My wife and I used to have 2 separate desks. Now we have a custom desk/storage/media-cabinet built so everything looks nice and clean.. My wife has a laptop but I still use a mid-tower pc setup. Space on and under the desk is really limited (135cm) and she didn't want those wire spaghetti on the floor anymore.. so I compromised by having my setup (old i7 930, Radeon HD5770) put into a HTPC case (Silvestone Grandia GD09) and inside the cabinet part underneath the TV.
As you can see, it's fully enclosed, except for a 8 by 25cm cutout in the bottom (on both sides). The carpenters assured us it would be enough to get fresh air into the cabinet, heat wouldn't be an issue.. They were wrong.. after 15minutes of load my setup reached 90-100°, the inside of the cabinet was practically an oven.. Agreed, my setup is old and prone to getting hot, CPU thermal paste has never been replaced (about 8-9 year) but this is ridiculous. I removed the center shelf so heat doesn't stay trapped in that one compartment.
So I have been looking for an answer to get some airflow inside the cabinet. I have a 'cable gutter' (don't know the correct name in English) built inside the wall (It's a plastic pipe you use to run cables through the wall so you can have a TV wall mounted without seeing cables coming out of the cabinet). It starts inside the cabinet and has a hole of about 8x8 cm (pipe is also about 8 deep). Sites like Coolerguys.com have fans to cool cabinets, if a mount 2 8mm fans, one at the top and one at the bottom of the "chimney" could I suck out all the hot air? Maybe (if necessary) add fans where those cutouts are in the bottom to pull in fresh air, to create a positive airflow. Replacing the center shelf would force the air right into the fan, preventing it from floating to the top of the cabinet (and cutting the force needed to suck out the air by half) The top fan would be hidden from view by the TV which stands about 30-35cm from the wall..
Picture above shows my intented setup, with case fans also shown (both sides: intake, rear: exhaust)
Problem is: those fans can move 30-35 CFM but I don't know how much I need to get this to work? Can an 8x8 pipe handle the airflow? Or do I have to find another solution (my wife suggested getting a laptop to, but I don't really like working on one: screen is to small, used to mechanical keyboard and price is way to high compared to similar setup) Other solution I thought of would be getting rid of the HTPC and have a mini ITX system (Cooler Master Elite 110?) and place it behind the tv.
So yeah, if anybody knows if this could work or if they have ideas, please feel free to leave a reply/comment...
As you can see, it's fully enclosed, except for a 8 by 25cm cutout in the bottom (on both sides). The carpenters assured us it would be enough to get fresh air into the cabinet, heat wouldn't be an issue.. They were wrong.. after 15minutes of load my setup reached 90-100°, the inside of the cabinet was practically an oven.. Agreed, my setup is old and prone to getting hot, CPU thermal paste has never been replaced (about 8-9 year) but this is ridiculous. I removed the center shelf so heat doesn't stay trapped in that one compartment.
So I have been looking for an answer to get some airflow inside the cabinet. I have a 'cable gutter' (don't know the correct name in English) built inside the wall (It's a plastic pipe you use to run cables through the wall so you can have a TV wall mounted without seeing cables coming out of the cabinet). It starts inside the cabinet and has a hole of about 8x8 cm (pipe is also about 8 deep). Sites like Coolerguys.com have fans to cool cabinets, if a mount 2 8mm fans, one at the top and one at the bottom of the "chimney" could I suck out all the hot air? Maybe (if necessary) add fans where those cutouts are in the bottom to pull in fresh air, to create a positive airflow. Replacing the center shelf would force the air right into the fan, preventing it from floating to the top of the cabinet (and cutting the force needed to suck out the air by half) The top fan would be hidden from view by the TV which stands about 30-35cm from the wall..
Picture above shows my intented setup, with case fans also shown (both sides: intake, rear: exhaust)
Problem is: those fans can move 30-35 CFM but I don't know how much I need to get this to work? Can an 8x8 pipe handle the airflow? Or do I have to find another solution (my wife suggested getting a laptop to, but I don't really like working on one: screen is to small, used to mechanical keyboard and price is way to high compared to similar setup) Other solution I thought of would be getting rid of the HTPC and have a mini ITX system (Cooler Master Elite 110?) and place it behind the tv.
So yeah, if anybody knows if this could work or if they have ideas, please feel free to leave a reply/comment...