View Full Version : The Point In T.E.C Cooling
Is here one? More and more often people seem to do betetr with chilled water cooling. A half-decent T.E.C setup seems to costg nearly as much as Phase-Change now, is their really any point in T.E.Cs now?
For example (these are approx.)
Half-decent watercooling
£200
A T.E.C over 200 watts
£50
A cold plate
£50
Meanwell Industrial Grade PSU to give the thing anough bloomi amps
£120
Are T.E.Cs dieing to be repalced with chilled water? It seems to me like yes, what you you think?
Craig
TheWeaseL
10-10-2003, 05:46 PM
Well, as of recently, you could say WC is gaining popularity, however I'm seeing a lot of people who are turning to water chilling using it with their TECs to get that much better temps. For me who hasn't gone into either yet, some things to be considered are:
With TEC, you can create a totally self contained unit, that has some portability (aka lan parties!), but then you pay the premium to move it around.
With WC, it is cheaper then TEC for the most part, however you lose some portability because you have this large res sitting with chilling coils in it.
My personal opinion is that TEC isn't dying, its just evolving to include chilled water.
afireinside
10-10-2003, 06:05 PM
There for people who want portability but speed and temps. The only time I see them useful is running them off a beffy system PSU for cooling the GPU and NB than having a prommie or vapo on the CPU.
Yeah I know portability is an issue with chilling but that isnt the point im trying to create. Plus with TECs your going to need a fairly large radiator anyway. I just think, from what Ive seen and read that there is no point in T.E.Cs. True they are good for NB and GPU, I agree with that as they will allow for higher overclcoks than W/C wil lbut for processor cooling, TECs dont seem worth it.
Craig
mdzcpa
10-11-2003, 01:53 PM
Portability is an important point you cannot just ignore. Your thread asks specifically what the point in TEC cooling is...and having a self contained, portable system is one of the most important points.
I like my pelt set up waaay better than my chiller....hands down. With the pelt set up I've had my rig to many a LAN party:)
This is also the same reason I have not gone phase change yet. Not only do you have the phase change equipment to lug around (which is already heavier than a pelted self contained system), but than you need to water cool the GPU as well anyway. All of that together is just too much to carry in my opinion.
For a stay home system, phase change is the way to go (along with water cooling the GPU and NB). A combination of chiller with pelts is even better....but even more stay at home for sure. For the best in portable sub ambient cooling (CPU and GPU), peltier cooling is the best.
Thanks mdzcpa and its good to see you around again :)
mdzcpa
10-11-2003, 02:27 PM
Originally posted by CCW
good to see you around again :)
Thanks! It's great to be back:)
Originally posted by CCW
Is here one? More and more often people seem to do betetr with chilled water cooling. A half-decent T.E.C setup seems to costg nearly as much as Phase-Change now, is their really any point in T.E.Cs now?
For example (these are approx.)
Half-decent watercooling
£200
Fort that dough you won't get anything even half decent in water cooling....
What you could be getting is a very basic 'factory made' setup for 'low power CPUs'
A T.E.C over 200 watts
£50
Here (http://www.pclincs.co.uk/acatalog/PCLincs_Online_Store_Peltiers__Peltier_PSU_s___Ant i_Condensating_24.html)
you can get one for much less :)
A cold plate
£50
Wow, man, are you talking pure silver ones here??? :) :) :)
Meanwell Industrial Grade PSU to give the thing anough bloomi amps
£120
Buy yourself an Enermax 565 series for ~£65 and it'll power your whole system with one 226Watt TEC and one 80Watt TEC! If yo got lots of 12v hungry devices you'd be better of buying two 465 Enermaxes :)
Are T.E.Cs dieing to be repalced with chilled water? It seems to me like yes, what you you think?
Imho it'll be TECs cooled by chilled coolant :).
ALL solid state engineering is ALWAYS the way to go. Virtually no maintenance!.!
Marci
10-12-2003, 10:52 AM
Fort that dough you won't get anything even half decent in water cooling....
