Lots of questions bout TEC cooling

[Fr3ak]

Hi, I didnt look into TEC cooling until yesterday, so I am still a noob when it comes to that kinda cooling. My questions might be a little bit silly, but I am unfortunately quite busy these days, so I dont have the time to find all the information by myself. I hope you answer at least a few of my questions :)

For me it seems that TEC cooling is a nice compromise between water and Vapor Phase Change Cooling. So can you can a TEC cooled rig 24/7 or is it also just good for short benchmark runs? From what I read so far, it aint possible to run the PC with just watercooling with the peltier turned off. So how long does it take to boot a tec rig? Do you have to turn the peltier on before you can turn on the pc or can you turn everything on at the same time? I am thinking about using a 172W or 226W peltier for the cpu, my gfx card and nb (maybe ram and mosfets too) will bge watercooled. I was also thinkin about gettin a Eheim 1048 and a Morax radiator with 9 120mm fans. Do you recommend using only one zycle or should I use a seperate zycle with a triple rad and punp for the tec only? As I am using a big tower case, space shouldnt no the a problem. I am also not sure wheter I should get a swiftech Thermoelectric Cooler or build one by myself. Are there any "how to's" for building tec coolers by yourself? I am a little scared of insulation.. The best thing would be something I can use with future cpus with different sockets too.
Thats everything I can think of at the moment. Any help would be appreciated :)
Thanks in advance, Fr3ak

[Mr. Tinker]

You can just boot like normal, everything at the same time especially if you put the whole system on a relay.

Use the swiftech block but see if you can find it used.

Give the TEC a dedcated loop.

Make sure your running voltage for the TEC is at least twice that of the processor.

[Fr3ak]

Make sure your running voltage for the TEC is at least twice that of the processor.


Thanks for the info. Do you mean wattage? Otherwise it doesnt make sense to me. :confused:

How bout condensation? Is it possible with tec cooling to run 24/7?
And does the peltier always consumpts the maximum enery or does it depend on the cpu temp?
I am trying to get a swiftech block, but it doesnt look good :mad: I didnt find a shop in europe where I could order a new one and it seems like swiftech themselves are not shipping outside the usa :/
Will see if I can find other places later in the evening. Otherwise I will have to build one by myself, which could be interesting.

[saratoga]

Thanks for the info. Do you mean wattage? Otherwise it doesnt make sense to me. :confused:

How bout condensation? Is it possible with tec cooling to run 24/7?
And does the peltier always consumpts the maximum enery or does it depend on the cpu temp?
I am trying to get a swiftech block, but it doesnt look good :mad: I didnt find a shop in europe where I could order a new one and it seems like swiftech themselves are not shipping outside the usa :/
Will see if I can find other places later in the evening. Otherwise I will have to build one by myself, which could be interesting.

He means wattage. The power draw will change a little with load, but not a whole lot.

[HiJon89]

Thanks for the info. Do you mean wattage? Otherwise it doesnt make sense to me. :confused:

How bout condensation? Is it possible with tec cooling to run 24/7?
And does the peltier always consumpts the maximum enery or does it depend on the cpu temp?
I am trying to get a swiftech block, but it doesnt look good :mad: I didnt find a shop in europe where I could order a new one and it seems like swiftech themselves are not shipping outside the usa :/
Will see if I can find other places later in the evening. Otherwise I will have to build one by myself, which could be interesting.
TEC cooling is fine for 24/7 use, but I would definitely recommend a pump stronger than the Eheim 1048. If you're going to run GPU + CPU in the same loop, I would recommend a Monstercore modded by Weapon. It might take some time for those to be available so you might be better off doing seperate loops and just getting a 2x120mm radiator for each loop.

Condensation will be a problem without insulation because the TEC will get temps below ambient, but as long as you insulate properly you should have no worries. The good thing is, the water doesn't get cold so there's no need to insulate the tubes, just the motherboard and water block.

I think the amount of power the peltier draws is dependent upon the amount of load on it.

[Fr3ak]

Thats good news :)
I was going to use a dual 120 rad for the tec with a eheim 1048 and a dual or triple 120 rad for the rest, also with aeheim 1048.
Is it necessary to insulate anything in case I use a swiftech tec cooler? Its already insulated. Or do you have to put silicon on the socket like you do it with a Vaporchill?

[Holst]

Personally im too paranoid to run pelt 24/7.

If you get a pump faliure or somehting then you can burn your house down, NO JOKE!!

I only ever felt safe running pelts when I was at the PC, so I could react to any problems.

I think that wintsch labs blocks are the best you can get at the moment. Expensive but allot better than the swiftech ones.
http://www.wintschlabs.com/

You should use a bigger pump than the 1048.
Flowrate is important with TEC cooling due to the high wattages involved.
Eheim 1250 should be the minimum you use, but a high flow iwaki will probably be better IMO. maxx is the man to ask about pumps, read the stickies he wrote.

If your planning on using the TEC all the time then I would use dielectric grease in the socket. Its another usefull backup against condensation.

[Fr3ak]

I wasnt going to run it 24/7. It was more like will I be able to game with it the whole day, in case I have the time to do so. I dont want a PC which I have ti shut down every 4 hours..

Those Wintsch coolers look nice, but I wanna keep costs at a minimum. I am only a´poor student, so I only have a student budget :stick:

I found a nice PSU which has 25A on the 12V rail. Is that enought for a single 226W peltier?

I know that a bigger pump is always better, but from my experiance has shown that a 1048 should be enought for a dual rad and cpu cooler.

Another question came to my mind: Do you have to replace the peltiers after a certain amount of time or do they last forever?

[mdzcpa]

Here's an article I wrote up about TEC cooling a while back that answers many of your questions:

TEC Upgrade (http://www.liquidninjas.com/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=20&page=1)


This will give you a good idea of what you can expect from a 226w TEC, dual 120mm rad, 1048 pump, and the swifty tec block. I also cover powering the TEC, insulation, and proper use of relalys for safety.

[Fr3ak]

Thanks for the article, I will read through it later :)

Edit: I just read the article. Can you get the cpu out of the socket again after applying dielectric grease, in case you fry the cpu or do you have to get a new mainboard too?

[Holst]

TEC are solid state with no moving parts, they will last pretty much forever.
If you buy one new I think they come with a 10 year warranty from some places.

[HiJon89]

Edit: I just read the article. Can you get the cpu out of the socket again after applying dielectric grease, in case you fry the cpu or do you have to get a new mainboard too?
There is no problem taking the CPU out of the socket with dielectric grease, it doesn't solidify, its just a gel-like substance. Normally there would be small air pockets between the pins and the socket, so when using sub-ambient cooling you have to fill these air pockets with something so condensation doesn't form in there, that's why we use dielectric grease :)

[mdzcpa]

Edit: I just read the article. Can you get the cpu out of the socket again after applying dielectric grease, in case you fry the cpu or do you have to get a new mainboard too?

HiJon89 summed it up pretty good. Nothing is permanent.

I just use compressed air to clean the CPU pins if I need to clean up the chip after I take it out. The socket wipes up pretty good too. There will always remain a small residue on the chip and socket holes, but that's no big deal. Keeping electrical connections dry and sealed if what dielectric grease is for. It will never hurt the mainboard.

[Fr3ak]

Ok that sounds good to me. I never used it, so I thought that it is similar to silicon.