Laser Diode Liquid Cooling TEC Gizmo Extravaganza

[MoparPogue]

So my crazy TEC water chiller came in via UPS today.

"Monstrosity" isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.




I threw in the hard drive for size comparison.

My plan is to put this thing in the gateway case next to it. Then cut the case down to size needed. I'm going to put a 6" PVC duct in it and try to cram some sort of bend in it so I can line it with sound dampener to reduce what little sound comes off that fan.

I haven't tested it yet because I have to run to radioshack to get some resistors for the power supply mod.

"Jerry-Rigged" isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

See also: Hoopty-Rigged
See also: Ghetto-Fabbed

(PS - Cool points to whoever gets my book references.)

[Duh]

looks very sexy.. is there any rated noise in the manufacturers web?

[HDCHOPPER]

man that looks niceeeeeeeeeee

[7499richard]

can you give a little more info on this

whered you get it?

what is it?

Is there another thread that was started before you made the purchase telling all about the unit?

[HDCHOPPER]

ya here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=195212

[MoparPogue]

Can someone help me with the math here. Should I run this at 17V or 21V? I can do either, I just want to know what is the best efficiency. Like I said, not going for sub-zero.

[zipdogso]

Can someone help me with the math here. Should I run this at 17V or 21V? I can do either, I just want to know what is the best efficiency.

Going back to your other thread Uncle jimbo mentioned what TEC's he thought it was and since he is practically the "God" on this subject it is worth looking at what he said especially as the unit is a commercial unit (the original price is a good hint here.) and I believe it is the sort of thing Uncle Jimbo normally deals with.
What you have bought is a commercial TEC setup... your not buying a little swift-tec block!! Your unit will of been specially manufactured to run at a fair level of efficiency and ease of connectivity because these units are generally manufactured to be daisy chained.

It is designed to be run at 24v/17A and since (as Uncle Jimbo pointed out.) this is probably the 70% Imax rating I would really advise you run it at that level.
At 70-75% you get the best cooling relative to power input.
Without proper charts it is difficult to say how undervolting it further would affect it but by extrapolating the figures on to an average comparable 127 chart it would appear you would lose about 3-4% off the heat pumped by using 21v and about 8-9% off the heat pumped at 17v but I am a NOOB at this so I might be wrong. Also Uncle Jimbo mentioned three pairs of TEC's if he meant electrically connected as three pairs that's OK but if he meant three 2 stage peltiers the figures probably will be wrong 'cause I am using single stage charts. If my figures are right...theres not a lot in it. But dropping the voltage any further will cause the heat pumped will start dropping markedly.
Lowering %Imax (by applying lower voltage.) will give higher efficiency but at your end of the scale it makes little difference.

Like I said, not going for sub-zero.

The only way you can sort this out is to get yourself (buy/build) a controller to ensure it doesn't go sub-zero. Remember this unit was not designed for computer use it was designed for commercial use to be dasiy chained to cool larger quantites of coolant than are in your PC !!

[Stigma]

Id' go for 17volts IMO. At 21 you'l just be using way more juice and not really get much more cooling effect from it. The efficiency rate will be much higher at 17volts.

-Stigma

[Uncle Jimbo]

Going back to your other thread Uncle jimbo mentioned what TEC's he thought it was and since he is practically the "God" on this subject it is worth looking at what he said especially as the unit is a commercial unit (the original price is a good hint here.) and I believe it is the sort of thing Uncle Jimbo normally deals with.
What you have bought is a commercial TEC setup... your not buying a little swift-tec block!! Your unit will of been specially manufactured to run at a fair level of efficiency and ease of connectivity because these units are generally manufactured to be daisy chained.

It is designed to be run at 24v/17A and since (as Uncle Jimbo pointed out.) this is probably the 70% Imax rating I would really advise you run it at that level.
At 70-75% you get the best cooling relative to power input.
Without proper charts it is difficult to say how undervolting it further would affect it but by extrapolating the figures on to an average comparable 127 chart it would appear you would lose about 3-4% off the heat pumped by using 21v and about 8-9% off the heat pumped at 17v but I am a NOOB at this so I might be wrong. Also Uncle Jimbo mentioned three pairs of TEC's if he meant electrically connected as three pairs that's OK but if he meant three 2 stage peltiers the figures probably will be wrong 'cause I am using single stage charts. If my figures are right...theres not a lot in it. But dropping the voltage any further will cause the heat pumped will start dropping markedly.
Lowering %Imax (by applying lower voltage.) will give higher efficiency but at your end of the scale it makes little difference.



The only way you can sort this out is to get yourself (buy/build) a controller to ensure it doesn't go sub-zero. Remember this unit was not designed for computer use it was designed for commercial use to be dasiy chained to cool larger quantites of coolant than are in your PC !!

Nice comment. These TECs are series pairs of 127 element units. 'Full power' voltage to the pair is 34V so you are already at 65% of max voltage at 24V. at 21V you are at 50% of Imax.

Depending on the temp you want to achieve, you can go to 17V, but that takes you to 40% Imax, and you don't move much heat at higher differentials. I would say just try it and see what voltage you need to get the kind of cooling performance you want.

[Uncle Jimbo]

Id' go for 17volts IMO. At 21 you'l just be using way more juice and not really get much more cooling effect from it. The efficiency rate will be much higher at 17volts.

-Stigma

What you say would be true for a TEC setup rated for full power at 24V. However, these TECs are already undervolted at 24V - they are 34V full power. You are at CoP of 1 or better at 24V. Going to 17V improves that to 1.3 CoP which is a 30% improvement, but it also cuts available cooling by 35%. So you don't gain much efficiency and lose a lot of power.

[zipdogso]

I still want to point out that this is a self contained commercial unit that has been designed and produced to run with a reasonable efficiency so I still say run it at 24v but if you cant get there run it 21v. As Uncle jimbo said undervolting to 17v is not really a good idea but whatever floats your boat !!!

[NaeKuh]

you know what i wondered about.

If you were to connect the cold loop onto a per say MCR220, whats the temp the of the exhausted air from the radiator? Meaning can you make a micro ac out of it connecting the cold side with a radiator.

The reason why i say this is because lets say you sandwitched 2 MCR220's. One was on the cold side of the TEC and that was up front. The cpu loop would have its rad but be sandwitched with the TEC chilled rad.

Fan (cpu loop rad) sandwitched (Tec cooled rad)

So when your primary rad was pulling air, it would pull the cold ambient air emited by that first tec.


Dammit im still thinkn of a way to make a safty net while getting performance.

Also if you dont need the TEC power, you can turn it off, and just have the first rad draw air.

Does this make sense?

[Yeknom]

Naekuh, if you ever figure out a TEC safety net/extra performance, I for one would like to know

[NaeKuh]

Naekuh, if you ever figure out a TEC safety net/extra performance, I for one would like to know

i think i need to create a micro black hole so i can break/bend the rules of physics to do so.

So where do i get a large hadron collider that doesnt span out 25miles.

[HDCHOPPER]