Peltier questions

I have been looking at upgrading from my wimpy air cooling to an "extreme" solution. I don't think I would want to do phase change/refridgeration cuz they're really expensive and I don't wanna be playing with freon and such. I've been looking at peltier stuff since it seems to be INCREDIBLY powerful and it seems like watercooling + a peltier + insulation. Basically I've figured this is what you'd need:

CPU Water block
Radiator
Pump
Peltier
Power supply

You'd basically set up a watercooling system and add in a peltier and a cold plate underneath it, then insulate the cpu, the core, the socket, etc. Is it really as simple as adding a few extra steps to a watercooling setup? And is there anything else extra needed to cool off the super-hot side of the peltier or will a standard watercooling setup cut it?

I've added the price of all the parts together and if I could go with a cheapo used pump, waterblock, and radiator from the classifieds, then buy the peltier, cold plate, power supply, and insulation stuff, the cost seems to come out just over $300. Is that about how much it'd take to set up a decent peltier system?

That sounds about right. One thing to keep in mind is that the watercooling will have to deal with 300+ watts of heat, so it should be pretty good. You need a waterblock big enough to cover the whole pelt, a decent pump, and a HUGE radiator.

As long as you remember to lap everything, and use good thermal compound on ALL the interfaces (3 of them), and run thick enough wires from the powersupply with good connections, everything should be just fine.

The heat load of the hot side is that of your CPU + 226 watts (assuming a 226w TEC).

So the average heat load of a CPU is ~70-80 watts. An overclocked CPU can pull near 120 watts. So be prepared to deal with about 300 watts of heat.

300 watts can heat a liter of water 4.5C every minute! So room temp to boiling in about 17 minutes.

You'll need to go all out on your water cooling system. I highly recommend a large radiator usually outside the case.

Don't worry, "all out" doesn't mean expensive. Just think big (as in big radiator, 1/2" tubing) and pumps arn't too expensive. Believe it or not, a chep-o radiator/heater core works better than those $120 compact "computer radiators" like BIX and such. Don't cheap out on the PSU though!!!

Let me know if you have anymore questions!

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