Air Cooling Question...take it easy sheesh

[mrmagoo_83]

I know, I know, air cooling a TEC sucks, yata yata; been there done that heard it all. I can't go with water right now, so just hold on all those suggestions.

I purchased some TECs off eBay, I even made a post here, and was supposed to post some pics, but my camera is fubar'd at the moment.

Anyway, I have two, approximately 80W peltiers, currently trapped between two gigantic heatsinks, which I am taking apart this weekend.

Here are my thoughts: (Remember just an experiment)

Stack the peltiers, compress between two coldplates, stick a SI-97A HSF on top of that, or even a 120 if I can find one for a socket A; and then mount two 90-120 fans on the HS. One on top, one on bottom. Each fan I have pushed upwards of 50CFM, so airflow should be good.

With the heatpipe technology, and the CFM of the fans, do you think it will do any good? Will there be any condensation with an AMD 1800+? I doubt it, but all questions that should be asked :)

I welcome any thoughts on the idea.

[Blindsniper]

No you will not get condenstation but will probably get a fried cpu.

[Fab]

Ive tried similar experiments myself a few times. Every time i get a bigger heatsink and i think i may be able to make it work- and every time i eventaly give up.

The best temperatures you are likley to get are about the same as you would get without the peltier. Try it though if you like.

[mrmagoo_83]

Rgr that. Thats what I was afraid of, guess I will have to wait and get some water sometime next year. My PC runs 24/7, will a water cooled pelt system be ok under those circumstances?

[Fab]

Should be, as long as you install it / insulate it properly.

[ls7corvete]

Dont stack the pelts, run them in parralell, there is probably a better choice for a HSF, you need a wide flat base.

IDK why people try to build a TEC system around whatever TEC they have, its much better to match the TEC to the system rather than the other way around.

[Holst]

Stacked it 100% wont work ... no matter what you do.

A single 80watt pelt probably wont gain you anything much over stock aircooling. But it might be worth a try for fun... I doubt you will get very good results unless your CPU will OC with low voltage... but I dont think you will damage anything either.

"if" you can manufacture something to run the pelts in paralell then you might get some quite good temps aircooled.
This would be good because you have double the surface area to aircool ... so you can use two heatsinks.

Im not saying that it will work particually well ... but it might beat aircooling if you set it up right.

Ill draw you a pic of what I would make to run the two pelts.

[Holst]

Insulation "might" be needed... but I wouldnt bother for the initial tests.

Exactly how you mount it ....

Probably best to use the 4 holes around the socketA socket.

Easyest way would be to bolt an aluminium plate to the copper with appropriately spaced holes.
If it gets cold enough for insulation, you could swap this for plastic (or cover it with insulation as well.

Id love it if you built this ... with 160watts of cooling power it might work ok if you can get good heatsinks and LOUD fans on it.

[[XC] moddolicous]

Rgr that. Thats what I was afraid of, guess I will have to wait and get some water sometime next year. My PC runs 24/7, will a water cooled pelt system be ok under those circumstances?
OT U should crunch d2ol for XS. We are gonna be #1 by christmas! OT As for your question, yes u can run it 24/7, but make sure u have really good insulation and make sure you put grease in the socket so that the pins dont get condensation on them.

[mrmagoo_83]

Funny thing about that picture, thats nearly what these two look like right now.

They have two huge heatsinks on each side, a 4x4" and a 5x5" with two bolts going all the way through to sandwhich a single pelt in the middle.

I have 2 of these, so four huges heatsinks, and 2 pelts.

I am planning on trying some of these new 130mm Thermaltake Silent Wheels. I purchased a few Thermaltake 90mm Silent Cats a few weeks back to go in the case, and they are pretty quiet, and move air. The "wheel" is 'supposed' to move 56CFM @ 16dB, this I have to see to believe.

I might try something like this, as I have these, and I have some time, just have to get some parts. It would be nice to be able to use these without having to overhaul everything. I wonder if my motherboard has holes in it for the bolts? Asus A7N8X Dlx.

So theoretically, I should be able to freeze that copper block in the middle.

[Holst]

Thats the idea...

Copper in the middle gets nice and cold, put that on your CPU and that should be cooled as well.

Problems will be with keeping the heatsinks cold.

WIth 80watt pelts at full voltage they will be putting out 120-150+watts each!!!
This will require ALLOT more than 56cfm fans.
100cfm is the sort of fan you need .... plus good case airflow to get all the heat out of the case.

If you dont want this to be damned loud you should give up now (or buy watercooling)

Can you take a pic of what you have allready got?

