Why do pelts need special power?

Why do i have go out and get $180 power supply designed for pelts(226) at dangerden, i dont wnan mess with 2 power supplies like ive read, sounds really hard, and im lazy ....Somone got a few sites or instructions that would help me with this?

Oh by the way, all i have to do is add dielectric grease all around and in my socket, with seal string around that and so on, and ill be fine? Site for that too? Everything seems to be phase changing in here anyways....

Most power supply can't handle the load. It might not max out the wattage but it will draw more amps than what the power supply can handle.

Let's get some more post on this.

Peltiers are not phase-change cooling, they are thermoelectric cooling. Thus they use more power than most, if not all, phase change systems. The large power consumption is, as extremecorvette said, too much for average power supplies.

The wattage of a powersupply for a computer is fairly missleading to the actual performance. To compute the power, manufactures generally add up the maximum power that each line can provide. Unfortunatly all of these lines can't provide maximum power at once.

Power supplies have ratings for the amperage that can be supported on all of their Voltage rails. If the 12V line is rated for say 15 amps, then this is the maximum current that you can draw from that line, which would give you 12*15 = 180 Watts.

It is possable to run a pelt from a regular computer powersupply, as long as the powersupply can handle the load from the pelt. A 226 watt pelt will draw roughly 19 amps, so you will need a powersupply with at least 25 amps or so on the 12V line. If you want to run your computer from the same powersupply as the pelt supply, then you need an absolute monster of a supply, and even then is still isn't a very good idea. To run a pelt like this and your computer, you should get a supply rated for around 600 watts, and having at least 35 amps or so on the 12V line.

180 seems like a pretty crappy price for a pelt supply. If you want to buy one, meanwells are really popular, and a whole lot cheaper. Just get a 12V regulated supply rated for at least 25 amps. Here is one of the most popular models, it is avalable all over the place. http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/samam32inpsu.html

If you have any electrical skills, it isn't hard to build your own supply either. All you need is a transformer to go from 120 to 12 V, a rectifyer (4 diodes), and some capacitors or inductors to smooth out the signal. All of these parts have to be sized appropriatly so nothing overheats or frys, but it's not hard to do.

Insulating the socket for a pelt is the same as for phase change. There are links to guides all over these forums, and you might want to check out http://xtremesystems.org/ .

You basically have 3 options to power the pelt.
1 - Buy a MASSIVE computer powersupply that can handle it ($$$$)
2 - Buy a meanwell or something similar, and run the pelt of that ($$)
3 - Build your own supply for the pelt (**** poor)

As you move down the list, things get much cheaper, and much more complicated. Let us know what you want to do and we'll tell you anything else you need to know.

Good luck with it

LOL, im not poor, im lazy, dont wnan go through gettign a power supply and another one for my next comp from another store, then pay for shipping on both and so on....ugh, where would i put the damn thing anyway? Im buying a cheiftec server chassis with an 480 psu.......90 bucks a psu is ok i guess but im getting 2 comps and 1 for each so it will be 180 bucks for em, better than dangerden's 180 for a single pelt psu....anyway mounting options? Maybe a site can provide me some info on a good place to put it, and another site about condensation prevention for a pelt....overclockers.com's review and articles seem slightly dated.....Thx!

let me get this strai.....i get a pelt, then a cold plate(where i get one) and a neowhatever kit from dd, i cover my entire inside of the socket with that sealer thing, and teh area aound the socket.... then let it sit and dry then put some on the other side, where the cpu pins come out. I take a 2 layer neowhatever stuff and place it over my socket with the proc in it, and a special cut one around the cpu die.....then i mount the coldplate(where i get that) to the nice new pelt, then to a water lock (maze 4) and im done? After gettign an 80 dollor power supply, and a 400+ dollor WC system..... am i correct??

err...umm... sorta....

It looks like you are planning to just buy everything and install it, which is not the option most people go with, but will work fine. The cold plate is just a copper plate about 3mm thick. You can buy them from placs like Xoxide and other places that sell pelts, or or you can just order a 3mm thick piece of copper from somewhere like http://www.onlinemetals.com/ . The Xoxide plate is 14.99, and will probably need to be lapped. The same piece of copper from online metals is under $1, and will require some moderate sanding and than lapping.

It is probably better for you to spend $90 or so on the meanwell pelt powersupply, rather than a second PC powersupply. The PC supply will require some load to be put on the 5V rail to make it work properly, and It will be more difficuly to connect than the meanwell. I believe that the meawells can also be put into a 5.25 inch bay, with a little work.

The neoprene can be bought precut online for some terrable price, or you can go down to a local fabric store and get a tonne of it for a couple dollars and cut it yourself. It's purpose is to insulate and seal the socket.

$400+ water cooling system
I sudpose you could once again throw your money away, or you could just do it yourself for WAY cheaper. All you need is a decent pump, waterblocks (you can make your own but I won't go into that), tubing, and a decent heatercore or two. You can get the heatercores for like $25 at an autoparts store.

