TEC Revival - Current commercial Peltier-TEC Products

[initialised]

Here's a quick look at what's out there to silence the nay sayers. It's worth noting that the systems and chillers typically use low power TECs, are not direct die and have dew point cut off to avoid condensation.

TEC'd Systems
Dell H2C (http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_720h2c?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs) Watercooled, single loop ~40W. When the Worlds Biggest PC vendor adopts a technology you know it's on the way to the mainstream. I'd like to know if a compressor system could be built to fit the same volume.
Commodore (http://www.commodoregaming.com/pcshop/Game+PC/Ice+Cube.aspx) featuring Ice Cube, the hot side is fixed to the PSU, the cold side connected by heatpipes to a heatsink in front of the CPU cooler. Air cooled air chiller.
Cyberpower Quad Elite (http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/gamer_infinity_quad_elite/) uses a Titan Amanda to OC a Q6600 to 3.4GHz, has been on the CustomPC (http://www.custompc.co.uk/reviews/138006/cyberpower-gamer-infinity-quad-elite.html) A list for some time.

TEC waterchillers
CoolIT (http://www.coolitsystems.com) a variety of air cooled water chillers

Air Cooled
ActiveCool (http://www.activecool.com/products/ac4g.html) allegedly the first commercial TEC based CPU cooler. AKA SubZero4G (http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/coolers/subzero/subzero4g.htm) from ThermalTake and IceAge (http://www.globalwin.com.tw/products/cooler/peltier/iceage.swf)from Globalwin. Basically a PSU and control logic for fan control with an air cooled TEC which allegedly has 130W of cooling capability but draws only 72W
Titan Amanda (http://www.titan-cd.com/eng/heatpipe/amanda.html) 50W, 12V TEC, 4 heatpipes, Aluminium Fins & Copper Base.

Blocks
Swiftech (http://www.swiftech.com/): Current TEC blocks are MCW60-T (http://www.swiftech.com/products/mcw6500-T1.asp) for GPUs and MCW6500-T (http://www.swiftech.com/products/mcw6500-T1.asp) for CPUs. Swiftech blocks are easy to add TECs to.
Arctic Spider (http://www.arcticspider.com/) is looking very over priced these days but is still one of the few waterblocks to support 62 mm TECs.
DangerDen: Maze4-1 (http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=133&cat=20&page=1) only takes upto 40mm TECs, so a bit limiting given the output of DX10 cards.

Research & Development
AMD (http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2004/10/21/amd-patents--peltier-cooler-on-chip)TECs embedded in SOI

[Sam__]

I have a Titan Amanda TEC air cooler :D :D works pretty well. only has a 50w pelt in it

[initialised]

I have a Titan Amanda TEC air cooler :D :D works pretty well. only has a 50w pelt in itAdded it, thanks.

[NaeKuh]

im sorry can i ask the point to this thread?

All the TEC coolers you listed that arent blocks arent great. Infact a Thermalright Ultra120 Extreme lapped would spank them all across the board.

I think the point of TEC on this forum is for real TEC units. TEC systems which drop temps below ambient and require independant power supplies to run.

This thread will only misguide newbies to believe TEC products are better then there air counter parts.

So can i ask the purpose of this thread? Maybe you should add the note, avoid at all cost because TEC's are terribly inefficient, Wont perform better then a Air counter part, and easily gets destoryed by a medium class water unit.

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

I think the point of TEC on this forum is for real TEC units. TEC systems which drop temps below ambient and require independant power supplies to run.



Swiftech: Current TEC blocks are MCW60-T for GPUs and MCW6500-T for CPUs. Swiftech blocks are easy to add TECs to.



While not necessarily the best solutions out there, the other products aren't all that bad.

Mind you, they're not all that good, but if nothing else they can serve as a list of products to avoid :shrug:

Not everyone here, though, is interested in TEC's that go below ambient. Even for "real" TEC's on independent psu's. I, personally, wish Cathar would explore them a bit further (see his previous work for reference). The general trend now seems to be running TEC's at 2/3 - 3/4 their max v to achieve a decent efficiency. It's just too bad that it's hard to find >400+ watt TEC's.

[Fujimitsu]

The title "tec revival" is a bit misleading.

None of the products you listed perform terribly well.

"revival" implies usefulness... all these systems are just complicated, inefficient, expensive ways to achieve mediocre cooling.
The commercial TEC systems in high-end PCs, (dell h2c) are a waste of cash and again dont perform very well.

While these weak TECs may be fun for old, low heat-output parts, none of the listed equipment is really worth the money on today's equipment... there are easier/cheaper/better performing options at almost every pricepoint.

[initialised]

So can i ask the purpose of this thread?The other areas have sticky lists of current commercially available products why shouldn't such a list exist for TEC?

There's been a lot of TEC is dead sentiment lately but at the same time DELL, the worlds biggest PC manufacturer is commecialising a system with a TEC water chiller. So obviously someone takes it seriously and perhaps the water chiller with under volted TECs will prove to be a viable solution until someone comes up with a refrigeration unit with a similar price and size.

My own dabblings with TEC cooling have shown me that it is damn hard to get right, fortunately I have the required Degree in Electronics, research experience and resourcefulness. At present my CPU is idling at 10C and hit 46C at 100% at 3.0GHz with 1.5V unfortunately some of this heat is being dumped on my Radeon. It usually idles around 40C, its at 60C. Time to get it TEC'd too.

[initialised]

So can i ask the purpose of this thread?The other areas have sticky lists of current commercially available products why shouldn't such a list exist for TEC?

There's been a lot of TEC is dead sentiment lately but at the same time DELL, the worlds biggest PC manufacturer is commecialising a system with a TEC water chiller. So obviously someone takes it seriously and perhaps the water chiller with under volted TECs will prove to be a viable solution until someone comes up with a refrigeration unit with a similar price and size.

My own dabblings with TEC cooling have shown me that it is damn hard to get right, fortunately I have the required Degree in Electronics, research experience and resourcefulness. At present my CPU is idling at 10C and hit 60C at 100% at 3.0GHz with 1.5V unfortunately some of this heat is being dumped on my Radeon. It usually idles around 40C, its at 63C. Time to get it TEC'd too. Then I should be able to push the CPU beyond the 90% OC I've got it to before.

[alexio]

My own dabblings with TEC cooling have shown me that it is damn hard to get right, fortunately I have the required Degree in Electronics, research experience and resourcefulness. At present my CPU is idling at 10C and hit 46C at 100% at 3.0GHz with 1.5V unfortunately some of this heat is being dumped on my Radeon. It usually idles around 40C, its at 60C. Time to get it TEC'd too.
The cost of running 1 226w TEC is very high. You'd be better of selling your CPU and getting one that overclocks better than crappy. The 226w TEC won't hold the load of a Q6600 so be warned.

TECs aren't that bad if you use them to assist cooling, not if they are the solution that provides full cooling. It's not a bad idea to further cool the water in a water cooling loop after it has passed the rad with a low powered aircooled TEC (226w 12v TEC at 5-7v).

TECs in an air cooler to assist cooling, like the Amanda, are not a good option in my opinion. These coolers are too expensive to compete with water cooling or well designed heat pipe coolers like the Ultra 120.

*EDIT* It's a bad idea to cool a 2900 XT with a TEC :(