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I have an Antec TruePower 550W PSU. Do you think I could run a 226W TEC with it?

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Gnufsh

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2001
Location
Shasta Lake, California
+12v is rated 24amps, 530W 5, 3.3 & 12 combined. What would be the amperage draw of a 226W TEC at 12 volts instead of 15.2? About 19amps, right? Would that overstress a PSU running a bunch of other things too? HDDs, CDROMS, FANS, etc?


Edit: Darn it! I clicked on water instead of extreme. Could a mod move this or something? Sorry...
 
Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. How can I calculate what the 12v current draw will be for the rest of my system. I can just get the specs off the fans and things, but what about the mobo and video cards? how much 12v current do they draw?
 
o wait you want to runn the comp on it also? if thats the case don't it. VERy bad ideal. I am running the tec only on my PSU. they cool thing is i still can put a heavy draw on the 5v rail. you can undervolt a tec on the 5v. i just don know how much it will cool. $100 is not THAT bad for a PSU that runs 226w tec. I am sure there is cheaper. I have a bigazz tramsformer and caps i was going to use put to dam heavy.
 
I want to run the comp off it also. It would definately be pushing it, but I'm thinking I could do it. Do they draw the same current with no-load? If so, could I run a 226 watt pelt with no load on air, to see what voltage drop I get?
 
i have seen a 12v psu that will work for 226 watt tecs for 60~70 bucks, 24 amps continuos run time, artec 350 watt 12v psu. Do a search on this forum, maybe look around in the powersupplies and such section. That would be a much better idea than just a normal computer psu. I think it was sold by becooling.com or such, hope this helps.
 
tecs draw thier rated amperage with no "load". You should undervolting a try. but for some reason i run away at the thought of running comp and tec on the same psu.
 
12v is normally the most effecient for tecs that are 15v or such. Has to do with effeciency alot dealing with tecs as they draw a ton of power. At 12v they are running around 60% or so effecient, at 15v they would be running around 50% effecient or such. You will get a TINY amount better cooling ability but only if you can handle say an extra 80 watts of heat output with 10 watts more cooling potential. Normally the higher heatload overtakes whatever gains you might get normally, unless you have a giant really souped up waterchiller setup or such.
 
Yes, I know about dedicated PSUs, but I don't want to do that. I want to run it off of 12v, If I had a dedicated supply, I might do 15v. I I just had the 226W TEC with nothing generating head attached to it, would something like an AX-7 keep it from heating up to much?
 
Well, maybe the ax-7 with a high flow fan, and have the cold side be very very insulated. Because even room tempurature would be considered a heatload to the cold side of a tec. I am not really sure on exactly how much heat room temp would impact on performance but i know its enough to effect the tec heatload etc. I would get thermal paste and stick it on a large chunk of metal~old sidepanel of a case, large plate of copper etc and insulate it.
 
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