Low power (90W) TECs and RAM - experimenting

[Delfistyaosani]

Hi there ))

Finally some TECs became available near me so I bought a 90W 12V one (the most powerful of what they have :P)

Currently I cave no "free" power cooler so the best I found was 8500GT's crappy heatsink + 80mm 3K RPM cooler.

Guyz in store said its max temp difference is 63C* but in real conditions I got 0C on 5 volts and kinda -10C* with 12V (ambient ~20C*, at 5V heatsink remains cool, at 12V burns like crazy, so I didn's leave it on more tan 20sec). Freezing water drops wasn't a problem BUT cooling about 10-15ml water from 20C* to 8C* in my mini CPU TUBE (about 300-400gr pure copper, thermally isolated) took kinda 5mins at 5V (couldn't test at 12V cuz heatsink heated up like stupid so I didn't risk).

So I have some practical questions:

1. How much thermal energy do RAMs radiate? For example D9GMHs at 2.6-2.7V
2. Are there any cheap RAM heatsinks that could be mounted to TECs?
3. For very-very-very XTREME things, if I cool the coldside with DICE (about -60-70C*) will TEC survive and archive kinda -100C* on coldside? (for liquid nitrogen I have to go to another city, plus got no LN2 tank so actually getting LN2 for xtreme sessions is practically impossible).
4. If I chill D9GMHs to ~-20C*, will they let do crazy things on RAMPAGE FORMULA? (my friend got that + E8600 E0)

[zipdogso]

Guyz in store said its max temp difference is 63C*

The difference is between the hotside and the coldside temperature during operation NOT the ambient. And is referred to as Dt.
You will never see a Dt of 63ºC difference (or whatever the Dtmax is.) even at full power. (due to thermal exchange inefficiencies.)
When undervolting that also determines your initial Dt (the lower the power the lower the initial Dt.) The load you have on the coldside will also affect the Dt - small load will increase Dt, large load will reduce it. I am talking about large and small loads in relation to the max cooling at the coldside.

So I have some practical questions:

1. How much thermal energy do RAMs radiate? For example D9GMHs at 2.6-2.7V
Pass....
2. Are there any cheap RAM heatsinks that could be mounted to TECs?
Nope it will be a DIY job more than likely. There is a TEC RAM cooler on the market....
3. For very-very-very XTREME things, if I cool the coldside with DICE (about -60-70C*) will TEC survive and archive kinda -100C* on coldside? (for liquid nitrogen I have to go to another city, plus got no LN2 tank so actually getting LN2 for xtreme sessions is practically impossible).
I trust you mean cool the hotside.... There are dimishing returns to super cooling the hotside but as far as I am aware there is a limit of -50ºC to the hotside anyway. As for achieving -100ºC....you are joking !! Not a chance. You wont be able to achieve the Dt.
4. If I chill D9GMHs to ~-20C*, will they let do crazy things on RAMPAGE FORMULA? (my friend got that + E8600 E0)
Pass....

[Delfistyaosani]

dreams.. dreams..

I see my real DT at 5V is ~30C* and 50C* at 12V at practically NO LOAD (open surface, touches ambient temperature air only) but in fact at bots 12V and 5V coldside remains 0-1C* (at 5V hotside is ~30C*, switching to 12V freezes coldside to -10C* for 10-15sec but then hotside heats up to 50C* and the result is the same sh*t).

Soo... I guess for cooling a single RAM module I'll gotta use a serious cooler for hotside, kinda ultra 120 or watercooling, in fact that's crap, +100W heat only to keep some dull chips at 0-10C*...

That could be kinda useful in case of dual-loop or triple-loop liquid cooling with at least 500W total power right?

[zipdogso]

I see my real DT at 5V is ~30C* and 50C* at 12V at practically NO LOAD (open surface, touches ambient temperature air only) but in fact at bots 12V and 5V coldside remains 0-1C* (at 5V hotside is ~30C*, switching to 12V freezes coldside to -10C* for 10-15sec but then hotside heats up to 50C* and the result is the same sh*t).

Your not really being fair here at 12v the results would be better but NOT without decent hotside cooling....no TEc works properly without decent hotside cooling it is a necessary part of running them.

Soo... I guess for cooling a single RAM module I'll gotta use a serious cooler for hotside, kinda ultra 120 or watercooling, in fact that's crap, +100W heat only to keep some dull chips at 0-10C*...

