Peltier cooling

[canadian_divx]

ok i am wanting to mess around with this a little and i am willing to spend the money, but one problem, i cant find anyone in canada who sells Peltier pads. i can get the thermalright subzero thing and then that funky heatsink with it built it but i dont want any of that stuff, i just want the pad. so if anyone knows a canadian site where i can order one or 2 please let me know. also does anyone here know about them?? like how cold can they get, waht psu is needed for them, all stuff like that.

 

[Sazar]

Originally posted by canadian_divx
ok i am wanting to mess around with this a little and i am willing to spend the money, but one problem, i cant find anyone in canada who sells Peltier pads. i can get the thermalright subzero thing and then that funky heatsink with it built it but i dont want any of that stuff, i just want the pad. so if anyone knows a canadian site where i can order one or 2 please let me know. also does anyone here know about them?? like how cold can they get, waht psu is needed for them, all stuff like that.

american companies don't ship cross border ?

concerning psu... I recommend getting as big a one as possible or get a peltier kit that you can plug to an external psu (I know people who have 2 psu's... 1 for the peltier... the other for the rest of the stuff)

make sure you get a well reviewed one... some of the fanciest looking kits are usually the worst

keep us posted on your results as well... peltier may be what I go with when I build my athlon64/p4 northwood based rig... (all depends on timeframe/money)

 

[canadian_divx]

yea i they do ship but i was looking for local but anything amercian would be ok too. now for psu, i was looking at the Peltier pads and they just have the 2 wires from them, no connector (these are from germany and russia) how would i go about connecting that to the psu unless it is a psu just for Peltier

 

[canadian_divx]

ok and here are come things that i dont understand when they talk about them

DeltaT 71°C,
Potted with Epoxy,
Molex PSU Connector.

and also just thought of this, would i use ac3 between the pad and the chip die or???

 

[Krux]

also does anyone here know about them?? like how cold can they get, waht psu is needed for them, all stuff like that.

Most need a dedicated PSU otherwise they don't work properly they can get as cold as freezing ice will form on one side if there i no heat being applyed to it. They cause condinsation (water) to for on the surrounding area. (you will need foam to absob any of this) if they don't get proper cooling they can over heat and make your system run hotter then normal or even burn it up.


they work by using two materials that conduct energy different one that lets go of it really easy like alliminum (im sure thats not right but its a good example) and one that holds on to it like copper or brass. well you pass an electrical current through it and one side will start to pull heat away from the other side and if you don't have good cooling on the hot side the heat spreads back over to the cool side and then that just defeats the purpose all thogether.

and thats all I know I have one floating around somewhere dunno where tho.

 

[Petros]

Yikes! Condensation? And I'm also worried that watercooling may spring a leak or pop off a hose. Is there any hope for safe cooling while running my processor way too fast?

 

[Krux]

there alll "safe" if done right and the proper precations are taken you wouldn't turn your computer on if you didn't think your HSF was properly installed would you? then why would you turn it on if you didn't think a hose was clamped down properly? and the hoses don't get hot enough or have enough pressure in them to burst so the only way they would leak is if u were careless.

 

[canadian_divx]

it is all safe if u take the time to do i right, but why use water that conducts, distelled water in the system, if it leakes oh well just dry it up. lol or other liqued out there that is way better than water,

 

[Taurus]

Originally posted by canadian_divx
it is all safe if u take the time to do i right, but why use water that conducts, distelled water in the system, if it leakes oh well just dry it up. lol or other liqued out there that is way better than water,

even distilled water, once it gets out of the system and lands onto a video card with a tiny bit of dust, will conduct electricity rather well.

also, there isn't much that will move heat better than water with some water-wetter or dab of soap to break up the surface tension. there might be some liquids that don't conduct electricity, though, so you wouldn't have to be super paranoid of leaks. not sure on that.

but i agree. if you take your time to set up a watercooling circuit and make sure there aren't any leaks before you even install it in the case, than you stand a very small chance of anything leaking later. i would think your biggest concern would be pump life. but you'd be able to hear when that's coming or there are simple water flow monitors that you can install so you're alerted if water slows down.

