tec-->psu

[Jrocket]

First of all bear with me... I am a newb with tecs. I am considering getting a water cooling unit with tecs. However I dont want to buy the expensive meanwell psu. So I was wondering how you hook up a tec to a normal psu, and also if it takes up as many whats as the tec is rated. Such as, would a 226w tec take up 226w of power from the psu? Also how many watts of tecs can one meanwell take?
Thanks

[sandman]

Originally posted by Jrocket
First of all bear with me... I am a newb with tecs. I am considering getting a water cooling unit with tecs. However I dont want to buy the expensive meanwell psu. So I was wondering how you hook up a tec to a normal psu, and also if it takes up as many whats as the tec is rated. Such as, would a 226w tec take up 226w of power from the psu? Also how many watts of tecs can one meanwell take?
Thanks

It's not so much the watts they take, it's that they take all of them off of one PSU rail. Like if a 226watt pelt would take some of it's power off all the rails (3.3, 5, and 12) it would be easy to run off of a normal PSU. But, it takes all 25A off the 12V line.

So, you need a psu that gives 25A and won't blow when put under that load. These PSU's are few and far between.

I'd just suck it up and blow $90 on a meanwell. A 226watt TEC actually takes more than 226watt to run at full power. 25Amps at a Vmax of 15V is more than 226.

[mdzcpa]

You'll only get one TEC on the Meanwell if it's a 226w TEC.

BTW, you never really want to run your 226w TEC at max power. It becomes very inefficient at anything over 13v. In fact, I find 13.1v to be the sweet spot for best system wide temps. You can get more CPU cooling if you run it up to 15v, but your water temps will soar, and anything else on that loop (like a GPU TEC) will suffer. In addition, the rad will throw incredible heat into the room. If that is not a concern, and your cooling loop is up to the task, running 15v is otherwise a doable option.

[Jrocket]

Thanks guys! One last question though, what if I were to run a 176w tec. Would I be able to run to of those on a meanwell? Or are we talking 80w pelts are the only that you can do two?

[sandman]

I'm assuming you meant 172 watt pelts?

If so, those run on 24V and can be run off of a 24V PSU, the meanwell we are talking about only gives out between like 15-11V.

You can run a 24V tec at that voltage, it'll just be around half of the wattage removed.

[Soulburner]

Its better to run it at about 13v, 24v creates all sorts of heat and it becomes less efficient.

[sandman]

But it cools better as well.

[Soulburner]

A lot of people say they get better GPU temps at 13v.

[mdzcpa]

Originally posted by Soulburner
A lot of people say they get better GPU temps at 13v.

That's a fact for for me. Few (and I mean few) water cooling systems have enough cooling potential to keep water temps under control to the point where GPU temps do not suffer when you use a 226w pelt at 15v in the same loop.