Shawn, I wouldn't spend my money on those racks. You can easily do it yourself. Those prices are ridiculous for fans. I think they are simply targeting a niche of home theater enthusiasts and they can jack up the prices because they are custom for home theater. I was really surprised at how hiiiigh those prices were.

All you need to do is buy a few Silent Computer Fans 120mm Cooler Master Fan - $13 - 11.27 CFM - 13 dBA

Vantec Stealth Fan - $18 - 53 CFM - 28 dBA


If you want to make it a nice system, cut some holes in your entertainment system to put these fans in. I don't know if you have any gaps, for airflow or not, but be sure you have a way for air to get in if your fans are blowing out.

I would say you need about 30 CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air moving through your "areas" for the best heat dissapation. If you aren't paranoid about 28 dBA (also consider these fans are going to probably be inside your entertainment center thus cutting down on noise) I'd get the vantec ones. One on each side would easily ventalate your system silently. Research some computer supply stores and look for good fans. Another good place to check is www.svc.com

Alright, so how do you power these things? The amp draw from these fans are about .05 mA (miliamps) when they are running, .2 mA when they are starting up. They run off of 12 Volts. Sometimes the amperage ratings for each fan is listed on the website.

Go buy an AC adapter. This one has 1000mA of capacity, way more than you will ever need.

All you need to do now is get some small guage black/red speaker wire (24 guage or something) and start wiring up your fans. Once they are all wired up, cut off the plug to the AC adapter and split the wires. Test connecting one wire to the red and one to the black to see wich one is positive/negative. You will be able to tell which way the fans are supposed to be blowing by the arrow that is imprinted on the side of them.

Now, plug it in and you have a constant airflow system for under $50 with plenty of airflow and a custom installation to cool what needs to be cooled the most. It doesn't need a temperature probe because you can just leave it on all the time.

If you really wanted the power to turn on/off fans you can get a computer fan controller and hook it up that way. There are a plethora of controllers, some even have temperature monitors but mind you they are designed for computers. Here is a link of a large selection. http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g36/c17/list/p1/Fans-Fan_Controllers.html

Hope that helps in some way. If you have any questions, just post them here. I winced at the prices because something like this is very easy to make if you put your head to it.


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