Peltier cooling a radiator for a water cooling system??

OK, before you start calling me bad things, let me say that I am a newbie at watercooling so go easy on me! I just had this crazy idea of using a peltier on a water cooling radiator. I am just thinking that since the radiator has to be cooled by something anyway (normally fans), why can't we use a peltier between the fans and the radiator? My idea behind this was that it could make the water coming in to the radiator cooler and serve as some kind of "chiller". This way, all the devices that are water cooled in the system would benefit from the temp drop as opposed to just one chip. Plus, since you would be using the peltier only on the radiator, condensation shouldn't be a problem for anything, right?

I don't know, some of you experts might say this is impossible or crazy but just let me know why this wouldn't work if that's the case please. Or, if it could work, could you give me any helpful tips with doing this?

I see threads like this pop up from time to time.

I think the usual response is "it wouldn't work"

there is not enough potential surface area between the rad and the tec, air would be better to cool the radiator. also the tec cooling would not be efficient unless you had another water loop dedicated to cooling the tec, air cooled tec's havent ever worked well from what ive seen. there are other options along the same lines though, for example, you could put a pelt on your resevoir which might have a slight effect, but again you would need a watercooling loop to cool the tec to get good results. good luck. (by the way, the thermal calculations in determining peltier thermal behavior is too complicated to be fun or i would give you some more in depth reasoning, but this should suffice)

Thanks for the reply!

So, it won't work then, eh? I suppose if this was a good idea, someone would have already thought of it anyway.

I would be interested in trying to cool the reservoir though but you are saying that air cooling the TEC wouldn't work too well. I am sure you are right but I have seen a Swifttech air cooled TEC which was rated pretty good by Ed if I remember right (might have been another reviewer) so that's where I had gotten the idea for cooling a peltier with fans in the first place.

If I have to add another loop to watercool the peltier I could put on the reservoir though, that wouldn't be worth it to me unless I could get a really big temp improvement.

If this idea is out the door, what could I do to get cold water tempratures? I love to get the water temprature at least a bit under ambient but I see no easy way to do it. I know that some people buy small fridges and put their radiators in it that but that sounds like a pain in the rear plus it doesn't sound very practical for a system you want to move around.

Hmm... I.M.O.G. and Neco have it correct. If you stick a TEC / Peltier effect cooler in the loop, you then have to cool the peltier, as IMOG says. The more heat exchange points you have, the less efficient it is, as you have to use energy to transfer large amounts of heat at every step, eg, a peltier to transfer heat from cpu to waterblock, a fan to transfer heat from water in rad to air through rad, and so on. It's best to keep it simple, and use a peltier right where the heat source is - your cpu / gpu - instead of using it anywhere else, because as IMOG also points out, a TEC's surface area is very small, compared to a radiator, or heatsink, or something that has to dissipate heat, which points to the fact it needs something strapped to it to remove all the heat from the hot side. Also, you're putting in 220W of heat with a 220W peltier for example, so it costs you electricity, and adds heat to your system. Kind of a non starter if you look at it like that. Plus any cooling you use on the TEC would also be better spent on your CPU / GPU or radiator, because you're spending the money combating the heat at the source, not after you've added to it. That's my two cents, but it's a pity the idea isn't more workable.

If you want sub-ambient temps, your best bet is to go with some sort of bong, or possibly something like the chiller unit from a water cooler.

Again, thanks for the replies people.

Frostmeister,

I understand you. Peltier cooling sounds like a lot of work and energy spent for not much gain then. I am wondering if something like a 220W peltier you could put on CD would get hotter than the CPU core itself on the hot side where you have to cool it with something like water cooling? I got that impression from what you said. Is that true? If it is though, I suppose the big advantage here is that hotter the hot side of the peltier gets, the colder the cold side of the peltier will get, right? With that, the CPU core will be cold but the peltier on the hot side will be really hot. The thing is, as long as the CPU core is cool, it doesn't really matter how hot the peltier gets as long as you can cool it, right? I mean the CPU works better when cooler because the hotter it gets, the more errors it is prone to generate but this doesn't apply to the peltier. The peltier doesn't stop operating above a certain temprature like a CPU so it is actually OK for it to get really hot, no? Am I even making any sense here? I am just trying to understand.

