My budget rack fan set up.

xbrandonx · #1 12-04-2009, 04:39 PM

So my plan was to make this as cheap as possible.

I got the idea when my power`supply went out on my computer and my buddy gave me his old one, I took the fan out of it and threw away the bad power supply.

I ended up with 3 fans total so far, one out of my power supply and 2 from my friend that gave me the current power supply in my computer.

He also gave me this the following week:

Small fan controller for 4 fans, I plan to run them 100% at all times, however it makes for nice easy connections if nothing else.

Small piece of metal, scrap from work that was going to be thrown away. I've got everything laid out to be cut, as you can see I have room for one more fan, but currently I do not have a spare fan to use.

I broke out the dremel to cut it, I went through 2 cut off wheels.

Test fit install:

I found 6 nuts and bolts in my nuts/bolts/washers bucket, and even was able to come up with 6 nylon threaded bolts so they wont back out on me if the vibrations from the fans start to bother it.

Wiring is a bit of a mess right now, I'm not really sure if it's going to help out or not. If it does I'll clean it up some.

I used a power adapter I had laying around, I also had the connector it went to which just had some exposed wires so I used a couple of connectors and spliced the wires from the fan controller to to power adapter.

So as you can tell from reading I Never did use the word "bought"...

3 fans: $0
Power Adapter $0
Fan Controller $0
Metal board: $0
-----------------
Total: not a damn dime

All this cost me was a few minutes of time, some nuts and bolts that I've had for who knows how long, 2 wire connectors and 2 cut off disks for my dremel. So I didn't spend anything building this, although technically I'll have to replace the cut off disks, wire connectors, and I may have to get some new bolts if I do something that requires the same size I used since they're now in use.

I've got a thermometer in my garage that has a probe that I keep outside that I'm going to put in here to get some installed/uninstalled temps to see if this helps any. You can also see I have the 4th spot measured up to cut out for the smallest fan, if this does lower temps some I'm going to go ahead and cut out that area as well to allow air to pass through, and if I get a larger fan I'll just in large the hole. I considered buying a 4th fan but opted not to because it would have blown the budget way out (anyone want to donate

) Also if I get larger fans I'll upgrade the smaller ones to larger fans, and who knows, it looks like I could probably fit 5 in there total.

I'll also hit it with some spray paint, although the only color I currently have is white which isn't the color I want to paint it so I'm going to wait until I need some black for something else so I don't spend the money on this keeping the cost at zero.

I'm also going to use some velcro to attach the fan controller to inside of the rack case to keep it still.

DOWNSIDES:

hard to reach the power cords on my power conditioner as well as it's difficult to reach the 1/4" inputs on my tuner if I wanted to change anything.

I don't think the whole set up added 2 lbs to the unit.

Also I didn't do much measuring so it's a bit taller then a standard 2 space rack unit so if I wanted to install items on
the rear this would have to be modified.

It's also a little noisy, which noisy equipment fans never bothered me, if you can hear them over the band then somethings wrong anyways.

Nyarlathotep · #2 12-05-2009, 08:17 AM

Damn cool idea

xbrandonx · #3 12-05-2009, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyarlathotep

Damn cool idea

Thanks, there was a time when I considered buying one of the units pre-made but I was having a hard time spending around $100 for some cooling when I wasn't having overheating problems to begin with.

rodgersk24 · #4 12-05-2009, 05:06 PM

I was thinking of doing this same thing! It turned out really well, nice job!

Question, though: I'm sure you'll have a better answer after you use it for a while, but do you have issues with the power connection you're using? Do you need a voltage converter at all?

Best wishes!

wizay · #5 12-05-2009, 05:08 PM

Nice job. Plus, you can get computer fans with color LEDs in them.

xbrandonx · #6 12-10-2009, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodgersk24

I was thinking of doing this same thing! It turned out really well, nice job!

Question, though: I'm sure you'll have a better answer after you use it for a while, but do you have issues with the power connection you're using? Do you need a voltage converter at all?

Best wishes!

I haven't used it much at all and I haven't had any problems yet. Hopefully everything works out fine, and if not, I'm not out any money on the set up.

rodgersk24 · #7 12-10-2009, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xbrandonx

I haven't used it much at all and I haven't had any problems yet. Hopefully everything works out fine, and if not, I'm not out any money on the set up.

Good point... I do have some fans laying around the house, so I guess if I tried this I wouldn't be out much, either. Thanks!

xbrandonx · #8 12-29-2009, 12:33 AM

I still don't have ALOT of hours logged on this, but still so far no problem.

Only downside so far is playing at home by myself at low volumes the noise does kinda get a little on the low side. Sadly it's a bit of a pain to reach the plug to unplug it as well.