flow through.
I know how you feel when it gets really hot back there. I'm running all Yamaha reference type equipment and an XBox 360 and Wii. Some nights I play XBox Live for hours and it gets cooking back there but it's fine. I hope this answers your question.
You need to get some airflow through there, which means a way for cool air to get in and a way for cool air to get out.
You could buy an expensive, but fantastic cooled media cabinet from Standout Designs
Or you could cheap out like me and modify your existing media cabinet to do the job a bit better. I mounted the front doors an inch off the front of the cabinet by drilling new holes for the door hinges, and made 1" tall bumpers out of wine corks colored black. It looks factory-clean, and there's now a large airgap at the front that you can't see unless you're standing over it. Next, I used a circle saw to cut 2 120mm holes in the back panel of the cabinet, and screwed in 2 very quiet PC fans of that size. I powered them with a 12vdc molex power supply, which is plugged into a switched surge protector (some outlets switch on when one of the outlets draws power -- some receivers have an AC outlet on the back built in that you could use). So now whenever my receiver is turned on, the fans spin up and draw cool air through the front air gap, over all the components, then out the back.
You can get the fans and power supply from NewEgg . Depending on the material of the back panel on your media cabinet you could get away with a drywall circle saw or you might need a hole saw or dremel.
It took me about 30 minutes to do, and now my cheap ikea media cabinet can house everything silently with the doors closed.