How can I use computer fans to ventilate my HT equipment?

Question

I am building a smallish end table/audio rack for my home theater equipment. Because I want it to look more like an end table I'm enclosing 3 of the sides and only leaving the front open. Some of my equipment generates quite a bit of heat so i'm planning to use some computer case fans to add some ventilation to the back becasue they are quiet, small, and reletivly cheap. What i would really like is to have them wired in some way that they only turn on when the equipment is being used; is there any way to accomplish this? I'm fairly handy and wouldn't have any problem wireing or soldering anything if there isn't a cheap product already out there.

Answer 1

computer fans work from 12v dc - read the specs off the fan - it shoudl say 12vdc and give an amperage rating.
once you have all your fans add up the amperage rating.
Use this amperage rating for the 12vdc power supply you will need.
if not sure take one of the fams with you to the store, this will allow them to decide the total amperage you will need to run the fans.
I have done the same by getting a small 12vdc ac adapter (radio shack or electronic supply store) the ac adapter plugged into the back of my reciever , since the plugs were controlled by the receiver power switch.

Works great, the fans are pretty quiet

Answer 2

See what fan that's I in simple terms as much as date my video card driving force which made the fan interior the video card spin quicker and now the noise has doubled however the fan has long previous from sixteen% to 40 5% now and must be airborne dirt and dust even though it dont think of so mine has 8 followers and would not get any further noise . must be your CPU fan perhaps the you elect greater helpful thermal paste ,simply by fact the generic paste with the recent CPU fan i bought made the CPU get warmer after some million month there fore the fan spins quicker to attempt and funky it .attempt new thermal paste or maybe get a greater helpful CPU cooler like a Zalman I particularly have one and its quiet as my inventory one became particularly noisy ,the Zalman followers are bigger so as that they push greater air and don't ought to spin so rapid. Over all in simple terms attempt to locate which fan the noise is coming from

Answer 3

Some surround sound receivers have swtiched outlets, you could hook up your fans to one of those. Another possibility is a multiple outlet box that can sense when equiptment is turned on and will switch the other outlets on. I have only read about those and don't know where you would get those ( although I believe I read about them on a computer site)