 

[Friend of Bill]

Check out Swiftech's site for your thermo needs and get a silicon-based conformal coating for your boards and your set.

 

[Zedric]

A very effective cooling solution is to submerge the whole thing in non-conducting liquid. Sort of aquarium PC.

The most known is HFE, but it's very expensive. I heard about a cheaper fluid, mineral oil based, but I don't know the name.

 

[canadian_divx]

with a electrothermic pad, is it the colder it gets on one side the hoter it gets on the other???

 

[Taurus]

Originally posted by canadian_divx
with a electrothermic pad, is it the colder it gets on one side the hoter it gets on the other???

correct. it moves teh heat away from one side (thus making it cold) and moves it to the other. but the hot side gets very hot, so you need a real good cooling solution on it to take the heat away... otherwise the cold side won't get cold.

 

[LeeJend]

Lets take a short trip down reality lane...

The condensation issue was agood start, but here's why I think anyone is nuts trying a peltier on PC CPU. You notice from above you need a dedicated power supply to run the peltier right. Think about it. That implies a lot of power is going into the peltier. If you check the peltier heat transfer efficiency you see you need to pump say 100 watts in to get 65 watts out (an athlon XP2200 say) of the CPU and maintain a CPU surface temperature of say 40 deg. (remember the colder the more condensation so you should regulate the cold side temperature). Now the heatsink/fan has to remove 165 watts out of the area of the CPU.

The theory is all fine and they do work. BUT, where is that heat going to go if the fan craps out? You will have a small fire on your MB before you know it. Even with the P4's that have internal thermal protection the extra heat from the peltier will toast the CPU and MB.

If peltiers were a good idea you could go to your local computer store and buy a HSF w/peltier for $25-30. The number of safety interlocks required and getting all that extra heat out of the box is too much risk to bother with a peltier.

If you must get radical go for a liquid cooling system. Their feasibility is validated by the number of kits hitting the market now. Stay away from the compressor cooled liquid. same issues as the peltier, condensation and how to get rid of the extra heat from the 50% efficient compressor. All that heat is getting dumped into your computer room and if it heats up the whole system heats up.

 

[Taurus]

Originally posted by LeeJend
Lets take a short trip down reality lane...

The condensation issue was agood start, but here's why I think anyone is nuts trying a peltier on PC CPU. You notice from above you need a dedicated power supply to run the peltier right. Think about it. That implies a lot of power is going into the peltier. If you check the peltier heat transfer efficiency you see you need to pump say 100 watts in to get 65 watts out (an athlon XP2200 say) of the CPU and maintain a CPU surface temperature of say 40 deg. (remember the colder the more condensation so you should regulate the cold side temperature). Now the heatsink/fan has to remove 165 watts out of the area of the CPU.

The theory is all fine and they do work. BUT, where is that heat going to go if the fan craps out? You will have a small fire on your MB before you know it. Even with the P4's that have internal thermal protection the extra heat from the peltier will toast the CPU and MB.

If peltiers were a good idea you could go to your local computer store and buy a HSF w/peltier for $25-30. The number of safety interlocks required and getting all that extra heat out of the box is too much risk to bother with a peltier.

If you must get radical go for a liquid cooling system. Their feasibility is validated by the number of kits hitting the market now. Stay away from the compressor cooled liquid. same issues as the peltier, condensation and how to get rid of the extra heat from the 50% efficient compressor. All that heat is getting dumped into your computer room and if it heats up the whole system heats up.

all true. water cooling is the best reasonable way to keep low temps when air cooling isn't enough.

 

[canadian_divx]

i am not worried about condensation at all, that is covered and that system works, the only thing that i dont like is the fact of the heat on the other side but if one side can go to sub zero temps nad have a stock HSF on the other side it is all good

 

[Taurus]

Originally posted by canadian_divx
i am not worried about condensation at all, that is covered and that system works, the only thing that i dont like is the fact of the heat on the other side but if one side can go to sub zero temps nad have a stock HSF on the other side it is all good

not all good. a stock hsf won't be enough to take away all that heat. you will need a heavy-duty hsf on it.

 

[canadian_divx]

well then
this is putting a kink in my plans, time for some redesigining