I have succumbed to water cooling

[aspire]

i'm thinking of going TEC after reading alot

That's a terrible idea with current hardware.

Tec's just can't keep up with the heat and wind up insulating the core form the water block which is a much more efficient transferrer of heat.

 

[BongWizard]

Tec's just can't keep up with the heat and wind up insulating the core form the water block which is a much more efficient transferrer of heat.

ummmm... WHAT??

Peltier blocks are extremely effective as long as you install them right... whack a water block on top and they'll go even better... only real problem is the fact you'll need a separate PSU, but because nos doesnt have a case (cuz he's mexican!) thats really not an issue... and dont forget to insulate it!!

 

[aspire]

Ok let's walk through this.

The problem with Tec's are numerous.

1. Efficiency is basically nonexistant.

2. Most high wattage tecs are larger than the surface of a CPU so not all of it's power can be utilized.

3. The power draw from a high wattage tec unit is on par with a fairly high end computer.

4. Most performance numbers are given at the tec's max voltage, in the case of this 437W Peltier, 437W Qmax Peltier - FrozenCPU.com , 26V.

Try and find an affordable lab power supply that will let you push that much power through it at that Voltage.

For nearly the same amount of money you'd be dropping on the water cooling hardware, peltier equipment, and power, you could have gone out and bought a decent phase change unit which would wind up keeping your cpu a lot colder, with a lot less risk, and without turning your computer into a space heater.

Back in the day they worked alright because we weren't cooling 4 cores so a small 80W tec was plenty but now they just can't keep up with something like an i7 at 4ghz in any practical manner.

There's a reason why the Thermoelectric Cooling forum on Xtremesystems is nearly dead...

 

[NosBoost300]

point well taken aspire.. everything i was reading was on fx57's and new dual cores

 

[BongWizard]

1. Efficiency is basically nonexistant.

phase units are very inefficient as well, although there is no other viable way of cooling your chip to subzero temps for consistent use

2. Most high wattage tecs are larger than the surface of a CPU so not all of it's power can be utilized.

most evaporators are too... a larger area is used to allow more effective heat transfer in evaporators to allow the full potential of the gas to be used

3. The power draw from a high wattage tec unit is on par with a fairly high end computer.

so is the draw from a decent phase unit... usually higher, in fact, but they offer a far high performance to power ratio

4. Most performance numbers are given at the tec's max voltage, in the case of this 437W Peltier, 437W Qmax Peltier - FrozenCPU.com , 26V.

Try and find an affordable lab power supply that will let you push that much power through it at that Voltage.

build your own!! its a fairly simple process if you know a bit about electronics... there's a decent outline of the build process here -> icecoldcomputing.com: all about deeply chilled CPUs (if you want to use that particular TEC, you'll, obviously, have to change the transformer setup)

For nearly the same amount of money you'd be dropping on the water cooling hardware, peltier equipment, and power, you could have gone out and bought a decent phase change unit which would wind up keeping your cpu a lot colder, with a lot less risk, and without turning your computer into a space heater.

less risk??? the lower you go, the riskier it is... also, most phase systems will pump out alot of heat to condense the refrigerant (because the compressed gas is hot before it enters the condenser/HEX)... and really, you cant go out and BUY a decent phase unit... building a phase system will be much cheaper and more efficient (and you might even learn something!! how novel)

i know its really not fair to compare TECs and phase systems, but you cant say TECs are completely nonviable...

but all in all, YES, a phase change cooler woll be a much better investment

nothing against you aspire, but i just like playin devil's advocate sometimes! lol... but seriously, nothing personal