New pelt setup underway! **Pics Inside** (not 56k friendly)

[Revivalist]

Ok, I got everything I need for a new pelt setup. Now it's time to start operating.

The setup includes the following...

• Maze4-1 CPU waterblock: (dangerden)
• 320W (50mmx50mm) Peltier: (15V max, 26A max, potted) (ebay)
• Meanwell 480-15: (480W, 13.5-18V, 35A)(trcelectronics)
• Power relay: (bestbyteinc)
• Full Insulation Kit for Maze4-1: (includes neoprene pads, conformal coating, and thermal grease) (dangerden)
• 5.25” bay triple fan cooler: for cooling the Meanwell power supply (ebay)
• Power chord, 12 gauge wire, connectors, & rubber stand-offs: Lowe's hardware

I'll keep posting more pics as progress comes along. . . .

The only thing I'm sorta of wondering about right now is how to know the amount of torque to use when screwing the cold plate onto the block with the pelt in between. I read that there should be 200-300 lbs per square inch. But I can't find a torque wrench that will fit the holes of the Maze4. Also, how would I compare the amount of torque from a torque wrench to the lbs per square inch on the cold plate? (Just add up the torque on each screw and divide by the area of the plate?)

 

[d94]

sweetness ^^
that meanswell looks like it could fit in a drivebay!?

 

[meionm]

what kind of gfx are you putting this on? Will you run seperate loop for gfx or all together with cpu?

 

[Revivalist]

Hi guys!

@ d94 - I plan on putting the Meanwell above my Aspire power supply at the top. (That's why I have the rubber stoppers, to elevate the Meanwell above it and leave space between the Meanwell and the Aspire.) I marked the place that the Meanwell will go with a red box in this pic. . .

I'm also going to cut out holes in the back of the case for the exhaust fans of the Meanwell, and also to run screws for mounting it. The front of the Meanwell goes just a little into the 5.25" cage in the front. (That DVD-Rom will have to be moved.) Then I'll put the 5.25" fan as an intake fan right in front of the Meanwell. I think this way things shouldn't get too hot at the top of the case. We'll see. . .

@ meionm - It's actually a CPU pelt water-block. It's going to be sharing a water loop with my graphics card. I want to see if my BIXIII can handle the heat load before I try putting on a GPU pelt as well.

 

[Pirate_Freder]

very nice, i'm very intersted as to how your temps will be, i've been trying to decide whether a pelt is worth it or not. also would like to know about the 200-300 lbs of pressure, didn't know about that, also clueless as to how to determine that, sorry. where did you read that, wouldn't mind a nice guide or somthin .

 

[Pirate_Freder]

oh yeah also, where did you buy the meanwell 480w?

 

[Revivalist]

very nice, i'm very intersted as to how your temps will be, i've been trying to decide whether a pelt is worth it or not. also would like to know about the 200-300 lbs of pressure, didn't know about that, also clueless as to how to determine that, sorry. where did you read that, wouldn't mind a nice guide or somthin .

I'll report back on how the temps turn out.

About the clamping pressure, I read it from this guide at procooling.com.

The meanwell 480-15 can be found at TRC Electronics as well as a few other places. (I just searched on google.)

 

[CCUABIDExORxDIE]

ohh man i love peltier setups. ive always wanted to do one, but ive never had a peltier suitable block. and we sell those GB terminal kits at my work!

 

[Pirate_Freder]

ho wow, in that guide the guy talks about running 22-24v trhough his 172w pelt!!! wow, can these 320w's handle that/is it worth it? oh yeah and how much did the meanwell cost you?

 

[felinusz]

Just a little piece of advice, you probably don't want your graphics card on the same cooling loop as a 320W peltier. With the heatdump of both the peltier, and your overvolted/overclocked processor, your graphics card will be getting "cooled" by water considerably warmer than ambient.

It will work just fine, your GPU temperatures will just be signifigantly raised .

 

[jcw122]

Just a little piece of advice, you probably don't want your graphics card on the same cooling loop as a 320W peltier. With the heatdump of both the peltier, and your overvolted/overclocked processor, your graphics card will be getting "cooled" by water considerably warmer than ambient.

It will work just fine, your GPU temperatures will just be signifigantly raised .