Sorry to go of on you for spending soo much money on everything, but I hate so see people waste money on something that they could have done themselves. I'm sure you will enjoy your system a lot more if some actual work goes into it, rather than just asembling parts from other people. It's like the difference between using a Dell or a self made machine. The dell may work fine, but it's just not the same.

um, im planning to get a dedicated pelt psu, im not buying another case psu...

im buying 2 water coolign systems, i repeat, 2 systems!! one is intel, and the other is amd.... and in all it will be 400-500!! Also, i am building these 2 computers for my customers, and i would expect that they would feel safer with pro built name brand stuff..... I would not build a water system that i just started researchign about, i would need more time to learn how to do it...ive been doing this only a week, this is new to me, i dont expect u to build a phase changer in 2 weeks os research do i? It takes a little more "experience" with what ur building.....Now, u may presume that everyone on this planet instantly knows how to watercool, but thats not the fact.... I repeat, ive spent only 1 week at this, about 10 hours tops!! I know now how to put a system together, use a pelt, and prevent condensation...now this isnt my money, its my customer's and hes the one that wants me to build it... Hes a rich kid, LET HIM SPEND HIS OWN MONEY...... I would rather spend 200 bucks on a system instead of 100 bucks on a system that took 2 days to build out of copper and expect it to work like a dream....Maybe im paranoid about building one so quickly after starting to learn the skill, but thats just me...No flame intended....It wasnt curiosity that killed teh cat, but his presumption that the blender wasnt on....

Im sorry i dont have special software to digitally build my system, the time and energy (and gas money) to go out to all these stores and get parts, or the tools to build these blocks(and etc)....tools cost money, gas costs money, it takes time to plan and build the system from scratch, and takes more experience.....thats why people dont make their own shoes, and us computer geniuses build our own chips.......Its simply more(efficient) to just buy the parts online, from companies that are specilized in building these things!! Simple fact....Besides if we all build our own stuff, then our economy suffers, the communists take over, and the terrorists win.....and we dont want the terrorists to win....do we? My $.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002...........

MAke your own pelt power supply. It's relatively easy to do and you should be able to get the parts you need for under $50 easiily.

In fact, I review components for www.monster-hardware.com. I am currently working on a power supply for a buddy of mine, I had planned on turning it into a "how-to" article for publication. When done, it will be capable of:

30A @ 5v
20A @ 3.3v
25A @ 20v
light amperages available at +12v and -5v

My buddy needed a supply capable of a lot of amps at 3.3v, 5v, and he was flexible from 14-24v. So, this should fit him nicely. He'll be driving one of the big 226w pelts and a couple other devices as well. The output will be via terminal strip, so it will be easy for him to run the wiring he needs to the device he will be powering.

If anyone is interested, I can maybe post a pic or two later today.

Dave
[email protected]

wpuld it be packaged in a case, no wires anywhere? or is it a bunch of screwed together blocks of aluminum w/ wires and tape holing it together?

my PSU can handle PELT + Computer
my 550w FSP can handle 36 amps on 12v+ line that should do it. you can get them on newegg for ~100

that would be cheapr than buyign a cpu supply and the pelt supply, ill prolly get a 600 while im at it lol.....thx for teh info on that, forton, sparkey, antec and all theat right?

none of those 600w PSU's will power it...
they are too weak. look at the ratings on all those antecs, enermax, they are all 18A or so at the 12v rail.

this is the one i have (the one you need): http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-478&depa=0

i looked through newegg many times and this is the only one that can put out 36 amps at +12V. the 600+ watt power supplies dont put out nearly 36 amps.

also warning: if you get that PSU, you need a 24 to 20 pin ATX converter.

edit: the enermax 660w PSU has two 18A lines... that could work too. but its also 250$

Sparkle power is PERFECT!!

Didnt see the sparkle... since the sparkle power isnt in stock anymore, ill just wait....i got time...

For that price you might as well buy a Mach1. It'll save money in the long run since it draws less electricity than a pelt.

building it for a customer?

is this a friend of yours or just someone with too much money?

In my opinion you really shouldn't be making someone pay you to do somethign that you really don't know much about. Would you hire a mechanic that had never really worked on a car before?

Extream overclocking with pelts and the like isn't generally something you want to do to a system that you are giving to someone who knows nothign about it. Overclocking is really a hobby, and to continually run a highly overclocked system you need to know a lot about it. I don't think this rich kid is going to know what to do when his system wont post.

If he want's a high performance computer, build him one with high end components. a P4 3.2 or athalon 64 with a gig of ram, some raptors in raid 0, and a top of the line videocard would do nicely. High end air cooling would be more than enough (SLK or SP), but if the kid wants you could throw in a decent watercooling kit. I wouldn't overclock the thing too far though, because this will always lead to little problems that need to be delt with, and if they arn't the kid could fry some really nice hardware.

I agree with matttheniceguy. Unless ofcourse, the friend knows the risks that are involved and there is $$ to be made