Looking for suggestions

[brnoGuy]

Hello Everyone,

 

my first post here, also from Europe so please excuse my broken English.

 

I have a cabinet above my computer desk, into which I plan to shove my new upcoming miniATX gaming build. This cobinet will be closed and it's already full of hot equipment such as router and nas (router really produces some heat ) The cabinet already has holes in it for air-flow to the ceiling , yes there is a huge cool area between the ceiling and the cabinet, so I suppose i can use that to cool anything. But I am not yet sure about this.

 

So I think it would be nice to install large quiete fans into each hole that would pull ( or push, not sure here either ) cool air to / from the cabinet to give the upcoming PC some fresh air.

 

My QUESTION is:

 

How do I connect it to some sort of fan control ? How do I monitor the temperature inside the cabinet and run the fans accordingly ? Should I monitor the temperature inside the PC and then turn the external fans on/off  instead ? How can I accomplish this task ? What kind of hardware do I need to buy , some names of products that come to your mind ? I probably dont want to run external wires from my PC to the fans, do I ? I am lost, I never built any computers in my life, please all suggestions are very much welcome.

 

Thank you everyone !

[LogicalDrm]

I think these two video from LTT help to get some grip on the matter:

What you want, is as much fesh air for PC as possible. Using large 200mm+´fans isn't good option to that. I would get more high CFM 120/140mm fans and make 2x2 or 2x3 blocks of them. You can get AC to molex connectors to power fans without using PSU. You can also get fan controllers which are meant for case. They are powered by molex, so you can use same AC to molex what you would use to power fans. Those controllers can be set to certain RPM or controlled manually. AFAIK there are really few which can be set to react temp changes.

Ofc you would be monitoring PC internal temps also. Thats easiest to do with mobo and software. Just setup fan config that its getting most of cool air.

Oh, and you'd better set some exhausting fans to that cabinet also.

[brnoGuy]

I think these two video from LTT help to get some grip on the matter:

What you want, is as much fesh air for PC as possible. Using large 200mm+´fans isn't good option to that. I would get more high CFM 120/140mm fans and make 2x2 or 2x3 blocks of them. You can get AC to molex connectors to power fans without using PSU. You can also get fan controllers which are meant for case. They are powered by molex, so you can use same AC to molex what you would use to power fans. Those controllers can be set to certain RPM or controlled manually. AFAIK there are really few which can be set to react temp changes.

Ofc you would be monitoring PC internal temps also. Thats easiest to do with mobo and software. Just setup fan config that its getting most of cool air.

Oh, and you'd better set some exhausting fans to that cabinet also.

 

Thank you so very much, very informative and useful ! I would still like to get the fans controlled by the PC somehow , depending on the current CPU temperature, but not in such ghetto way as Linus is showing in these videos. Any ideas regarding this ?

 

But overall, a very good answer to my question. Thank you !

[LogicalDrm]

Thank you so very much, very informative and useful ! I would still like to get the fans controlled by the PC somehow , depending on the current CPU temperature, but not in such ghetto way as Linus is showing in these videos. Any ideas regarding this ?

 

But overall, a very good answer to my question. Thank you !

Only way to get fan controlled according to CPU temps is to use hub that is getting temp info straight from mobo. And if you want it to be controlled with software instead of mobo, you have two choices (AFAIK), Corsair Commander Mini and NZXT Grid+.

[brnoGuy]

Absolute perfection, both of these products look very promising. Thank you !