gdmaclew :
I guess the reason why it didn't perform better was for the reason stated in the article...the hot exhaust air is being exhausted inside the enclosure, instead of outside it. If somehow the unit could draw in cool air from outside the case and then exhaust it outside the case, it would work much better
The air inside the case is probably just a couple degrees C warmer than room temp, at most. And the hot air should have been exhausted pretty much straight out of the case, making recirculation pretty much a non-issue.
Also, it's not really a fair complaint, since all the other coolers they compared it with were installed in the same case.
The biggest problem it has is that it needs to get rid of the entire CPU heat + 40 W extra. And they're trying to do that with a smaller heatsink, instead of a bigger one.
I think Peltier devices only make sense in CPU cooling for extreme overclocking with water cooling and big radiator. Even then, I wonder what the gains there'd be over direct-die waterblock cooling.