Morning,

I want to put my PC in a cupboard to reduce the sound
impact of the fans. Before anyone suggests that I get
quiter fans, please bear in mind that this is a very small
form factor PC and I haven't got the time to go finding
exact match parts that will fit in its tiny case!

Anyway, it piles out a lot of hot air, and currently has
ventilation on both sides of the case. I'm conscious that
if I put it in a cupboard it may overheat quite quickly, so
I'm looking for options to ventilate the cupboard.

I did consider venting to the outside wall, but it's upstairs
and the wall is rendered, and I'd rather not disturb the
render unless absolutely necessary. I have a number of
other options:

(i) Vent to and from the room
I could just put in grills with quiet fans on the face of the
cupboard somewhere - one to suck air in and one to push
it out. My worries are that:
(a) it will look bad
(b) it will sound worse than before
(c) it'll just push warm air around the case

(ii) Vent into the chimney breast
The cupboard will be next to the chimney breast, so I could
potentially put an extractor to take the hot air out into the
chimney. Both fireplaces are closed off but the chimney is
ventilated by grilles on the chimney breast. The air could
just be sucked into the cupbard through gaps round the door
or I could fit a grille.

(iii) Vent into the loft
The same as above but vent into the loft space. I could
conceivably end up venting to the outside via the eaves.

(iv) Vent to/from the loft/chimney breast
It occured to me that I could suck cold air in from the loft,
and vent the hot air out to the chimney breast, or vice versa.

What do people think?

Al Reynolds