Were of different minds here. I did exactly that and went w/ matched widths on my stack and whilst it looked fine it also looked fucking huge, it looked like i had tried to make everything the same width, it looked like it was taking up more room than it needed to. Also, stacking gear on top of each other as opposed to splitting them across a nice heavy shelf unit / AV rack is a great way to pass vibration through which may or may not be a thing you care about.
Well I would love to not have to stack stuff in the shelves.
Sadly the wife has bad taste in furniture lol.
She chose probably the most unsuitable for AV TV stand I have ever seen lol.
To start the center shelveing inside, was 17.75 inches wide. Even when their is 18.5" between the side doors when closed. So it didn't even look good, I was like why in the hell did they do this lol.
I extended the center
. And made new shelves. I was off by measuring a tad bit on the first hole so just rolled with it. So now the side supports are 19, and the doors go over it 1/4 inch in in it side, which I can live with, better the doors in that way the OG. And it will fit my 18.5 inch center channel.
Then the thing is on feet so sitting 6 inches off the floor, giving me only 18 inches in vertical space and making cable management a huge pain lol.
This thing was definitely designed for the flat screen and sound bar only people, not a True AV junkie
.
So now, there is 2 wood/glass doors on either side. Which I have lessened their width, so they are about 11.25" wide now each.
I modded the thing more ofc. There is a 3x120 fan grill running down the center of the center shelves for exhausting hot air. The new shelves are exented out with a 1x2, on the backs about 3 inches on either side. So that the fan area has a gap to pull air from the entire center and exhaust it.
The shelves in the side doored areas, are in the center. So I put a grill in the center of each of those, so 4 holes, 4 120mm fans. I shortened the shelves there, to allow a inch between the shelf and the door for air to flow. The backing is black painted 1/4 inch plywood not that cardboard crap lol
btw.
My plan was Xbox One, in one cubby, PS4 in the other with the bottom shelf fans being intakes, and the top ones being exhaust. The consoles on the top of the shelves and games/controllers accessories ECT in the bottom one.
If I move the consoles to one cubby that complicates my design. I could do that I guess.
I could stack both consoles on top of each other. However the fans become an issue then. I was thinking about doing that but not sure on if it would hurt anything.
The way I planned the fans was AC Inifity USB fans, the 2 set. Each powered by it's Cubby's console, that way the console is on the fans are on.
To move them to 1, I would either have to have both fans exhausting and each console on it's own shelf, or have them stacked, and splice the USB to 2 USBs.
My fear with the later is back feeding USB power if the fans are connected to both the Xbox and the PS4, the power would backfeed wouldn't it? And likely fry the port or fry the device.
My concern with the former, is would they get enough cold air from the door areas. There is about a 1/4 inch gap between the door and top/bottom/hinge side, however is that enough? It would also be a dusty mess all the time, doing that instead of filtered intake fans at the rear.
The advantage to either is freeing up that center area. As we have a Harmony hub that could be moved there along with 1 controller for each console, I could also build a tray above the Harmony hub to hold our HTPC keyboard. I could also use the Bottom of the PC cabinet, for the extra 2 Channel Amp, and the Swicth that are currently bolted to the back of the TV stand lol, and the Mini DSP I plan to get some day.
However then I would need to run the fans in that cubby off the AVR, which is fine as if the HTPC is on so is the AVR. (Not the case for the consoles as my wife and duaghter wacth stuff with them without the AVR)
I would however then need to find a case that would support the cabinets dimensions. Which in my looking also proves difficult
.
Though I could likely find one easier, any suggestions to the above problems and a cube case that is less than 11"W 9" H 14" D?
I didn't plan on stacking, per se. As much as receiver/AC Infitiy Stack, Shelf, HTPC, Shelf, Center Channel.
If I did stack them like, AVR/ACI, PC, Shelf, Center channel. That would buy me a tad bit of room.
So that would give me 11 5/8" total.
The receiver+AC infInfi is about 7 5/8" giving me 4 inches.
@Cyber Locc why does it have to have a 5.25 drive bay? have you ever thought of doing an external solution?
I have, I have no where to out an External solution is the problem. I am very space limited for a clean and tidy setup. Running USB cords from the HTPC up 10 inches to the top of the TV stand and setting it their isn't going to fly lol.
I am considering dropping the BR drive altogher though, as the requirements to play UHD is pretty absurd. I can play rented discs with the XBO-S, and plan on Ripping my discs anyway.
Suggestions if I drop the Blu-ray? I did see a chassis I really liked but it was thin Mini ITX only
.
