Homemade USB cabinet cooling project

So a couple years ago I bought a sweet computer desk. I love it. It came with a cabinet on the lower right for housing the computer case, but I never used it due to heat/airflow concerns. I proudly display my gunmetal Antec P180 Mini on the right side of my desk's work surface.

I recently picked up a pair of M Audio Studiophile AV-40s. They are badass, but they are ported. My desk has a hutch with a back panel, and the sound from the rear ports tends to be very boomy in the hutch, and I notice that I tend to get certain bass resonance at near-field listening depending on how I place the speakers. However, do to the case on the desk, I have little place to move the right speaker as it is sandwiched in between the case and monitor. As a result, I have both speakers positioned just on either side of my monitor and fairly close to my ears. On top of all that, these speakers seem to be directional, and the seem to sound better when you can get further away from them. They are not good, in my experience so far, for near-field listening.

So here is my solution: I'm going to relocate my Antec P180 Mini into the desk cabinet. Doing so will allow me to move the speakers further apart and further away from my ears. I will probably still see some resonance due to the confines of the hutch, but hopefully getting another foot or so of distance from my ears will help with that.

But now I have the problem of a lack of airflow for my overclocked AMD 1090T/5870. What to do? I found this website: http://www.coolerguys.com/

I looked through their products but I don't see anything that I think will offer me enough airflow, and for the price they're asking I know I can built my own that will probably offer much better airflow and no noise. I measured the width of the desk's case cabinet and I have JUST enough room for two 140mm fans side by side. I want to make this a USB-powered unit for ease of use, but USB only offers five volts. I decided to purchase four Scythe 140mm fans with the Sony bearings. They are 1600mm fans. I can solder all four fan harnesses into either a single USB plug or 2x2 fans into 2 USB plugs. I went for high-RPM fans because at 5 volts they will be turning slowly,but four 140mm fans should draw plenty of air through the cabinet.

Fans should be arriving this week. Stay tuned for pictures and results, I hope to have everything up and running by next Sunday at the latest.

Or just get this and run them at full 12V? 5V is pretty low for a fan: http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...ge=product_info&cPath=34_169&products_id=1986

+1 to knufires idea.. splice in a molex adapter and run them at max, or get a standalone fan controller and run them off of that If you get one that mounts in a case but don't want to do that you can still run an external molex to it and mount it to the interior wall of the cabinet

It would work, but it means more cabling inside my case, and I'd rather have something I can power from the back if the case. Besides, the airflow from for slow-turning 140mm Scythes will probably be adequate, and when powered @5v, they will be silent. And with my case inside the cabinet, I can up the case fan speeds with my Sunbeam Rheostat and not have to worry about the noise. I think this is going to be a very quiet and very effective cooling solution.

More cabling inside your case?

Fans are designed to run at 12V, they'll be less efficient at 5. The adapter I posted is a pass through, it's a PCI slot cover with molex on it. You just have to run one molex line to the adapter, and it passes it through to the outside of your case, where you can power all your fans. 1600RPM fans are pretty quiet as is, but just get some low speed Yate Loons, which are EXTREMELY cheap, and hook them all up.

http://www.jab-tech.com/YATE-LOON-120mm-Case-Fan-D12SL-12-pr-3009.html

Plus, some foam padding on the inside of the cabinet should make things quieter.

I understand that. I do not want any more cabling in my case. I am unwilling to run another molex to the PCI area. It is already cramped in there. I have an Arctic Cooler on my 5870, so the card takes up three slots. This would mean running another molex from the bottom PSU chamber up and over the video card. I want to keep internal case clutter to a minimum and right now I'm happy with my wiring job. That is why I opted for four large, high-RPM (for a 140mm fan...) fans. When running at 5v, they will be slow and quiet, but the four of them will be moving plenty of air. If I get this up and running and my temps are too high because I need more airflow, then I'll look into other options. I could have gone with two 120mm fans @ 1200 RPM (I have five unopened S-Flex 1200 models inmy desk), but I like the idea of having an all-in-one unit that hooks into an already-available power source at my mobo's I/O panel without having to add to internal cabling clutter to run an additional power source.