Creating a not so extreme peltier cooler.

[Tantalum]

I have a question for anyone who might know the answer. Would it be possible to get some low powered Peltiers and use them for cooling hardware to comfortable operating temps(Above 20C and below 60C)? Or are Peltiers all or nothing, as in either below zero or high temps from the pelt not being able to handle the heat output? Is there anyplace where I could also get some custom heat pipe designs built? I am making a.... Thing.... and I don't want to reveal it before its finished :beer:. So you will probably see me asking a lot of questions around the forums for a month or so. Wont be surprised if some of you end up guessing what I am building before its finished though :santa:.


(Edit) Not sure where this was supposed to go... The mods can move it to wherever its more appropriate (Edit)

[billb]

A peltier's cooling capacity is proportional to the voltage it is supplied.
But there is a "most efficient" voltage, and getting too far away from that will result in very large electrical inefficiencies. You do know that the "hot side" has to be cooled?

Heat pipe designs (not the shape, but what's inside) are very complicated. That difficulty is compounded exponentially if the heat pipe is to perform in any orientation other than vertical. A one off heat pipe "design/build" project would bankrupt you. I would suggest, perhaps, modifying and exiting heat pipe to suit your needs.

[Tantalum]

I was going to use the heatpipes to possibly cool the pelts... The pipes were also going to be vertical. Im thinking if I find a low power pelt. Would I be able to use it to cool something to normal operating temps? Or would the temp overload the pelt? I thinking of ideas on how to manage the heat from the other side of the pelt, though I'm not too sure how well they will work since this entire idea came to me while I have a rather bad cold.

[Sarsbaby]

You would be better off using a regular or modded HS, or even water to cool your hotside. Look into the Coolit line of products, or even Ultra. They have some ideas that might help you.

Are you building a chipset cooling system? Or maybe cooling the CPU from the opposite side along with your regular HS? Trust me, we all have our moments of inspiration. Go with it, if you have a good and practical idea it might help people.

[thideras]

I was going to use the heatpipes to possibly cool the pelts... The pipes were also going to be vertical. Im thinking if I find a low power pelt. Would I be able to use it to cool something to normal operating temps? Or would the temp overload the pelt? I thinking of ideas on how to manage the heat from the other side of the pelt, though I'm not too sure how well they will work since this entire idea came to me while I have a rather bad cold.If the peltier is making direct contact with the processor, then you must have the peltier turned up enough to handle the wattage of the processor. If you don't, it basically insulates the processor and will cause it to overheat, possibly causing the peltier to fail as well (risk of fire, killing components, etc).

[Tantalum]

Hold on... This one factor would make what I am thinking impossible if you cant do this... Not sure how I overlooked the fact that video cards are... Rather tall.... Is it possible to rotate a PCIE connector? If you somehow managed to solder all those thingy connections correctly that is... or would the small amount of added wire mess with the timings enough to cause it to not work? You see, I have gotten annoyed with how you can only get a laptop from most major brand's... That and most of them seem very overpriced, so I am trying to build a laptop out of desktop parts. I planned on using pelts to cool the CPU and GPU and using heatsinks mounted on the top around the keyboard, the screen would be slightly raised so while the laptop is closed it would rest on the heatsinks allowing the laptop to close normally, but... I somehow forgot how tall graphics cards are so if its not possible to change the positioning of the graphics card I'm not sure if this will be possible... Though I could try water cooling the computer if I find a solution to the graphics card problem... I seem to remember someone making a water cooled laptop awhile ago. Was a pretty small laptop too...

(Edit) About the peltier thing. If you have something that puts out lets say... 50W of heat, and you use a pelt rated at 50W. What is going to be the temp? 0c? Ambient? How much higher does the rated wattage of a pelt have to be to ensure that it wont overheat? I have never used a pelt before so I sadly don't know much about them (Edit)

[Sarsbaby]

Well, if that's what you want to do, buy a briefcase or something and work with that. You could always have your hardware inside with good ventilation, and whatever else you decide to do for cooling, and have the screen mounted on the outside of it.