Sorry d00d but you're talking outta yer arse there... u can get a Maze3-1, 1250 pump, double or triple rad. What more do u need? And that comes to WAYY less than £200.
Buy yourself an Enermax 565 series for ~£65 and it'll power your whole system with one 226Watt TEC and one 80Watt TEC!
er... ampage on 12v rail would get absolutely thrashed tho... irrespective of 12v devices... would it not? A ran a 220w Tec off an Enermax 465 with no other devices other than a few fans on the 5v rail to balance it out. The enermax went bang within a few hours once the pelt started havin to do some work.
Anyhoo... TECs.... the point of em... to be able to say "I did it!" and just for the experience. I don't recommend anyone buys phasechange without trying TECs first, as TECs are where u learn the art of condensation proofing etc which you need to know for when stuff goes wrong in phasechange land.
Yep, they cost a lot, but the self-satisfaction ratio is 500% higher than just goin out & buyin a Promi...
afireinside
10-12-2003, 10:59 AM
I don't recommend anyone buys phasechange without trying TECs first
I guess I'm nucking futs than eh?
Originally posted by Marci
Sorry d00d but you're talking outta yer arse there... u can get a Maze3-1, 1250 pump, double or triple rad. What more do u need? And that comes to WAYY less than £200.
Yeah I based all prices on stuff mostly form O-CuK.
Holst
10-12-2003, 12:12 PM
For most people id say watercooled TEC isnt worth it.
I did run a 226watt TEC watercooled for a whyle.
Although it worked OK it was an awfull ammount of trouble to use.
If you can get a cheap TEC PSU from ebay then going TEC isnt too expensive, certainly cheaper than a prommy.
But the prommy will work much better and is Soooo much easyer to use.
On a graphics card TEC is great, and on a NB, but on your CPU its a fairly small minority who will want a pelt over straight water/chiller/phase change.
Id DEFINATLY recomend that if you have the cash you jump straight in with the prommy, dont try TEC first they are way too much trouble. The only people who should pelt are those who have good watercooling (and some experience) who can fairly cheaply buy a pelt and ebay PSU to get a nice drop in temps... if they are willing to go to all the trouble of running one.
Holst
10-12-2003, 12:14 PM
Marci, with a prommy you dont need to learn about condensation proofing, you jsut bung seal string everywhere.
I honestly think my prommy is easyer to fit than straight watercooling...
Originally posted by Marci
Sorry d00d but you're talking outta yer arse there... u can get a Maze3-1, 1250 pump, double or triple rad. What more do u need? And that comes to WAYY less than £200.
Prices taken form www.pclincs.co.uk
Maze4Amd £40.54
Maze4 GPU £43.99
Zchip £39.99
Heatercore £39.95
Eheim1250 £48.18
CruticoolRes£25.99
Tubing,fittings ~£20
Water, additives~£15
TOTAL £273
Now, it's a question of what you call decent ;):)
That's decent setup for me, anything less is not much better than air and does not justify spent money.
As far as PSU running TECs...
I've been running my system from a single Enermax 465 series PSU for last 6 months without any 'pops' or 'bangs' :).
It's in my saig except for MCW50-T an rad fans:)
Want some piccies ;):)?
saaya
10-12-2003, 06:37 PM
50 pounds for a cold plate?:stick:
im building a tec waterchiller as you know. 400W tec power alltogther and i paid 50$ for the tecs.... half of them can be run with 5v so ill use 2 regular pc psus to power them. an old 200W psu and a400W leadman psu i bought on ebay for 15€
so you see, its not that expensive...
2fast4u
10-12-2003, 06:52 PM
As you can see from my sig I run a prommie and tecs in my system. The tecs are for the reason many others have stated, portability. This rig goes to lan's about once a month and a chiller is too much too drag around. I have about $300 in the 2 tecs, psu, pump, and rad. Not too much IMO for near zero temps on the NB and GPU, and the set up is very easy to install and maintian.
