Peltier Cooling

[djmaddogfreak]

Alright, any suggestions on DIY peltier water cooling kits? I have a water cooling kit already, just wondering if I could modify it to support the Peltier.

Any comments would be awesome. thankx

 

[commandercup]

well from what I've seen (coolit) the peltier cooling uses small resoirvoirs (a bunch) so that one single peltier chip can cool each res... I guess that speeds up the cooling since it doesn't have to have all that water in there

 

[djmaddogfreak]

I was looking at how it's done and apparently the peltier chip gets REALLY cold on one side, and REALLY hott on the other, so the cold side could be used to cool the liquid, and a good heatsink with fan could cool the hot side of the chip. Problem is, it does use a lot of power. I am just trying to figure out what would be the best way to implement it if i built my own...

I'm wondering if direct water contact the the cold side would be best, like cutting a hole on the side of the resivoir and mounting the chip on the side, convering the hole. then a nice heat sink and fan (maybe the one from the processor that i havent needed to use since i had the water cooling kit, and that would make the entire system very very quiet....

Any suggestions or ideas?

 

[commandercup]

instead of having the water actually touch the cold side, just use a very nice conducting metal... safer and less chance of error for little loss in heat conduction

 

[djmaddogfreak]

hmmmm... good idea... i was looking at some reservoirs and i found one made of "High Density Polyurethane" Any idea on the heat conducting properties of this? Sounds like it wouldn't conduct temps very well. I will probably have to insert a copper block of some sort....

I ordered the pelitier... it was really cheap, runs on 12V and has a difference of 78 * C between the hot and cold sides....

 

[saltynay]

peltier is known to be highly inefficient method of cooling.....

 

[aspire]

first off, the most efficient way to use a tec is to put the cold side touching your cpu and water cool the hot side, thus it makes having a gpu/cpu loop impossible.

secondly, unless you got a pos tec youll need a good 200 watts to power a nice tec. so you probably will need a separate power supply for it.

please dont even consider using the peltier to cool your water its just plain stupid. and if you do plan on using a tec in any close proximety to computer components youll need to insulate them from condensation. i.e dielectric grease.

 

[djmaddogfreak]

in my hours of researching last night, i did come across the need for dielectric grease. I was just wondering though, how exactly does that protect the components from condensation? How would it be applied? and on what side(s) would i apply it. Also if i use dielectric grease on the cold side where the processor is, does that mean I dont need to use thermal compound?

I was thinking of using a copper block on the cold side where the processor is to conduct the heat/cold and then having the copper bottom of the CPU block on the water cooling kit just be right up against the peltier to extract the heat from the hot side.
50x50mm Copper Cold Plate - FrozenCPU.com

As for the power supply, I did find this... http://www.frozencpu.com/products/2http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5139/psu-217/Thermaltake_525_Mini_ITX_Drive_Bay_270W_Power_Supply_A2422.html?tl=g30c105s190#blank
It says it gives me the power to run a PCI Express card and 2 sata drives. I would probably just cut the wires i don't need and tape them off. Should be a fun project...

any other suggestions please, I am all ears. This is gonna be a cool project to do and I will be sure to post pics.

 

[djmaddogfreak]

Here is a pic of the power supply specs....

I think 22 AMPs on the 12 V will be fine.... but i have to see exactly how many amps I am drawing through the 12 Volts as it is... I only have one optical drive and one hard drive (SATA)... The Peltier chip i ordered was taken off of medical equipment, Operates at 12 V, but i dont know wattage or amps. I will just have to measure the amperage wen i get it i guess...

If thats not enough... I can just purchase the 700 Watt RaidMAX PSU from new egg... Newegg.com - RAIDMAX RX-700SS ATX12V 700W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, C-tick, CCC, CB - Retail

 

[djmaddogfreak]

I got the peltier chip in the other day... I just need to get another power supply to power it, and i will need to get some dielectric grease too. All in due time...