How can I run a fan in my cabinet?

Phoner · Post by **Phoner** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:15 am

Hi everyone,

I have my xbox 360 and cable box in an entertainment center cabinet. I have to leave the door open though since they both get really hot. But the xbox 360 is pretty noisy.

There are cable holes cut in the back of the cabinet, and I'd like to fit a 120mm fan into the cabinet to ventilate.

Any ideas how I can power the fans? I was looking at these AC to DC adapters from Radio Shack:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2049691
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2049690

Any idea if these would work? How many amps do I need? How would I actually connect them to my fans?

Thanks for any help!

GHz · Post by **GHz** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:37 am

The simplest thing would be to get an AC fan.

cpemma · Post by **cpemma** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:19 pm

The RS adaptors will work fine. Adjustable also means you can run the fans under-volted for less noise.

For the extra $1 I'd go for the 800mA, it will run two or three low-noise fans, but check with the fan label to see the minimum rating you can use.

But I'm sure you'll find much cheaper than Radio Shack if you look around.

Mains AC fans tend to be noisier.

Phoner · Post by **Phoner** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:09 am

Thanks guys.

Any idea how to connect my fans to the AC/DC adapter, though? Do I have to splice the wires? Or is there some type of adapter plug?

If so, is there some way I could connect more than one fan to the AC/DC adapter?

cpemma · Post by **cpemma** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 7:10 am

If you want to keep the adaptor as-is, get hold of a line socket to suit one of the plugs and wire the socket to your fans. Otherwise, snip the wire and fit a plastic screw-terminal block.

You can fit fans in parallel (all reds to positive, all blacks to negative) up to the capacity of the adaptor.

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 11:05 am

I used an adapter intended for powering an external hard disk to run a fan. That had a standard 4 pin molex plug and I used a low noise fan (120mm Nexus @ 1000RPM), so no modifications or other adapters were needed. I imagine you should be able to pick up the power adapter without also having to also buy the IDE to USB adapter they tend to be bundled with.

Phoner · Post by **Phoner** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:50 am

Steve_Y wrote:I used an adapter intended for powering an external hard disk to run a fan. That had a standard 4 pin molex plug and I used a low noise fan (120mm Nexus @ 1000RPM), so no modifications or other adapters were needed. I imagine you should be able to pick up the power adapter without also having to also buy the IDE to USB adapter they tend to be bundled with.

Steve, that sounds like the perfect solution, but I have not been able to find anything like that. Does you have a part number or model number for that external hard drive power adapter? Thanks!

Infidel · Post by **Infidel** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 4:34 pm

GHz wrote:The simplest thing would be to get an AC fan.

Is there such thing as a quiet AC fan? googling quiet fan just points back here. I'll stop in lowes tomarrow, but I don't really have high hopes.