peltier stuff? info needed please :)

locutus12 · 16 May 2006 at 23:55

am i right in saying that they work on phase cooling and do the job very very very well... so presumably if i didnt want water cooling and didnt want air cooling, this would be the way to go ?

any idea where i can find prices for these things and what exactly i would need to cool my cpu / North bridge and possibly my Graphics card ?

Jokester · 17 May 2006 at 00:04

A TEC (Thermo Electric Cooler) is a semiconductor device that uses the Peltier effect to make one side of a ceramic plate much colder than the other. They are very inefficent at cooling, you're typically looking at TEC producing twice as much heat as the actual device you're cooling. As a direct result you need to cool the TEC with decent watercooling.

They typically run off 12V (or 24V in some cases) and generally require moderate ampage between 10-20A. This is generally too much for your PC PSU so a standalone dedicated 12V supply is recommended.

What you actully need is a watercooling setup, plus special blocks and TECs for whatever you're cooling (DangerDen do kits). I would recommend a seperate PSU for a TEC.

You're probably looking at £100 alone for a TEC +waterblock and PSU. Then you've got to factor in the cost of the rest of the watercooling stuff on top of that. You've also got to bear in mind condensation as well.

CPU wise, phase is the way to go in my opinion but there is fun to be had with TECs on GPUs.

Jokester

Cyanide · 17 May 2006 at 00:48

You can get them from the bay, but as said you need a watercooling kit, and a meaty one at that, so cool the hot side down. I wouldn't have much more than a pelt per rad (ie, no other components) as it almost boiled my GPU's even though my CPU was running nicely at 3oC

locutus12 · 17 May 2006 at 01:43

hmmm... so basically im looking at around £200 to £250 all in ?

i was kind of hoping it wouldnt be that much, but then i didnt realise you still needed water cooling

way beyond my means at the moment

anyone recommend a water cooling alternative that wont break the bank? its basically because im getting an opty 146 and i really would like to see 2.8Ghz at least without flames...

***F1ZZY*** · 17 May 2006 at 03:52

Opty 146 run relatively cool.

2.8 should be easy on air. You might even manage it without voltage increases.

Any good aircooling will do the job. HS are huge these days with 120mm fans and heatpipes.

Watercooling will be cooler, but is it worth the money for maybe 200Mhz more???

I mean 200 more than MAX on air, 2.8 should be a breeze. (he he intentional pun on air cooling)