Newb *Help*

Well maybe not a newb but I am to this whole watercooling bit. What exactly is a peltier? Can someone show me picture of what peltier is and explain it's principles.

edit: MY bad posted in wrong section but either way can someone help me out with this question.

Here's some links:
http://www.electronics-cooling.com/Resources/EC_Articles/SEP96/sep96_04.htm

http://www.overclockers.com/tips45/

Peltiers are also known as TECs, or ThermoElectric Cooling devices.

Ok did I understnad this correctly it draws heat from one area to next (Cpu to Heatsink) really efficiently? So would placing one of these in between my cpu and heatsink yield better results? I was looking at the price of some of the more inexpensive units and found that they are really affordable. THis being the case why don't more ppl use them, unless i'm missing something.

Well you are correct 1 side gets cold the other side gets hot.
Most TEC's need a plate over the CPU to spread the heat so It gets conducted to the Heatsink better. The problem lies with the Tec, if you dont remove the heat fast enough it then cuts it cooling power drastically. This could result in a burned CPU. That why there is only 1 Tec Air cooled solution I know of I thinks Swiftec makes it.

not quite ice. they arent efficient unfortunately. very few methods for active cooling when radiating heat to ambient air ultimately are good at efficiency, same is true with pelts. you need to make sure you need a high wattage pelt and have a separate PS for it. a general rule of thumb is to select a TEC that is around 2.5 times the wattage that your CPU generates. for most peeps with modern processors that means a 225W TEC and a seperate power supply. if you dont have enough power through the pelt, you cant transfer the heat and its a waste.

the other problem with TEC's is that you need to insulate the socket of the chip with something. the cold side gets below zero (with the exception of the contact point area) and at those temps, water will condense and drip on the motherboard and fry it... also, because TECs generate lots of power, air cooled solutions usually cannot rid themselves of that much raw heat...