Prehaps a setup (excluding all other parts) could go Pelt>RADIATOR>GPU Block....so that the heat would be dumped out before hitting the GPU, and should be cool enough for the pelt (damn big guess)

 

[matttheniceguy]

I read that there should be 200-300 lbs per square inch. But I can't find a torque wrench that will fit the holes of the Maze4. Also, how would I compare the amount of torque from a torque wrench to the lbs per square inch on the cold plate? (Just add up the torque on each screw and divide by the area of the plate?)

You need a lot of information about the materials, thread and lubrication to even get a close estimate of the clamping pressure provided by a screw, and getting this estimate is certianly not trivial. For applications where the amount of clamping pressure is actually critical, screws with built in strain gauges or crush washers that crush at a certian pressure are generally used.

I'm not sure how the coldplate attaches to the maze4, but there is no way you would be able to crush the pelt with it's attachment. The pelt is 4 square inches, so you are looking for 800-1200 lb of pressure. Just use whatever mounting it has, and tighten it as much as you can without stripping the threads.

 

[Aphex_Tom_9]

Prehaps a setup (excluding all other parts) could go Pelt>RADIATOR>GPU Block....so that the heat would be dumped out before hitting the GPU, and should be cool enough for the pelt (damn big guess)

that sounds like a good idea there.
and as far as tightening it, just get a tool (i think allen wrenches are what you need, i forget what kind of screws they are) that fits the screws and tighten as much as you can

 

[Revivalist]

Thanks for all the input guys! I did exactly as you all said -- I just tightened it down as much as I possibly could. . . .

I noticed the copper starting to bulge around the two screws on the sides, so I stopped turning those. Then I started to hear crackling while tightening the ones near the wire leads, so I stopped turning those also. Then the last two in the back are as tight as I can possibly get them. But I did my best to make sure every screw got an equal amount of tightening. I hope that works well enough . . .

I also put Dow conformal coating all around the pelt when it was all tightened up. I read a guide that said to do that with silicon but I figured the Dow should work fine also, right? . . .

Well, here are my very first frosty pics. I have to say, that was really cool to watch. (Mind the pun. )

One thing was kind of disturbing to see . . . as soon as I turned off the system, the condensation turned to water immediately and dripped of the block. Are the neoprene pads going to soak all that up, or where does it go?

 

[RC64]

The neoprene pads will basically help to create a seal to hopefully prevent any condensation. They do not soak up the water but rather prevent it from occuring. The cracking sounds you heard when u tightened the coldplate may have been the sound of the outermost threads breaking which is what happened on my maze4 and I had to go out and buy longer screws (so that they could reach the inner threads and catch them so I could tighten the plate once again). If you remove the screws that you heard cracking from, you may have difficulty geting them to tighten back down again. Anyway, just adding my experience with the block.

 

[godofgorks]

The neoprene pads will basically help to create a seal to hopefully prevent any condensation. They do not soak up the water but rather prevent it from occuring.

Exactly... it's not going to go anywhere because it's not going to be there, theoretically.

You are taking what you see in an open environment, and placing it in a closed environment but insulating the block with neoprene.

The setup is looking nice man, keep up the good work.

 

[Revivalist]

Thanks guys. That makes sense about the condensation not being there once it's fully insulated. . . .

Regarding the screws, would it be ok to just leave it as it is, or do I have to take it apart again and use longer scews like RC64 mentioned he did? (I really hope the answer is "leave it" because it's already very tight and there's confromal coating all around the interface of the block-peltier-cold plate.)

It's probably going to take some time to finish up this build since I'm going to try to do a volt mod like this before I put it all together. . . (This little project on my ASUS A8V board and 6600GT card is actually just a practice run for a setup I'm about to do with a DFI Expert and a 7800GT, so I'd like to take my time and learn how to do it right. )

 

[RC64]

Since it is already tightened down you can leave the coldplate how it is. I was just saying that if you ever removed it one day, you may have some problems geting those screws to tighten once again.

 

[Burdman27911]

This is great to see Revivalist! It's really nice to see some progress with your project, and your frosty pic just made me smile. I wish the best of luck to you, and pray you have smooth sailings from here on out! Can't wait to see the results.

Burdman

 

[Pirate_Freder]

nice man, i don't like that theoretical bit though, don't exactly want to fry my cpu via condensation. BTW how much did the meanwell psu cost?