Or you can just go Micro ATX.

[thideras]

Hold on... This one factor would make what I am thinking impossible if you cant do this... Not sure how I overlooked the fact that video cards are... Rather tall.... Is it possible to rotate a PCIE connector?They are called "riser cards". ;)


You see, I have gotten annoyed with how you can only get a laptop from most major brand's... That and most of them seem very overpricedYou, my friend, are not the only one :)

I planned on using pelts to cool the CPU and GPU and using heatsinks mounted on the top around the keyboard, the screen would be slightly raised so while the laptop is closed it would rest on the heatsinks allowing the laptop to close normally, but... I somehow forgot how tall graphics cards are so if its not possible to change the positioning of the graphics card I'm not sure if this will be possible... Though I could try water cooling the computer if I find a solution to the graphics card problem... I seem to remember someone making a water cooled laptop awhile ago. Was a pretty small laptop too...I can tell you right now that normal desktop components will never fit in a laptop unless you are talking about some of the first ones that were briefcase sized. They just are not made for that.

(Edit) About the peltier thing. If you have something that puts out lets say... 50W of heat, and you use a pelt rated at 50W. What is going to be the temp? 0c? Ambient? How much higher does the rated wattage of a pelt have to be to ensure that it wont overheat? I have never used a pelt before so I sadly don't know much about them (Edit)If it puts out exactly 50w and you remove 50w, it will basically be room temperature if that is where it started. You always want to go a little above that just to make sure that you can NEVER overload the peltier.

[Tantalum]

I can tell you right now that normal desktop components will never fit in a laptop unless you are talking about some of the first ones that were briefcase sized. They just are not made for that.


I will find a way :). In fact, Does anyone remember the name of that graphics card released by Gigabyte that was much smaller then the stock model? I should be able to get that card to fit with a bit of gentle nudging.

Besides if it does turn out that this doesn't work, then I will still have the parts needed should I have another crazy idea :)

(Edit) Another question, how hot can I allow a pelt to get? If I make something to cool the pelt, which will be hotter then the CPU/GPU why not just use what I made to cool the pelt, to cool the CPU/GPU? Or can pelts withstand much higher heat then a CPU can? (Edit)

[billb]

I will find a way :).

(Edit) Another question, how hot can I allow a pelt to get? If I make something to cool the pelt, which will be hotter then the CPU/GPU why not just use what I made to cool the pelt, to cool the CPU/GPU? Or can pelts withstand much higher heat then a CPU can? (Edit)How about using a motherboard with on board video?

The reason to use a pelt, as opposed to air or water cooling is that air/water cooling can't cool to below the temperature of the ambient air. To transfer heat to air, the transfer medium (the fins on a CPU heat sink, or the fins in a rad) has to be warmer than the air. If the fins are cooler than the ambient air temperature, they will add heat to the system, not remove it

[Tantalum]

Well, I had wanted to build a laptop out of PC parts for a few reasons, The first being that since it is made out of parts I put together myself I could easily upgrade it. It would also be quite a bit more powerful then a normal laptop while being low priced. Lastly there is the fun factor, to me building something like this would not only be fun but would also be somewhat of a learning experience. I have not even started building it yet and I have already learned more about pelts then I knew before.

Because I want it to be moderitly powerful I cant really use on board graphics.

I think I may abandon the pelt idea though, it seems that I can accomplish my goal much easier by simply using air or water. While I was messing around with the pelt idea I designed my case so that on the left and right of the screen were heatsinks. I could replace the heatsinks with two radiators if I wanted to go for water cooling.

[AlabamaCajun]

See the discussions on pelts in the cooling section. You will burn up a CPU with a direct pelt connection as the power dissipation exceeds the devices thermal transfer rate. Conside building a mini AC for your case.