Topic: RME Interfaces - Heat Tolerances when using rackmount

All

I have a rock solid Multiface II that has been going strong here for many a year - with seemingly no plans on letting up.

However - this past week after some rearrangement of gear in the main rackmounts - I thought I had a tidy new final placement until yesterday when I was working on some gain staging and other measurements - I noticed that the RME was very, very, very warm - as in hot.

While I have owned this unit since 2009 - I must admit - I have not spent any time poking, prodding or man-handling the metal case of the Multiface to see if it was hot, cool or otherwise - but I was very surprised by the heat.

I will be making some changes here in about an hour or two to get some rack space between the RME and the rest of the gear in the vicinity - but what have others done?

I assume that this I/O box has/is running normally up to now but I suspect I had the right amount of cooling space in previous rack layouts - specifically "above" the RME.

Managed to find a few older threads here and on other forums where the general consensus is that this heat is normal - but it does not seem that normal to me.

Would love to hear what others have done to keep these things cool.

Cheers

VP

Re: RME Interfaces - Heat Tolerances when using rackmount

Follow the manual on page 68 and everything should be fine:

• Temperature range: +5° up to +50° Celsius (41° F up to 122°F)

I think a little more is not critical.

I have a very slowly rotating fan in my rack, which is actually inaudible but cools very effectively. A very slight flow of air is sufficient.

Without the fan, my devices got significantly too hot.

(If it hurts the skin, it has reached over 70 ° C. …Approximately...)

Fireface UFX | Fireface800 | Babyface | Octamic II | ADI-2 | ADI-648 | Audient asp 008

Re: RME Interfaces - Heat Tolerances when using rackmount

You know what is bizarre - like I mentioned - I have had this Multiface for 11+ years now and never ever noticed how hot the case was at any point in time. Never gave it a thought.

Now - I rearranged the rack and have 1U of space on either side of the unit - still seems pleasantly warm but not untouchable.

VP

Re: RME Interfaces - Heat Tolerances when using rackmount

A recording studio design consultant in Hollywood once pointed out an interesting point to me, in regard to racked outboard audio equipment.

He explained to me: “people think that heat rises, but heat doesn’t rise, hot air rises, but that's different. Usually with electrical devices heat is localised, therefore its best, as with heat sinks  or fans etc. to have a localised solution. Especially with racked devices, particularly with tube equipment.”

I felt at the time and still do, that was a perspicuously important insight.

Now it is a well understood phenomenon with electrical devices generally, that both excessive heat and switching devices on and off, constantly heating and cooling internal materials, are common causes of component failure. 

This is indeed common to all devices, regardless of brand, model or cost.

Therefore, all my RME and ancillary units are given one full unit space beneath and above, in addition to the sides where the units have air cooling slits, to ensure adequate dissipation of heat in a globally efficient manner.

They are deliberately not enclosed, as in a walled in rack, but used in a large but entirely open rack, with copious amounts of free air, all around. I have not found it necessary to introduce additional fans or provide other cooling methods whatever, finding the current solution as described, entirely satisfactory. 

Heat simply doesn’t appear to be a problem at all, such that I don’t think about at all these days.

However, when I first contemplated purchasing the three RME units in the rack.

I devised this plan to avoid any undesirable heat issues.

Thank The Lord. It worked!