Media Cabinet Cooling

Exos

VIP Member
VIP Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2010
Messages
5,280
Reaction score
3,137
Location
Rat's Bedroom
Evening ladies, gentlefolk and the community in general. Need a bit of help please as its driving me nuts.

I want to cool a cabinet I've bought which hosts some storage, server kit, bridges, hubs etc. To say it out loud, I'm a cheap ass, but don't want it to look cheap :p

I want 120mm fans with a reasonable CFM (this isn't the issue), but I need to mount two of them to the side of the cabinet and what I'm struggling with is mounting plates to match my cabinet (white and grey)

I can buy the AC Infinity set, 2 x 6' with the temp control for probably about £150+, in the UK but its black and I'd have to piece things together and not really needing the temp control as such. The white version is only really available in the US, so I also run into import fees. Shipping is also a killer as it's about $60 economy.

I can buy black faceplates from Amazon UK for £22 each delivered, yet the white ones are £47 each which is bloody stupid, especially when I want two (cool air in, hot air out).

This is basically what I want: AC Infinity White Ventilation Grille 6" (16 cm), for PC Computer AV Electronic Cabinets, mounts one 120mm fan, replacement grille for AIRPLATE S3/T3: Amazon.co.uk: Hi-Fi & Speakers

All I really want is a white 120mm plastic vented faceplate that I can mount the fan on the inside of the cabinet; I've even looked at 3d printed, and. have an .stl template, but they want a minimum order of £40+ VAT, which for two plastic faceplates is also just stupid.

Suggestions welcome.

N.B preferably, it's easy for me to cut a square cutout than round as I don't have a big enough holesaw.
 
Why can't you buy the black ones, and spray them white?
 
Why can't you buy the black ones, and spray them white?

I did think of that, but it's machined aluminium, so I wasn't sure if they would look ok.

@cactikid Those are not really suitable I'm afraid, I need to be able to mount the fan to the faceplate, cut out the hole (square) for the fan and slide it through the hole (oo er missus) and then secure the faceplate to the cabinet. Thanks for the suggestion though :)
 
Evening ladies, gentlefolk and the community in general. Need a bit of help please as its driving me nuts.

I want to cool a cabinet I've bought which hosts some storage, server kit, bridges, hubs etc. To say it out loud, I'm a cheap ass, but don't want it to look cheap :p

I want 120mm fans with a reasonable CFM (this isn't the issue), but I need to mount two of them to the side of the cabinet and what I'm struggling with is mounting plates to match my cabinet (white and grey)

I can buy the AC Infinity set, 2 x 6' with the temp control for probably about £150+, in the UK but its black and I'd have to piece things together and not really needing the temp control as such. The white version is only really available in the US, so I also run into import fees. Shipping is also a killer as it's about $60 economy.

I can buy black faceplates from Amazon UK for £22 each delivered, yet the white ones are £47 each which is bloody stupid, especially when I want two (cool air in, hot air out).

This is basically what I want: AC Infinity White Ventilation Grille 6" (16 cm), for PC Computer AV Electronic Cabinets, mounts one 120mm fan, replacement grille for AIRPLATE S3/T3: Amazon.co.uk: Hi-Fi & Speakers

All I really want is a white 120mm plastic vented faceplate that I can mount the fan on the inside of the cabinet; I've even looked at 3d printed, and. have an .stl template, but they want a minimum order of £40+ VAT, which for two plastic faceplates is also just stupid.

Suggestions welcome.

N.B preferably, it's easy for me to cut a square cutout than round as I don't have a big enough holesaw.

This are metal so you should be able drill and mount your fan securely.

White Metal Air Vent Grille with Fly Screen Metal Ducting Ventilation Cover | eBay
 
So i ended up spending the money on the white ones; looks rather good if i do say so myself.

Bought two ML120 Corsair Fans that push about 75CFM each, the grill inside allows 94CFM to rise up, top one pulls hot air out, bottom one pulls air into the cabinet.

Fans probably cost me about £40, and I managed to get the grills for ~£40 delivered from the US. I also found an old Corsair Link i had out of a PC so I've connected that up to the header on the server until an external interface adapter arrives (~£6) ; all i need now is to get it to be recognised in the server O/S and i should be able to get the temps regulated.

All in, probably half the cost of getting the full AC Infinity Unit, and i would have still had to get a UK AC Adapter and it only pushed about 52CFM for each fan. And they were not LED Fans, and hey, who doesn't like LEDs!

20200627_180506.jpg. 20200627_180559.jpg. 20200627_180528.jpg
 
Last edited:
Woohoo, and I managed to get the temps monitored so i don't have 2500 RPM fans running solidly.

Uploaded a picture to the Corsair Link software I'm using (really old version), but it does the job just right :)

Screenshot at Jun 28 13-42-34.png
 
Back
Top