Which is the more thermodynamic way to stack components?

[vaguetone]

From a thermal management perspective, what's more effective for stacking these components: putting an aluminum shelf between them (pictured below, with about 1/2" between each component and the aluminum shelf) or without a shelf and placing 1" spacers between the two components? I'm specifically asking about heat dissipation efficiency, given that both units give out a lot of heat.

Data points: the temperature of the gap between the Mjolnir and the shelf is 94°F and the temperature of the gap between the Gungnir and the shelf is 92°F. The ambient room temp is 70°F

Update: what got me thinking about this was someone telling me that a 1” gap (no divider) will provide more air flow than my current setup and thus outweighs the benefit of the solid divider.

 

[RayDunzl]

Most thermodynamic?

Back in my telecom days, the gear racks had dividers between modules.

The dividers were slanted, and touched the top of the lower card cage in the front, and the bottom of the upper card cage in the back, to create airflow up through each cage, entering from the front and exiting to the rear. Cool air in the front, hot air out the back, using natural convection, without the lower units contributing to the heat of the upper units..


Sloppy side view:

 

[DMill]

I’m shocked that a DAC would put out much heat if any (Schitt Gugnir). It seems to me the way you have it should be fine. Most solid state amps will give off a bit of heat, but from the photo it looks well ventilated. I suppose you could add fans and/or other rack solutions but that seems completely unnecessary to me in this situation.

 

[Doodski]

Separating the components with a sheet of metal will prevent heat from going directly from the top of the lower unit to the upper unit's bottom. I have experienced where no sheet of metal caused overheating of the upper component but this was a extreme situation and your components have adequate airflow from the look of things.

 

[vaguetone]

I’m shocked that a DAC would put out much heat if any (Schitt Gugnir). It seems to me the way you have it should be fine. Most solid state amps will give off a bit of heat, but from the photo it looks well ventilated. I suppose you could add fans and/or other rack solutions but that seems completely unnecessary to me in this situation.

The Gungnir is surprisingly warm. the space between the Gungnir and the shelf is 92°F measured just now.

 

[Doodski]

The Gungnir is surprisingly warm. the space between the Gungnir and the shelf is 92°F measured just now.

That is ~33C which is a low temperature for electronics. If you can get a temp reading from the internals that would matter but the 33C is not critical.

 

[vaguetone]

Most thermodynamic?

Back in my telecom days, the gear racks had dividers between modules.

The dividers were slanted, and touched the top of the lower card cage in the front, and the bottom of the upper card cage in the back, to create airflow up through each cage, entering from the front and exiting to the rear. Cool air in the front, hot air out the back, using natural convection, without the lower units contributing to the heat of the upper units..


Sloppy side view:

View attachment 430627

Is active cooling part of the set up?

 

[vaguetone]

That is ~33C which is a low temperature for electronics. If you can get a temp reading from the internals that would matter but the 33C is not critical.

Interestingly Schiit now sells a plug-in module called the Forkbeard that can, among other things, tell you the component’s internal temp. Unfortunately I do t have that module.

 

[RayDunzl]

The Gungnir is surprisingly warm. the space between the Gungnir and the shelf is 92°F measured just now.

Wow!

That's almost body temperature!

 

[vaguetone]

Separating the components with a sheet of metal will prevent heat from going directly from the top of the lower unit to the upper unit's bottom. I have experienced where no sheet of metal caused overheating of the upper component but this was a extreme situation and your components have adequate airflow from the look of things.

I should’ve mentioned this in the original post: what got me thinking about this was someone telling me that a 1” gap (no divider) will provide more air flow than my current setup and thus outweighs the benefit of the solid divider.

 

[Doodski]

I should’ve mentioned this in the original post: what got me thinking about this was someone telling me that a 1” gap (no divider) will provide more air flow than my current setup and thus outweighs the benefit of the solid divider.

Under the circumstances and measured temp there is little to no cause for worry.

 

[RayDunzl]

Is active cooling part of the set up?

There were no modules that I remember that had fans in them.

Some racks, in the early digital days, had exhaust fans at the top. Maybe the processor and main memory bays. Don't remember if the subscriber line or trunk racks had fans or not. A big machine (up to 100,000 phones serviced) could cover a basketball court in size.

And of course the Switchrooms had plenty of Air Conditioning, because there was a lot of heat generated there.

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

Sloppy side view:

View attachment 430627

What a simple thing, that angle. I love simple.

Airflow is the concern. Given that the DAC has no top vents, I don't think there is any concern of much heat flowing into the amp. But the plate looks cool, and it won't hurt.

Personally I would go for doing something to lift the amp higher, for better flow underneath. But before doing that I would get the IR thermometer from the kitchen and see what the case temps were, and likely get internal readings through vents. And I would check to see if I have steady operating temps at high levels, because a slow rise would be a sign that I might want to do something about it.

That is ~33C which is a low temperature for electronics. If you can get a temp reading from the internals that would matter but the 33C is not critical.

IIRC, and I might not, ~150F seems to be a common spec for consumer electronic components.

 

[Doodski]

What a simple thing, that angle. I love simple.

Airflow is the concern. Given that the DAC has no top vents, I don't think there is any concern of much heat flowing into the amp. But the plate looks cool, and it won't hurt.

Personally I would go for doing something to lift the amp higher, for better flow underneath. But before doing that I would get the IR thermometer from the kitchen and see what the case temps were, and likely get internal readings through vents. And I would check to see if I have steady operating temps at high levels, because a slow rise would be a sign that I might want to do something about it.



IIRC, and I might not, ~150F seems to be a common spec for consumer electronic components.

85C, 105C, 130C are specs common to electronics and capacitors. Nothing is rated in F.

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

85C, 105C, 130C are specs common to electronics and capacitors. Nothing is rated in F.

In my mind they are.

 

[Devnull]

There were no modules that I remember that had fans in them.

Some racks, in the early digital days, had exhaust fans at the top. Maybe the processor and main memory bays. Don't remember if the subscriber line or trunk racks had fans or not. A big machine (up to 100,000 phones serviced) could cover a basketball court in size.

And of course the Switchrooms had plenty of Air Conditioning, because there was a lot of heat generated there.

That's the exact opposite of everything I remember with the 5ESS. Every cabinet had a fan tray with filters in the bottom of it and pushed the air up through it out the top. A fan tray had 3 fans in it and a controller. The controller was analog and had a microphone that listened to the fan tray. The mic would listen for the beat frequency and vary the fan speeds to reduce it. A few hundred fans, much less the thousands of fans in a large CO, all beating at the same time is an absolutely miserable noise

The 1A ESS and 3B20 were passively cooled IIRC. Also, there were some frames that didn't have fan trays if they had shelves in them for the MCC, VCDX or a 9 track tape drive.