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

[Moto7451]

Is the aqua color because you're chilly now?

Nice stuff. 2.7GHz on a newcastle is a good overclock.

 

[Revivalist]

Is the aqua color because you're chilly now?

Yup! You guessed it!

 

[Pirate_Freder]

...so basically the pelt is making no diff in your system? at least nothing worht it, 28C when at a decent oc...that certainly doens't osund like it's worht all the work and the extra couple hundred dollars

 

[Revivalist]

...so basically the pelt is making no diff in your system? at least nothing worht it, 28C when at a decent oc...that certainly doens't osund like it's worht all the work and the extra couple hundred dollars

Oops. I forgot to update that. . . . It's actually 22C load, -9C idle. . . And the pelt allowed for a 500MHz higher overclock. . . I agree, that's not a phenomenal increase in performance. But at this point, I'm not really sure if the cooling system is to blame. . . I'll be picking up a DFI Expert pretty soon and I'd like to see if that board opens up some more potential. . .

 

[5|*42]

You got to subzero, nice! An extra half gigahertz OC isn't that bad.

 

[Pirate_Freder]

yeah that's not too bad actualy, congrats man, i don't llike that temp range though -9 to 22 wtf?!? that's a huge diff

 

[Joe Camel]

those # sound about right.

TECs cant really hold a load very well.

they can get down to really low temps but once you put a load on, they start "warming-up" quite a bit.

 

[Revivalist]

yeah that's not too bad actualy, congrats man, i don't llike that temp range though -9 to 22 wtf?!? that's a huge diff

I know it seems weird. But remember, I have my system setup so that it automatically underclocks and undervolts when it's idle. That's how I get down as low as -9C. I like it this way because when I'm sitting reading through a thread, writing a post, or doing anything that's not CPU instensive, I don't need to be overclocking. However, when I do have a load on the system, it automatically overclocks and overvolts. (I use a great program called RightMark Clock Utility to do that. It works like Cool n' Quiet only much better.) . . .

So that's why my temperature range seems so wide. I was hoping to avoid that confusion so I mentioned it when I initially posted my results . . .

-9C at idle (underclocked to 1.06GHz and undervolted to 1.07V)

22C at full load for 20 min (overclocked to 2.60GHz and overvolted to 1.70V)

I guess I really should mention a comparison of the temps when running idle and load at the same speed and Vcore.

 

[Joe Camel]

even without the under-volting / under-clocking, id bet you still see more than a 15-20C difference between load and idle temps.

even phase change (mach II etc) rigs see QUITE a range... its just the nature of the beast

 

[Revivalist]

Ok, I was able to tweak things a bit and keep load temps at 20C. When I left the system overclocked/overvolted, it settled at 2C. . . So it's about a 18C range, just just as Joe Camel predicted. . . .

By the way, thanks Joe for all the preliminary info way back at the begining of this whole project. I finally did it . . . I entered the world of "extreme" cooling. . . .

But somehow I have a bad feeling about where this road leads.

 

[Pirate_Freder]

...water cooling can get those load temps though, because the limit of water is ambient, this doesn't make any sense , is it maybe that you don't have enough cooling power to cool the hot side of the tec? say if you were able to hit ambient on the hot side of hte tec wouldn't it then do subzero with ease? (since diff between hot/cold side on these tecs is about 59C)

 

[Revivalist]

...water cooling can get those load temps though, because the limit of water is ambient, this doesn't make any sense , is it maybe that you don't have enough cooling power to cool the hot side of the tec? say if you were able to hit ambient on the hot side of hte tec wouldn't it then do subzero with ease? (since diff between hot/cold side on these tecs is about 59C)

Actually, it is staying below ambient (which is 25C in here), even when it's overclocked, overvolted, and under a load for 30min. . .

But still you have a good point about not seeing better results. I'm pretty sure I'm limited by two things at this point:

1. Better cooling of the water is necessary as you mentioned. Another radiator would help a lot. But the problem is that I don't really know where else on my case I could put another radiator and still have things look clean.

2. I should be running a lower voltage to the pelt. I'm pretty sure I'm generating more heat in the TEC than necessary by running at 12.3V, but this Meanwell won't go any lower. (I think I'll look into selling this one and buying a SP480-12.) I can see this is the problem from the following results I obtained when testing higher voltages . . .

Voltage: 12.3V
• CPU: 20C
• Water: 33.0C

Voltage: 13.0V
• CPU: 20C
• Water: 33.3C

Voltage: 13.5V
• CPU: 20C
• Water: 33.9C

Voltage: 14.0V
• CPU: 20C
• Water: 34.9C

It seems to me that if I could go lower than 12.3V, I could probably see better results.

 

[T'wolves]

I wouldn't go too much lower, your very close to peak efficency. If you go too low on the voltage I'm willing to bet the water temps will level out, but your cpu temps will rise. seeing as how your not dumping as much heat in the system(stable water temps) but your not reaching as lower temps (higher cpu temps).

If I was you, I would probably keep it where your at.

EDIT but if you have the money to experiment for us go ahead...

