The basics

[KOXC2003]

What exactly is Peltier cooling? I've looked through a few threads but I really don't understand what you guys are doing here. How much would it cost to setup a peltier cooling system? Maybe this can be a sticky to help other people in understanding it. A couple other boards have somthing like that.

Thanks for the help.

[sandman001]

A peltier works by running voltage through it and one side gets hot and one side gets cold.

However, the amount it cools or heats varies. For example, an 80watt TEC can cool 80watts of heat at full voltage. It will put off more than 80watts of heat, and use more than 80watts of electricity.

To find out the max watts it puts of out use this equation. max volts X max amps.

As you decrease the voltage you also decrease the amps it uses. So, it uses less power, but also can cool less.

For a peltier cooling system for a cpu you are looking at maybe 250-300 for a cpu cooling system including the water cooling. For a gpu, maybe 150-200 if you can run it off your computers power supply, or have an extra around.

For a cpu, you want a 226watt TEC, and a power supply that can provide 25Amps at 12-15V. the perfect power supply for this is a Meanwell S320-12. It has variable volts so you can adjust the cooling power of the TEC.

swiftech and Danger Den have some of the best TEC waterblock around. I like the Maze4-1 or Swiftech MCW500-PT personally. Swiftech also has some TEC heatsinks, but to me they aren't worth the power they use.

A 226watt TEC will raise your power bill if you run your rig 24/7.

You will also need to insulate against condensation.

I'm not the best at explaining, so if you still want to know something just ask.

[CCW]

For the price of TECs, a Cold Plate, dedicated Meanwell PSU and watercooling...you can pay little more for a vapour phase change system which will deliver much better cooling performance.

I think that waterchilling is better than TECs because it is more versatile, cheaper and doesnt require expensive dedicated PSUs.

Craig

[sandman001]

I agree with CCW, on all but one point.

I think a direct die phase-change system is superioir, along with being more energy efficient.

I find a water chiller to be kind of the same as TEC's, it cools well, but it's also kind of a pain to insulate, and doesn't deliver as good of temps as direct die. And you still need a watercooling system and chiller, so it isn't really much cheaper than a TEc system.

I would advise you if you're looking at TEC's to just go with direct die phase change.

It will give you better temps for just a little more money, unless you already have a watercooling system. then TEc's might be worth it.

[SK8]

The thing is that tecs are fun to play with and are alot cheaper then a good phasechange sys and you dont have to worrie about gasses and vac pumps and that for a diy, but if you are getting a premade then thats well over $500! Tecs are cheaply found on ebay, i got a 85w for $13 shipped , im cooling that with a a64 heatsink and it makes soo much ice ! im in the works of making a drink chiller!

[sandman001]

I was talking more of a homemade Phase change system.

Could be done more cheaply.

[KOXC2003]

Well, a lot more to it then I thought. I have some extra power supplies lieing around, but why do I need to watercool to use peltier cooling? If I used the term wrong, I'm new to anything besides air cooling.

Thanks for all the quick replies

[sandman001]

Well, you can aircool a peltier, but your temps won't be a whole lot lower than jsut straight aircooling. Heatsinks have trouble dealing with the huge amounts of heat pelts throw off.

I mean, a 226watt pelt at full voltage is a bit over 350watts of heat, plus another 120 for a fully overclocked processor, and you have 470watt of heat.

Watercooling can deal with this amount of heat better than aircooling.

[KOXC2003]

ahhh now i understand a lot more:)

Thanks for all the replies guys