Peltier cooled radiator

I'm a noob to watercooling and I'm reading all the great posts in here about about it, I'm really learning alot. I've been wanting to build a watercooling rig for some time now but I'm not sure how to go. Seems to me that a radiator only cooled by 120mm fans can't be really efficient, so I had this idea, what if it was cooled by some peltiers instead? Seems to me the water would be cooled alot more this way. Of course you have to take your dremel out and mod the radiator, but it seems possible. There also might be a condensation issue, but this can also be dealt with. But I'd like your opinion on this, maybe this is total non-sense and I should just do some more reading! lol Looking forward for your thoughts on this.

forgot to write that I was thinking of it in as an external setup...

Radiators with fans are much, MUCH more efficient than peltiers. A 226 watt peltier at full power will consume 364.8 watts, and may not even get you below ambient, depending on what you're cooling with it. Fans use hardly any power at all when compared to peltiers. How do you see fans as being inefficient?

Well I've been reading posts in here and some are talking about the condensation problems and the freezing sockets with their peltier setup. So I figured that when used properly they must really cool alot.

your idea would work... if you water cooled your pelts. but then you would have to use rads & fans to cool the water you were using to cool the water cooling your CPU...

long story short, peltiers dont cool themselves. and air cooling them wont be good enough.

PS. id keep a dremel FAR away from MY rad.

When used directly on your cpu, they can get you to around 0C, but it uses alot of power, and you have to have a good watercooling system to handle it.

If you plan to use them to chill your water, it would be cheaper to buy a prometia or vapochill.

I see your point Joe Camel, air cooling the peltiers alone would not be enough... Hey it was just an idea I had! I'm glad I've found this place so much to learn in the forums.

its all good!

as a TEC/pelt user myself, id say sandman001 has it right...

sig rig 1800 is (right now) running @ 16C Folding, 4C idle, BUT im using -3C (outside air) to cool my rad...i dont plan on keeping this TEC much longer, 200-300 MHz isnt worth it.

sir_LOIN said:

Well I've been reading posts in here and some are talking about the condensation problems and the freezing sockets with their peltier setup. So I figured that when used properly they must really cool alot.

Click to expand...

They do really cool alot, but that doesn't make them efficient. They're real power hogs. You're confused. Efficiency would be the ratio of cooling power to power consumed. With a peltier, this ratio would be less than 1. They make things pretty cold, but they're horribly inefficient.

Ahh... but they are dirt cheap... compared to a prommie... but flat out, you need to water cool the TEC instead of the CPU... that's really the only way to do a TEC... and it's much more efficient then trying to cool water with the TEC to run through a block... if you're planning to run at below dew point then you're going to need to worry about condensation anyway.