 

[Pirate_Freder]

no you see i meant getting the peltiers hot side to ambient no the cpu, i know the cpu is under , because as i was saying the pelt will make it's cold side about 59C colder than the hot so i was saying if oyu got the hot side to ambient the cold side(with the correct voltage) would be somewhere around -36C bringing oyur cpu too...well damn cold, so do you think if i were to run a BIX3 and a dual heatercore i would have enough cooling power for at least close to sub zero load temps? also can the 320w meanwell handle the 320w pelt or is it bad to max it out?

 

[Revivalist]

@ T'wolves - Well, I honestly don't want to waste my money, but if I could get better results I would be willing to sell this one and buy a SP480-12 instead. . . I guess the only way to know if the water temp would keep dropping with lower voltage would be to run some kind of experiment that would allow me to lower the voltage to the TEC. For example, I was thinking about finding some kind of variable resistor to put in series with the TEC to drop some of the the voltage and see if it gets better temps. . . . Anyone know what I could use?

@ Pirate_Freder - Oops. I should've known that's what you meant. . . Well, I think getting the hotside of the pelt to ambient temperature would be quite amazing. I think a BIX III and a dual heater core could possibly get you there, if not close. But you would have to also keep the flow rate high enough. Hopefully a mcp655 could keep the flow strong. If so, I think I might think about adding a dual heater core myself (if I can also figure out where on the case it would go). . . .

As far as your question about powering the 320W pelt, keep in mind that the rating "320W" refers to max heat power it can pump across it. To reach that power, you would actually have to run it at it's maximum voltage (15V) with maximum current (26A) which would require 390W. . . But fortunately, the best way to run a TEC is at 70-80% (as I'm learning ). So if you ran it at 80%, that would require 12V at about 21A so you would only need about 250W. Therefore the Meanwell SP320 would work fine. (Ok, that was a long answer to a short question. )

 

[Pirate_Freder]

woah lol, that was long , thanks thoguh , well then i guess i'll give that a shot, well how many watts of cooling power does it take to level out to ambient with an out of about 400?

 

[T'wolves]

I was thinking about finding some kind of variable resistor to put in series with the TEC to drop some of the the voltage and see if it gets better temps. . . . Anyone know what I could use?

i dought it, most variable resistors or rheostats can only handle an amp or two at most. and that tec is running over 20 amps. I'll check some of my catalogs, but i dont think it will be an easy find.

 

[Joe Camel]

Ok, I was able to tweak things a bit and keep load temps at 20C. When I left the system overclocked/overvolted, it settled at 2C. . . So it's about a 18C range, just just as Joe Camel predicted. . . .

By the way, thanks Joe for all the preliminary info way back at the begining of this whole project. I finally did it . . . I entered the world of "extreme" cooling. . . .

But somehow I have a bad feeling about where this road leads.

LOL no problem!!!

im betting now that you have played around with the parts, you can see why "we" were against trying to mod your (other/old) block to use a TEC.

yup, once you go extreme, your NEVER satisfied, colder COLDER!!! (i see a MachII in your future...)

the other thing you might notice with your new TEC setup is an abrupt spike in your electric bill

GOOD JOB

and

GOOD LUCK!!
(keeping the EXTREME "cold bug" under control )

PS
HERE is a thread with some good TEC-talk from ViperJohn (a guy who knows a thing or two about cooling)

 

[Revivalist]

@ Pirate_Freder - So you're gonna' run a BIX III and a dual heater core? I would really like to know how that setup turns out if you do. . . I'm not sure if I follow your question exactly. What do you mean by "an out of about 400?"

@ T'wolves - Thanks. I know I need it to be less than 1ohm and able to dissipate about 50W. I found this one and this one so far, but they're about $30! That's just not realistic for a single rheostat for testing.

@ Joe Camel - Yes, I do see why you guys were against the idea of trying to make my own, especially with a Storm (ok, I'm embarrassed, thinking about my "noobishness.") . . . As for the electric bill, I figure that it shouldn't be that bad. The Meanwell is basically like having another computer on at the same time. We already have two other computers in the house and my little sister-in-law leaves her computer on 24/7. So I'm hoping there won't be much difference with the new TEC. . . .

Plus, I discovered something kinda' neat. . . If I leave the CPU underclocked/undervolted, I can turn the Meanwell off and the CPU temps stay at 30C. That seems fine for daily use. (And it's also a lot more quiet.) . . . Plus, it's fun to hit the switch on the console and see the temp just drop right down into sub-zero mode. . . . ok, this "cold bug" thing is getting scary.

 

[Pirate_Freder]

oh lol my bad i meant an outPUT . so yeah how much wattage of dissapation in the rads does it take to hit ambient with about 400w coming out of the hot side of the tec?

EDIT- oh yeah and also it'll be a little while till i get that setup going, but probabaly by january(i just bought a opteron 148 s939 before they went off the market)

LOL EDIT AGAIN- just saw another thing, what's up with this whole cold bug thing? i've heard mentio of it before. what is it? comp doesn't work cause it's too cold?