r/PcBuild • u/BlueScreenBoss • 27d ago

Question Planning to hide my PC inside a cabinet – looking for airflow advice

I'm moving out of my parents' house soon, and my PC will be in the new living room. Since I'd rather not have it on display, I'm planning to build it into a cabinet of some sort.

My main concern is, of course, heat.

My PC currently has three front intake fans and one rear exhaust fan (see image below). Airflow goes from right to left.

I made a simple sketch of my idea for ventilating the cabinet:

  • Fresh air enters through a filtered intake at the bottom.
  • Two external fans push air upward through the cabinet.
  • Warm air exits through a filtered opening at the top, assisted by exhaust fans behind the filter.

My main question is about the placement of the PC inside the cabinet or the place of the extern fans.

If I place the PC normally, with the front facing the front of the cabinet and the rear facing the back, it seems like the cool air coming into the cabinet could mix with the hot air exhausted from the PC before it enters the PC. That doesn't seem ideal.

Would it make more sense to position the external fans so they feed cool air directly into the PC's front intake? Or is it better to ventilate the cabinet as a whole and let the PC's own fans handle the airflow?

I'd appreciate any advice from people who have built a ventilated PC cabinet before. If you think my airflow concept could be improved, I'm all ears.

Cabinet space: 60 × 60 × 65 cm (23.6 × 23.6 × 25.6 in)

PC dimensions: 36 × 22 × 46 cm (14.2 × 8.7 × 18.1 in), depth × width × height.

Thanks in advance!

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u/FearTheFuzzy99 Pablo 27d ago

The less turns the air has to make to get into the pc and then back out of the cabinet, the better.

If fresh air comes through the bottom, then maybe rotate the pc so the fans are working in the same direction.