Maximum PC

Not really sure of the best place to post this, but figured this might be the best for traffic and category.

For other people that have tried the Entertainment Center fan mod that was outlined online (Keep Your PC/Xbox/PS3/AppleTV From Overheating in a Closed Cabinet) as well as included in the March 2009 issue of Max PC How to, “Keep Your Electronics Cool in a Closed Cabinet.â€

First of all, I suggest you try RUBBER grommets and washers. Vinyl is a rather hard plastic and does not work at all for sound dampening. In fact, it may have amplified it a bit.

Next, I'm willing to bet the back of your entertainment center is that cheap cardboard-like stuff that's on the back of mine. That will only amplify the fan noise as well since it is so thin and flimsy. Any vibration of the fan will turn that thin sheet into a drum or speaker cone of sorts. You need to thicken it up, stiffen it up, or replace it with some plywood.

[quote="thredge"]...I'm thinking about some Scythe fans, either the Gentle Typhoon or the S-FLEX style because the Typhoon's say “The newly designed motor and motor support mechanism of the GentleTyphoon uses a double vibration reduction structure. The new support mechanism uses coil dampers to greatly reduce vibration.â€

how about cutting a thin piece of plywood or something, maybe 12"x12" or so, gluing (or whatever) that to the back of the cabinet and mounting the fan to that? it might cut down the vibration as it will be a stronger mount and, in theory at least, dampen the vibration as its heavier and sturdier.

Thanks for the suggestions. I might try the plywood, although I would like to be able to try it out before I actually glue the thing to the back of the cabinet for good. I may also try the quiet fans, they don't need to move much air, just enough to keep pulling in the room temperature stuff. Being able to use any fan would be a more ideal situation though. Like I said the fans are plenty quiet the amplification of the motor noise when attached to the cabinet is the problem.

So, has anyone else actually done this mod besides Will?

I did end up finding some fans that worked. One thing I didn't try was maybe getting a fan speed controller too.

The fans I ended up using were the Scythe S-Flex 800RPM fans. I can only hear them in the dead of night when I turn off the sound to everything else. In the end I wasn't able to find any rubber grommets unfortunatly, but did end up using some vinyl ones that felt more rubbery than the rest.

Other fans I tried that didn't work as well for noise:
-Vantec Temperature Controlled 120MM fan (1300-2200rpm)
-Servo GentleTyphoon (1150rpm) with the different fan blade shape that is supposed to provide a less annoying fan tone

I haven't tried the thicker back panel piece yet, but would like to in the future. I even added a switch for if I wanted to turn them off, but haven't found the need to yet.

So I hadn't heard if anyone else has done this mod yet or not. Feels like maybe I'm the only one, and I am very happy with my end results.

Actually I didn't read that article but I did make something similar using a wall wart and some Cooler Master 200mm fans and I love it! Instead of plywood I used acrylic and mounted the fans to the acrylic then mounted that to my entertainment center.

Given the material and design of the back panel, where the fan was mounted, I would likely have suspended each corner of the fan with small springs, inside of an enlarged hole (like for a larger fan size). I think maybe I'll actually give that idea a shot now, lol. Glad to hear u found a solution to your problem though.

And, that (if one picks some quiet fans) is, frankly, overkill.
Just get some good, quiet fans, and mount them to a solid surface (and, one that has good noise-dampening properties), and is itself solidly mounted to the cabinet, and you'll be fine.

Anyone here remember me moving my Media Center into an HTPC case, and stuffing it into a rather smallish stand?
This post is where I started working on the cabinet cooling system. Three Scythe 120mm case fans; they're barely a whisper when they're running.
In fact, I can barely hear them when everything else (TV, receiver & speakers, and the PC itself) are off.
Aside from being, by their nature, quiet fans, they're also mounted (solid-mounted, mind you) to a good surface - the back panel of that cabinet is 1/8" Luan (basically, thin plywood - it's used in cabinet-making; typically used as a back panel, or a drawer bottom), and there are about 10 screws attaching it to the back of the cabinet (mind you, it's about an 18x18 opening.)

Again, can barely hear them with everything else off; if only the PC is on.... well, the PC (which, itself, is not loud) is louder.

Like others said here, the panel material helps a lot. Wood, by its nature, dampens vibrations. Luon is fairly cheap, easy to work with, and readily available (hell, you can get it at HD!)

But overkill is fun when modding, lol.

LOL

I will probably look into doing a more sturdy back panel when I do some more work to the center to mod the top to be like a hood to more easily get to the cables and stuff on the back, but with these fans in the 1/8" back veneer I get the same results. Can barely hear it when it is off, so those Scythe 120mm fans really are nice. Also I had them so far apart I would have had to make 2 solid mounts and really didn't want to have something sticking out of the back of the entertainment center. I'd post pics if I could, but I mounted them with a couple of perforated steel grilles that look kind of like speaker grills so it looked all flush and professional on the back, and I didn't want to take any more space out of the cabeinet behind him AV equipment. The center was already kind of tight for my reciever.

Thanks for bringing this topic up. I've been running a noisy house fan in front of the center to blow cool air over everything and have gotten sick of it. I'm going to give this a try.

Suggest you try rubber grommet and washer.The vinyl is a very difficult plastics and has no for low-key of a little bit more orotund also work.In fact, it probably has already extended it to order .
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