Water Chiller or Pelt?

What are the advantages of a water chiller over a pelt setup? Is there a bigger condesation problem with a pelt?

Could some one post a link to a good waterchiller setup/howto?

Thanks fellas, krag

I've only heard disappointing results from people testing water chillers - they just don't seem to work as well as you'd expect. Here's an article that seems to be fairly typical in its results. A normal pelt setup, using the pelt to cool the cpu and then a waterblock to cool the pelt, will probably give much better results. The peltier's the most effective part of the cooling system, so use it to cool the cpu directly rather than introducing other heat paths by using it to cool the water that's cooling the cpu, through the waterblock.

The condensation problems are probably less with a chiller setup, as you'll only get condensation on the chiller (I'd be surprised if the water got cool enough to cause condensation on the rest of the cooling loop). You can locate the chiller safely away from the electronics if you like, to reduce the risk of things getting wet inside your computer.

I haven't used a pelt myself so I'm not the best person to advise you on combating condensation - I'm sure there's many more experienced people out there who can help. Hope this helps

Thanks bro, it looks like its peltage for me.

Pelts are great but a watter chiller is a nice alternative. You want a solid state water chiller for the lab if you want good temps. Most chillers made from waterblocks don't do a good job. A decent lab chiller can cool 100-150 watts of heat down to -10 to -20c. Your CPU temps will be about the same for a high powered peltier setup or a lab water chiller. If I were cooling something like an athlon or a P4 I would go with a chiller or 226 watt pelt but for a P3 or celeron you can get away with a low power peltier and run it off an ATX psu.

What the heck is a "solid state chiller?"

This is a solid state chiller. Its just a large peltier radiator setup made for chilling water.

I use a Thermotek T252P Solid state chiller to cool my water. I ONLY use it because I got it on ebay for about 15% what it was worth. (It was broken and I fixed it) My chiller goes down to 4C which is nice. I get great cooling but I also have a new problem with condensation ever since things got warmer in Wisconsin.. So the chiller is NOT a good alternative to condensation.. you still get it.. Some chillers will go -20 on the water but good luck finding one for under 2000 bucks.

That is the big difference.. Price. The Cheapest NEW chiller you will find will be an aquarium chiller but they dont go sub zero. like 10C at best. Next in line is a Lab solid state chiller which is basically a big peltier on the radiator instead of the waterblock. They are so pricy because they are vacume sealed and they DONT have condensation.. but as I said before, the block can still get condensation.

I say if you can get a chiller for under 100 bucks through pure luck do it... You can dial in the temp of the water you want unlike a pelt where you cannot to my knowledge dial in the temp of the pelt. So when I see condensation start to form I raise my water temps a bit..

None of its perfect which is why I started this thread..http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81961


Good luck whatever ya do!

Dang, that water chiller looks like Da Bomb! But I bet it hits yuor wallet like Da Bomb too.

I am going to stick to some old fashion peltage!

Spleener what was wrong with your setup? I might be able to get the same chiller you have for next to nothing but it needs work. Do you know what peltier(s) it uses? From what I can see it looks like a single 226 watt pelt but it could be multiple peltiers.

Those are questions I dont know

On the unit you will notice 4 ports.. Two are for the chiller, two are for the dryer or dehumidifier.

On my unit.. it sold so cheap because it has a dryer failure. The dehumidifying unit does not work so the entire unit would not "boot" and say "DRYER FAILURE" . At first I thought the Dryer was for the unit itself but its not.. Its for dehumidifying ANYTHING. If it worked on my unit I would just encase the mobo in a sealed case and hook it up to the dryer.. its sucks in air, takes out the water and then spits it back out..

On my unit all I had to do to get it to work was disconnect the Dryer circuit board from the main circuit board.. The unit boots up and says "manifold temp 35.00 C" and Im ready to start chilling.

The pelt is sealed.. It is incased inbetween two radiators.. then sealed with no h20 inside so it doesnt condensate.

The unit you are looking at is different from mine.. The unit I have is the T252P which was made for GE in bulk.. For some reason when GE had these units break after warranty (my units warranty ran out 2 months ago) they surplused them off.. Evidently the dryer unit goes out before anything.

I have no idea what my electric bill is going to be runnign this full throttle.. We will see.

I'll keep hunting! I really think a chiller is the way to go.