"Closed" cooling cabinate or open rack?

[FNG212]

The thread about cabinet fans got me thinking if its better (in terms of cooling/noise) to run a closed cabinet with fans or an open-air rack? The rack will obviously be louder but will it keep things cooler? I'm leaning towards the cabinet but curious what other people are thinking.

Thanks.

[Djizasse]

If I could I would put the receiver on a rack and the players (the noisy ones) on a cabinet.
Using a large fan on top of the receiver will cool it and you won't hear it. That's what I've done in my office. I use a 22cm(or 25) fan on top of a Yamaha RX-V861.

[j_garcia]

IMHO, I don't think a cabinet with drawn air will keep anything cooler unless you have the ability to do a flow study and testing to get proper flow through the entire cabinet. A couple of small fans aren't going to be sufficient to adequately vent a large rack. Heat rises, so it will naturally vent itself; just having enough open space and enough room for the air to move on its own could be enough if it isn't a lot of gear or a lot of gear that generates a lot of heat.

An open rack doesn't really need to take flow into consideration because the heat is directly transferred out in whatever direction it likes.

[fredk]

+1 on an open rack with a fan blowing into the receiver. That gets you active cooling of your hottest component with maximum ventilation.

[Djizasse]

On the other hand, if you're using an open rack, there's no need for ventilation.