Chilled Water Cooling Using Peltier/TEC Assembly Now 17 Months in Operation.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/282844-29-peltier-water-cooling

I am 4ryan6 at Toms hardware and to save myself some typing I've supplied a link to my cooling setup, it is as of December 30th 2015, now over 3 years in operation, if you have any questions I'll answer them here.

My Best to Everyone! Ryan

Edit: July 25th 2016

For the record I am no longer a member of Toms Hardware even though the link above still works as 4ryan6. (The pictures are gone just the text is still view able)

I posted the link to the build here at Overclockers.com back in 2011 and ran the cooling system for 3 years and 4 months before breaking it all down and building my Chilled Water Cooling vs 2.0 all housed inside one case.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1606680/peltier-tec-hybrid-water-cooling-vs-2-0

I do have questions, as i have attempted Peltiers before.

How many watts peltier would i need? I would like to stick a peltier between my CPU and waterblock.

Would i be able to run it off my current PSU, or should i use a second one, if i do go an try this once more. I have a few peltiers laying around, but they are only 60watts i think. Which wont really cool much.

Pierre3400 said:

I do have questions, as i have attempted Peltiers before.

How many watts peltier would i need? I would like to stick a peltier between my CPU and waterblock.

Would i be able to run it off my current PSU, or should i use a second one, if i do go an try this once more. I have a few peltiers laying around, but they are only 60watts i think. Which wont really cool much.

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Actually the chilled water cooling I am running is completely different than what you're inquiring about, regarding, "I would like to stick a peltier between my CPU and waterblock."

If that is the type peltier setup you'd like to run then I suggest you get advice from those running that type setup.

However either way of using the peltier whether direct mount or chilled water like I am running, an independent power supply to power the peltiers should be used.

And the power supply should be either dedicated and specifically made for peltier load out amperage/voltage wise, or if you'll be using a traditional PC power supply and only supplying 12v, use a single 12v rail power supply with more amperage handling than you'll need, I recommend using only 2/3rds of the power supplies amperage handling capability, so as not to overload the power supply.

Keep in mind a computer draws power intermittently as is load required, a peltier draws power constantly, from the time it's energized until the time it's powered off, that's why peltiers need their own power supply.

I've covered everything in the link I provided.

Brilliant ! Your custom TEC loop is an inspiration to us all
I was wondering if its possible to cool the hot side using a flammable liquid. Would the energy absorbed by the liquid be enough to rapidly cool the hot side for short periods of time ? I'm thinking of adding a peltier as a custom water cooler that only kicks in when the temperature of my water loop hits ambient +10C. I could make it look fun too like tiny car exhaust flame throwers. Let me know if I'm nuts please ! Thanks !

You're nuts. Open container cooling using a flammable liquid with a high enough vapor pressure to be useful would be insanely dangerous.
Lighting it on fire would decrease cooling power and result in far more flame than you are thinking.

Do not do it.

I remember using tec cooling back in the day. It was nothing like that. We never used flammable liquids that would be a potential bomb. Not only is that insanely dangerous, but deadly. I would concur with my colleague in blue.

Bobnova said:

You're nuts. Open container cooling using a flammable liquid with a high enough vapor pressure to be useful would be insanely dangerous.
Lighting it on fire would decrease cooling power and result in far more flame than you are thinking.

Do not do it.

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I agree it would border on dangerous to personal health and home, I wouldn't do it!

CostaBr33ze said:

Brilliant ! Your custom TEC loop is an inspiration to us all
I was wondering if its possible to cool the hot side using a flammable liquid. Would the energy absorbed by the liquid be enough to rapidly cool the hot side for short periods of time ? I'm thinking of adding a peltier as a custom water cooler that only kicks in when the temperature of my water loop hits ambient +10C. I could make it look fun too like tiny car exhaust flame throwers. Let me know if I'm nuts please ! Thanks !

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Thanks, my cooling loop already runs at 10c actual water temperature using the air cooling on the hot side, and presently that is 15.5c below my ambient room temperature.

This upcoming December 2014 it will have been in operation 2 full years.

The setup is now over 2 full years in operation and for the last year I've been running my 3770K at a 5ghz overclock 24/7 rock solid stable, and the CPU has not been delidded!


[url=http://valid.canardpc.com/dc3pch] [/URL]

The setup has now passed 2 1/2 years in operation.

Pretty sweet, but I bet it's expensive as heck to run.

Have you measured power usage of these cooling system? I'm curious how it looks in comparison with the water chiller.

bartx said:

Have you measured power usage of these cooling system? I'm curious how it looks in comparison with the water chiller.

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Each energized peltier pulls 200w measured from wall power, 2 of the TEC assemblies are energized when the computer starts, so that's 400w plus what the main machine pulls which is 330w idling, for a total of 730w idling.

The 3rd TEC assembly is switch controlled and only used for stress testing, or when I want to drop the coolant temperature very fast.

The 3rd TEC assembly energized can still continue to drop the coolant temperature while running Intel Burn Test with Hyper Threading disabled @ 1.375v, with Hyper Threading Enabled @1.395v the 3rd assembly holds the coolant temperature but does not continue to drop or rise.

This cooling is allowing a 5ghz overclock of my 3770K which has not been delidded, I have tested the 3770K under ambient conditions and the 5ghz OC is not stable at ambient and definitely not stable above ambient temperatures, which traditional water cooling provides.

This cooling is definitely only for those that are not concerned with the additional voltage used and since I only run my machine when I use it, I don't have a problem with the expense of running it.

Since it allows an overclock that is higher than some reached delidding their CPUs, I am very pleased with it, and it is now 3 months away from being in operation for 3 years.

Silver Surfer, I have to say this is awesome. It may be totally unpractical for the normal person, but it's still great to see other peoples takes on getting the most performance out of a Pc on a daily basis.

Well....I've decided what I am going to start saving all my spare change and cash for......go from air, to something like this.
Heck, you could even use part of the heat generated by the peltiers to run small sterling engines to pump more water/run more fans lol.

I do have plans of further experimentation to shrink it down if I can to something more manageable size wise, and electrical wise.

I've already experimented with using smaller copper server heat sinks but they wouldn't work.

Which pretty much nailed it down to having to be some type of low profile heat pipe style cooler.

But there is also reluctance in messing with something that is working as good as it is!

Which I would have already done if other home projects were not getting first priority, which I'm sure all you married out there understand!

Silver Surfer said:

Which I would have already done if other home projects were not getting first priority, which I'm sure all you married out there understand!

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I do indeed!

Mandrake4565 said:

I do indeed!

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Mandrake, Do you have any pictures of your Mountain Mods setup?

Silver Surfer said:

Mandrake, Do you have any pictures of your Mountain Mods setup?

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Yep, It was painted Gm Burnt orange from a local autobody shop.

Nice work! The paint job looks flawless!

I've been considering cases in that size range to see if I can get my whole setup into one case?