Water chiller vs. direct Pelt cooling

[Voodoo Rufus]

I would like to know people's opinions on which is better in terms of cooling power and reliability. I may go towards peltier cooling someday. The parts I had in mind was either a single 172W peliter or a triple 80W peltier water chiller like the ones that overclock-watercool sells.

[Bender]

A direct peltier setup will work much better. You will get condensation with both so there isn't much reason to go with a chiller. If you combined a water chiller and direct peltier setup your temps would be even better. Keeping condensation under control is the key here. If you do it right you will love your peltier setup.

[Voodoo Rufus]

What kind of temps can one get with both a direct pelt setup and a chiller?

How about pelt failure? They shouldn't fail if run under tolerances, right?

[Holst]

The peltier should run for a long time before it fails, no moving parts in it.

You should wach out that the wires connected to it dont break off, on some pelts they are quite weak.

Also you will need to power it, if your PSU fails then your in trouble. Id use a good quality dedicated supply for anything bigger than 70watts.

I dont rate peltier waterchillers very highly at all. They are so ineficent that there not worth using. You will be better putting effort into good radiators, or a dual peltier setup on your CPU.

If you have a single 172watt pelt on your PCU and a good radiator setup then you should get some very good temperatures.

[Bender]

Assuming you are using this on an AMD cpu you must use a 156-220 watt peltier or you will be adding more heat to your cpu. A seperate power supply is very necessary. Peltiers of this power require 15-24v at 10-20 amps. Also a seperate clamping mechanism is highly reccomended so you can get adequate pressure on your pelt. Holst is correct; pelts are very reliable. If I remember correctly peltiers have something like a 100,000 hour continuous life expectancy.

[Voodoo Rufus]

I can probably find a good cheap PSU on ebay. Probably a 15V 20amp one should do.

Reliability is a must. I may take the dive someday, but only after I maximize the efficiency of my current cooling setup.

Thanks.

[Bender]

Sounds good as long as you combat condensation. The key is jut not being afraid of putting goop and closed cell foam all over your board. A power supply like that should be fine.