Stang_Man
10-12-2003, 07:26 PM
Originally posted by Marci
Anyhoo... TECs.... the point of em... to be able to say "I did it!" and just for the experience. I don't recommend anyone buys phasechange without trying TECs first, as TECs are where u learn the art of condensation proofing etc which you need to know for when stuff goes wrong in phasechange land.
Yep, they cost a lot, but the self-satisfaction ratio is 500% higher than just goin out & buyin a Promi...
exactly, condensation proofing is a skill you learn, LOL..
i was wipping my waterblocks i ran chilled water through every 2 minutes...
now, i could go out and buy a prometia, but that'd be boring, hell, even a few people i know who own them think they're boring.
i spent 45 on my mcw50-t
35 on my dtek tc-4 rev2
20 on hose and clamps
old ac i got from someone, free :)
and i can cool both my cpu and gpu at the same time, unlike a prometia ;)
Marci
10-13-2003, 03:02 AM
They ARE boring. Simple as. You hook it up, turn it on, that's yer lot. No performance tweaking to be done other than changing fans unless you have access to refrigeration gear. Dullest cooling method on the planet, but one of the most effective.
It's not how to condensaiton proof I'm on about, but the basic principles. Once you've "risked" yer neck with TECs, putting a prommi on is a breeze... but it definitely isn't plain a matter of...
you jsut bung seal string everywhere.
I've had to redo several for people who had condensation probs.... and they had LOADS of sealing string on.... but they hadn't checked to makes sure it was actually doing it's job in the firstplace... less is always best.... as little as is required to do the job.
For me, if there was a phase change system which cooled all three musketeers I'd be running to buy it strught away.
Wasting such an enormous amount of money to cool CPU only is pointless imho.
You'll get your CPU extremely cold but what about the rest of your system?
You won't go far with hot NB and vid card....
KnightElite
10-13-2003, 02:16 PM
Well, I go with TECs mostly because I got into them befre phase change was really popular (eg. Vapochill was the only option), but they are fun to play around with ;). Plus, it makes my room warm in the winter ;).
Originally posted by KnightElite
Well, I go with TECs mostly because I got into them befre phase change was really popular (eg. Vapochill was the only option), but they are fun to play around with ;). Plus, it makes my room warm in the winter ;).
He he he I noticed that one too. My central heating haven't switched itself on even once since I got my system on TECs :D :D :D :toast:
saaya
10-14-2003, 07:22 AM
and its something you built yourself, its not like you paid money and got that stuff and ready. everybody with enough money can get a prommie, building a tec setup requieres skill and every tec setup is unique (unless you buy a swiftech kit)
Originally posted by saaya
and its something you built yourself, its not like you paid money and got that stuff and ready. everybody with enough money can get a prommie, building a tec setup requieres skill and every tec setup is unique (unless you buy a swiftech kit)
Great minds think alike :) LOL
And there's so much room for tweaking!
saaya
10-15-2003, 01:59 AM
not long at all :)
well tecs are in no way a substitute for a prommie, but they are quite usefull. if you are looking for a more balanced system cooling and dont need that super low temps tecs are not only more affordable than a prommie, they are pretty much the only way to cool the entire system.
i dont think the diference between -10°C to -30°C is worth the extra money a prommie will cost you. if you cant get a good oc out of your cpu or card -30°C wont help you either. and if you got a good clocker that extra 20°C of coolness wont get you that much higher.
prommie is a plug and play thing... boring if you ask me. if i ever want better cooling than tecs can give me ill buy my own compressor cooling.
buying a prommie is like buying videocards somebody soldered 2ns memory on and already did all the mods for you.
its only about money.
Imho if you want cool only CPU below ambient go for phase change.
You may add water cooling for vid card, NB, HDDs, RAM or whatever else.
If you want to cool to sub ambient temps the whole system (CPU, GPU, NB) the only sensible way to do it is to go for TECs cooled by chilled coolant.
Addind HDD cooler and DDR cooler is a doddle then. On top of that you can size TEC modules precisely to your needs!
Cooling CPU and GPU with two phase change systems is just ridiculous in terms of money needed.
And yes plug-and-pray sucks!!!