TEC Cooling questions..

[Genchoppa]

Hello All. New here to the forums but have been reading enough to now be confused. I've recently got into overclocking. Started with air cooling an just moved up to water cooling. I'm really starting to enjoy tweaking my system all ways possible. Now i want to try another cooling solution that's pretty easy without heavy modding. One step at a time...
Now for my question. I've been looking at TEC coolers. I like that they are silent an can possibly lower temps an seem relatively easy to put into my system.
1. Will i actually notice a difference in temps adding one to my system. An if so what size should i be shooting for.
2. Will i be able to use my current water system to cool it. Going by pictures they seem bigger that my heatsink.
3. Do you have to get a separate power supply to power it or can i use my systems psu.

My System consists of,
I7 950 Currently at 4ghz 20*200 Temps atm are 38c idle
My cooling system was a ek supreme 240kit
i changed the radiators 1 240 xspc an 1 120 xspc
Water block is the same ek supreme
an so is the pump that came with the kit an reservoir
My psu is a corsair 620hx.

Thanks in advance for any an all help..

 

[Bobnova]

The sort of TEC you need to cool an overclocked 950 and be useful will require a lot of cooling.
You're looking at a minimum of 200w from the CPU, so to make a real dent in temps you need a 250-350w TEC. That means your cooling system needs to get rid of 450-550w of heat, think CPU+2xGTX580 as far as heatload goes. You'll need a lot more radiator.

You can use your system's PSU if it's large enough, yours likely isn't though given the size TEC you'd need.

Beyond all of that, if you actually do get lower temps you will likely run into condensation issues, if the CPU gets decently below the ambient air temp it will pull water out of the air. Water+electronics=paperweights.

For 24/7 use, air or water cooling is where it's at. If you want to use it for benching (check out the link in my sig, if you enjoy tweaking and tuning I bet you'd like benching) then it's a different story.
What is practical for 24/7 and what is practical for benching are two very different beasts.

 

[hokiealumnus]

For 24/7 use, air or water cooling is where it's at. If you want to use it for benching (check out the link in my sig, if you enjoy tweaking and tuning I bet you'd like benching) then it's a different story.
What is practical for 24/7 and what is practical for benching are two very different beasts.

+1, well said.

 

[Genchoppa]

Cool thanks. Guess for now I'll keep trying to break
4.2ghz. Need to do more research.