Anyone ever tried a peltier?

[Gambitt]

I saw this review on tom's hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/10/25/sytrin_nextherm_ics_8200/ which seemed quite pointless to me. Why cool the air in the case when you can cool the components directly using a block like they do in water cooling.

I've always wondered why people always so hot on water cooling when, in theory at least, the Peltier system should be unbeatable in terms of cooling, you dial in the voltage and watch frost form on the CPU if you want. I dont think I've ever seen a system that used a peltier system in action, I've read about it and seen pics on sites comparing cooling methods but never really heard of anyone using it.

I know my system isnt usually hot enough to warrant even water cooling, especially not when I can just turn up the fan speeds or whatever. I also know that they end up generating more heat that they are sucking off the component and that you'll eventually need to have a cooling system for the "hot end" of your cooling system but the same is basically true for watercooling with evaporation towers and whatnot....

What allyuh think about it?

[Crixx_Creww]

All of that is certainly not worth a 4 degree drop in ambient temperature of all things.

It is a nice premise that iam sure could be implemented in a better way.
Just using a house fan i can get about a 6 degree drop in ambient.

Alien wares alien ice uses a series of  fans in that up drag formation that does wonders for ambient cooling and obviously uses much less power.
Plus looks kick @$$ with those eyes on the front.

[Gambitt]

Yeah, especially when the peltier cooler by itself  with forced cooling of the "hot side" or radiator will produce a temperature range of 0 degrees C (we talking 50 to 70 degrees temperature difference here).

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=peltierinfo.shtml
http://www.overclock.net/peltiers-tec/62997-developing-more-efficient-peltier.html

[Beomagi]

there's two main things to look at on a peltier.
The first is the delta possible
the second is the power of the peltier.

you need about double the heat output of a cu to coll it effectively.

If your peltier is not powerful enough, then the cold side can't take away heat from the cpu fast enough - eg, say you attach a 90W pelt to a 110W cpu - you're not taking more heat away from the cpu, and the cpu can overheat, and burn.

When you use too hot a cpu, the peltier actually acts as an INSULATOR

it's messy - you need to smear your socket and around it with dielectric, coat your electricals in waterproof coating - fingernail polish or paint or something. silicone etc.

guesswork - your cpu is 110 w - but you're going to run that stock if using a peltier? NO! you're going to overclock. so multiply the wattage by new speed/stocl speed and by new voltage/old voltage for an approximate change in the wattage. e.g. overclocking a 3700+ at 80W from 2.2 to 2.9GHz and passing 1.5V instead of 1.35
watts output = 80*(2.9/2.2)*(1.5/1.35) = 117watts.
so instead of a 160W peltier, you're looking at 230watts.

They DO have 224 watt pelts, but you don't wanna run electrical components at their max and expect them to last. There's 400 watt peltiers too. NOW the problem is getting power. For a 12 V pelt, you need 33 amps, 35 amps is hard to come by. There's a few power supplies that can take that. splice the middle green wire to your main psu and a black one near it (all black is ground) and when the main psu starts, so would the secondary. You can get a specialized psu for it, but they're expensive.

The biggest problem now - cooling the blasted thing. You're NOT cooling your cpu, you're NOT cooling the peltier. You're cooling BOTH the cpu and peltier. If you oc'ed a prescott, then it's possible you're talkig about almsot 200watt's of cpu AND  a 400 watt pelt for 600 watts. you will need water cooling, and GOOD water cooling at this point.

Now look at the cost - you're talking top end watercooling - $300 to $400, a high end pelt, an incredible psu, and loads of electrical power. Take a look at vapochill. When conroe comes around, peltiers would be much much more viable.

[TrinireturnofGamez]

  hmmm thats why  i haven't seen many people use peltiers recently... presshots!  Truly i think you can max out most chips on good air/ water cooling  , paying 200+ usd for a bulky peltier isn't worth it unless you really rich and xtreme , and not to mention a body builder if you plan on moving the machine around alot .

[Gambitt]

Dont get me wrong eh, I follow what yuh saying, but I disagree that you need to go out and buy top end watercooling. What you really need is powerful watercooling, not a fancy, pretty cooling solution. I mean look at the overclocking and watercooling forums out there, man strapping radiators from car and aircon onto the pump and the waterblock.

And they putting in second PSUs to deal with the greater powerload.

Really and truly it comes out to more than for just the watercooling, but watercooling can only get you down to ambient temps at best, and lets face it, these days hot no tail.  So man hadda think seriously about getting a aircon just for the computer. (Them fellas in foreign hooking up stripped down AC's to the watercooling they have to make slush boxes to achieve the same effect.)


Pelts not bulky, they a thin little pad nowadays. They even making tiny little ones.
http://www.overclock.net/peltiers-tec/62997-developing-more-efficient-peltier.html