Avatar,

Could you tell me a little bit about using chillers from water cooling systems? I have a water cooling system but no chiller. What can I do?
I really don't want to use a bong because I have seen pictures of them on the forums and the main pages of overclockers.com and vr-zone.com and they are HUGE!!! I don't really want to build something as big as a monument just to cool my computer. Of course, this is just me. I ain't dissin you people using bong coolers.

I think one of your best bets would be to put the peltier on the CPU and put a waterblock on the peltier, and use air flowing over the radiator to take care of the peltier.

/double post *mutter*

Black_Paladin said:

Again, thanks for the replies people.

Frostmeister,

I understand you. Peltier cooling sounds like a lot of work and energy spent for not much gain then. I am wondering if something like a 220W peltier you could put on CD would get hotter than the CPU core itself on the hot side where you have to cool it with something like water cooling? I got that impression from what you said. Is that true? If it is though, I suppose the big advantage here is that hotter the hot side of the peltier gets, the colder the cold side of the peltier will get, right? With that, the CPU core will be cold but the peltier on the hot side will be really hot. The thing is, as long as the CPU core is cool, it doesn't really matter how hot the peltier gets as long as you can cool it, right? I mean the CPU works better when cooler because the hotter it gets, the more errors it is prone to generate but this doesn't apply to the peltier. The peltier doesn't stop operating above a certain temprature like a CPU so it is actually OK for it to get really hot, no? Am I even making any sense here? I am just trying to understand.

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Actually, no. Above a certain point, the peltier effect will break down and heat will start flowing BACKWARDs towards the CPU. So no, you wouldn't be able to get away with not cooling the hot side.

Avatar,

Could you tell me a little bit about using chillers from water cooling systems? I have a water cooling system but no chiller. What can I do?
I really don't want to use a bong because I have seen pictures of them on the forums and the main pages of overclockers.com and vr-zone.com and they are HUGE!!! I don't really want to build something as big as a monument just to cool my computer. Of course, this is just me. I ain't dissin you people using bong coolers.

Click to expand...

I've never done it myself, but pretty much, you just take a water cooler and connect the unit that cools the water in the cooler to your reservoir or inline (I think they normally use a reservoir though). I don't know how small they'd be though.

As for the bongs, they don't HAVE to be huge. Granted, the huge ones WILL work better. But you CAN use a smaller bong and still cool your water well. Biggest problem with them is that they're noisier and you have to be able to add water and need to keep an eye on it.

Actually, no. Above a certain point, the peltier effect will break down and heat will start flowing BACKWARDs towards the CPU

Click to expand...

OMG, the CPU gets hot enough just by itself, I don't want to imagine the heat the CPU puts out combined with the heat the peltier would put out. That would melt the motherboard I think!!

you just take a water cooler and connect the unit that cools the water in the cooler to your reservoir or inline (I think they normally use a reservoir though). I don't know how small they'd be though.

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I now understand what you mean by this type of chiller and it sounds very cool to me! I definately want to try this if the water cooler unit I need to connect to the reservoir will not be very big. It doesn't sound very hard and if I could find a small watercooler unit, this would be great. I bet my temps would decrease a whole lot!

The only problem I can see right now with this chiller idea is that, where could I find a watercooler unit just by itself? I don't want to have to buy the big bottle thingies just for the cooler part, you know. Any ideas on where I should look? I mean they wouldn't have something like that at home depot right? Or would they??

Edit: The bong idea is cool but with the noise it makes, I'd always feel like I need to go to the bathroom, you know?