Peltier Cooling?

[Luscious]

In my first post, I gave tips on cooling and some general advice:

Pretty much late getting my 2 cents in here, but based on my work I can give you the following advice.

1. Cooling your cpu to 20 degrees is a misnomer, because the heat generated by the hot side of the peltier - regardless of your cpu temperature - needs to be dissipated. And even if you measure the cpu temp, keep in mind the heat a peltier adds to your coolant temp (your water loop). It is very important to always run a peltier through a separate water loop, using a separate pump and reservior/radiator.

2. Just because your cpu temps are not reaching zero, doesn't mean you won't get condensation. ANYTHING that is below ambient temperature will exhibit condensation, and thus needs to be insulated properly. So if it is 25 degrees inside where you live, and you want your cpu at 20, you will need to insulate your gear or be faced with trouble later. You will also face this problem if you try to cool the liquid below ambient.

3. A good cpu cooling block and dual radiator setup will provide near-ambient coolant temperatures. Also, if possible, stick with 1/2 inch ID tubing instead of 1/4 inch. The added flow will get the heat off the block faster and help the radiator run better as well.

4. Use a room air-conditioner. Cool your place down to 20c. It will not only help the radiator work better, but your inside case temps will be lower too.

I have just finished building work on my latest build, and I can tell you, it is a monster! I'm using a phase change cooler for my cpu that is bottom-mounted in a modified case. Both GPU's are peltier cooled on a separate circuit which runs to a triple radiator. A second loop cools the NB/SB/VREG and RAM also connected to a triple radiator. Finally I have a third loop cooling my 12 hard drives connected to a third radiator. Using RPM controlled fans I can acheive coolant temperatures that are just 3 degrees above ambient - or 23c, even when it is 100F outside. And it runs near dead silent!

Lots of research and careful work will save you many headaches. I spent a LONG time figuring out where and how to place everything, but in the end, I got the performance results I had dreamed of because I knew how to do it properly.

Swiftech is a good company and they have some great gear, but you can also look at DangerDen and Koolance. I'm using components from all three on my rig and they work in sync together, as long as you know how to do it.

Would you care to explain what it is you're not happy with?

 

[wnds21]

Here's a question. Let's say you take your processor and smother it with dielectric grease, do the same for the socket. Put a copper plate between a TEC and the processor after smothering the top half and the plate with grease. Then mount a CPU water block on the hot side of the TEC. This CPU block is the only one in the loop. Then insulate everything from the board to the water block, and the back of the mobo aswell. Would this setup be enough to take the heat from the TEC and at the same time create enough coolage to cool the proc? Say you're using a 100w TEC or something in that range. I've just started looking at this Peltier concept tonight and have been thinking up ideas that make almost sense to me. Let me know! thanks.

 

[Luscious]

You DO NOT want to put dielectric grease between the cpu and whatever-it-is you put on top of your cpu. The thermal properties of dielectric grease are not the same as those of proper thermal grease like arctic silver 5.

Dielectric grease, as its name suggests, is designed to insulate "electrically", which is why you use it on your socket to insulate the pins from shorts due to condensation when you use sub-ambient temps in your cooling. Putting the stuff "on" your cpu will make it act like a heat blanket, the heat will not be able to escape the cpu, and you will have a dead system in minutes.

My suggestion: Use proper high-quality thermal grease on top of your cpu such as arctic silver 5.

You do not need any grease between the copperplate, tec and waterblock. These three components are commonly screwed together to make a sandwitch in direct contact. This is done because the extreme cold and hot sides of the peltier are beyond the temperature/performance specs of any thermal grease, so using grease would actually hinder the effectivness of the peltier. And, since the surface of the peltier is not lapped smooth anyway, you do not need to be concerned about using grease to obtain absolute surface contact.

Also, you mustn't forget to spray conformal coating on your mobo as well.

What you are looking for is a classic thermoelectric cooling system. But you will need something more than 100 watts if you are using a hot P4 or OC. If I were you I would take a look at www.swiftnets.com, they have pretty much the best devices out there, and can supply a complete peltier kit if that is what you need.

 

[jacksoncarl256]

Rather old article but since I'm doing something similar I thought I'd read it. I don't want to go to extremely low temps, a change from 80 F to 35 to 40 F would be enough. The problem of condensation has already been solved by putting the Peltier between 2 cooper plates and insulating the sides of the Peltier with foam insulation creating a sealed chamber.
I'm cooling about 1 cup of water in a plastic sided cooper base container which quickly goes to 32 F this water will be pumped to a water block on the CPU and returned to the cooler to be cooled again. The hot side of the Peltier will be cooled using a water loop and radiator. The GPU is a hybrid meaning it has it's own water loop.

 

[rubix_1011]

Closing the thread as last response was 12 years ago. If you would like to include details, photos, etc, I am very curious to see your setup and trial and error, but this thread really has exceeded its lifespan.