[mrmagoo_83]

I will try to take a pic of what I have, if I remember.

I did some demolition on one of the units I have, boy was that a mistake. The details:
Two heatsinks bolted together with a peltier compressed in the middle. About 3/4" of neoprene seen between the HS. So I unbolted the heatsinks and broke the apart, or rather broke the epoxy that held them together. This is where the trouble began. The neoprene was about 1/4" thick, inside that was about 1" to 1" 1/2" of molded foam, you know that stuff you blow in as a liquid and it hardens. The pelt was sitting on, what appeared to be aluminum, coldplate. So after about two hours of working at it with a knife, and a screwdriver, I was able to chip away 98% of the foam and free the pelt and the coldblock. The pelt has some numbers on it, and there is some sort of chip inline on the negative line, not sure what it is. So now I have foam everywhere, and I cut the sleeving on the positive lead, so now have bare wire showing, and still have foam on the wires in places. So in the end, it seems it might be easier to just spend a bit more money and get the Pelts by themselves, however this adventure did give me 4 good size heatsinks, and I mean good size, 4"x4" and 5"x5" both 1" thick. So now I have two each of those, if I tear the other set apart too (not planning unless I need them).

So right now, I think this whole idea is a bit out the window, I think I might just cut a hole in my side panel, stick the HOT sink outside the case, the COOL sink inside the case, and put a fan on it to just cool the internal air, lol...GHETTO MODDING at its best. :)

[STEvil]

the pelts inside are only about 50w

[jamiet757]

I currently have an Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 on my 3.2 P4, and it is capable of dissipating 200W of heat, my question is if I get say, a 176W peltier and put in on, will it cool my cpu more than just the air cooler? Will the cooler be able to handle the heat? I also want to try using tecs on my north and southbridge, with an active fan heatsink on top, what wattage should I use for that, and will it work? I dont do water, I dont like it, it isnt worth the money for me to do, so I am going to stick with air. Thanks in advance!
Jamie

[Holst]

I currently have an Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 on my 3.2 P4, and it is capable of dissipating 200W of heat, my question is if I get say, a 176W peltier and put in on, will it cool my cpu more than just the air cooler? Will the cooler be able to handle the heat? I also want to try using tecs on my north and southbridge, with an active fan heatsink on top, what wattage should I use for that, and will it work? I dont do water, I dont like it, it isnt worth the money for me to do, so I am going to stick with air. Thanks in advance!
Jamie

Wont work at all on the CPU!!!

Dont try it, and if you do dont say I didnt warn you.

TEC on the southbridge and northbridge might be more possible.
Im not sure what the wattage of your NB might be, but you might be able to get below ambient temps with an aircooled TEC if set up propperly.

If you will get any overclock gains..... ive no idea at all as ive not overclocked intel for such a long time...

One thing to remember is that TEC is 10 times more expensive 100 times more dangerous and 1000 times more trouble than watercooling.
You can easily buy a watercooling kit for the price of setting up an aircooled TEC with appropriate PSU.

TEC is by its very nature extreme.

[n00b 0f l337]

Your big problem is the TEC moves heat, and if the tec moves 176 watts or so, then it probably consumes 250watts. What you need to dissipate from the hot side is the power consumption of the peltier + the heat from your cpu.

[Piper]

It looks to me that you just are not in the correct position to do anything at the moment. For anything close to a modern CPU/GPU you almost have to use water to cool the TECs. Air just doesn't cut it in most cases. I would look toward getting into water first always keeping in mind a good plan to expand into a TEC system if you actually are set on using TECs.

Even that older socket A chip puts out alot of heat, 90W minimum or pretty close. Maybe, maybe, using the earlier examples with duel TECs. Could he undervolt the TECs to what ? maybe 7V guys, running the TECs at about 60% power you might get just enough cooling and not overload the heatsinks.

Thoughts ?

[best [486]]

you could make the copper block so it is a triangle st the heat could get to the top easier and you can use the watts effectively

[Piper]

Umm, It doesn't work that way Best, reducing the surface area in a triangle shape reduces the mass available to transfer the heat upwards. You could angle it some, but not a real triangle. Think of it this way, you want a nice solid surface area with sufficient mass so the pelts can make a nice big cold block that will provide good thermal transfer. If anything, he could look at adding a third pelt to the top. Hell, do it right and maybe four sides with a fan mounted on top to cool the whole thing.

[best [486]]

well i don't usually think about thermal mass, it's just an idea i came up with when i was going to use 50 watt surplus store [axman!!!] pelts to cool my p3 1GHz from when p-4s were toppimg out [stock] at 3 GHz