+100w ? I thought you said they were 90w...therefore 90w is max there is no +100w. Certainly at 12v there isn't even 90w since the actual proper max. voltage for your TECs is 15.6v, powering them at 12v you are undervolting them.

That could be kinda useful in case of dual-loop or triple-loop liquid cooling with at least 500W total power right?

The best way to cool loads like those we have in a complete PC is to use multiple TECs, to get a preferable efficiency it is wise to use high power TECs undervolted to a degree. You do have to watch the heat coming off the hotside though and you are probably better using a smaller number of TECs well rather than lots of them badly, so you should make sure you are well versed with installing/running them.

[Delfistyaosani]

All this crap.. I guess I'll simply make a "drink chiller" from this one for summer, what about computer supercooling I better get old conditioners and build kinda cascade ))

[Delfistyaosani]

Heyaaaa... today I finally have something to show

I got thermaltake BigWater's stock waterblock, the last missing component for my evil FRANKENCOOLER that's been standing soulless for more than 1 year.... As I haven't good copper plates (got only aluminium ones, and not with perfect shapes) so my result was -10*C on coldside and +30 on hot at 12V at 18 *C ambient temp.

Here are some pics (not in working state)

















I hope more serious TECs will appear in local stores soon

[zipdogso]

All this crap..

You said it ....not me.

[Ultrasonic2]

ummm thats probably the most interesting thing i'll ever see

3 part pump !

[flak-spammer]

Apparently, also looks like surgical tubing.

[Delfistyaosani]

ummm thats probably the most interesting thing i'll ever see

10x man ))

So I'll try to explain how this evil strange thing works

The pump itself is an old Mercedess's (don't know from which) oil pump, handles several bars of pressure, it's designed for static pressure, so it got to be cylinder-type, not like regular water pumps.
Pump is driven by an USSR-made motor which I got from an old washing machine, not a weak one
The second motor's only work is to cool the first motor, cuz it heats up like crazy (I'm gonna get a better-looking 24V 150mm 4000RPM FAN as a replacement)
That Mountain Dev's bottle acts as pressure "capacitor", as pump can rise pressure to several bars in seconds I don't wanna have trouble with blown tubes, so it kinda balances liquid flow speed and pressure
Glass with two open tubes is a "chemical cooler", used in labs for cooling liquids or condensing some boiled materials using water flow in "outer space", liquid nitrogen or DICE pieces can be placed there for instant XTREME chilling if smth goes wrong (for example if let 10KW of thermal energy in and water in tank is gonna boil...)
Radiator I got from a spoiled fridge, of course made in USSR , I cut middle tube and paralleled two parts for good flow.
That big tank where radiator is placed can be filled with cold water, DICE cubes or kinda that (LN2 will blow it fu**ing up I guess )

All this crap..

I still guess so, but as I got that damn TEC and WB why not to play with them? That's fun, but this sort of cooling is very inefficient.
Anyway I hope to get some old air conditioners and build kinda cascade, this beast might handle cooling of 1 stage

[TJ TRICHEESE]

that thing is insane

[slaveondope]

Looks like something from the movie Saw, just morbid

[Delfistyaosani]

Thanks 4 "metal support" guyz

I have to try this beast with my E8500 but too bad there are no hi-power TECs available in my country, so I have to wait for my friend to arrive from US, he's gonna bring a pair of 225W and 400W ones

Aaand yesterday I could get -15*C on open coldside, guess sorta 5 of these TECs could seriously boost my poor liquid cooling but still have no idea how/where to make a multi-TEC waterblock

[ilkkahy]

After seeing those pics i understand why Russia attacked Georgia couple of years ago. That thing is pure evil. Pure evil i say.

Anyway you cant blame the TEC for lower delta-T than you wished. Also without any insulation you apply heatload to the TEC because it cools the surrounding air. Insulate the cold side and see how it effects to delta-T.

[Delfistyaosani]

Insulating might drop temperature a bit down, but if I'm gonna cool smth that emits thermal energy, won't that be harder to cool than just air?
I'm quite sure this TEC isn't even capable to cool my NB at 10-20*C at full load, its C.O.P or what is very poor, hotside burns like crazy and coldside is wery wery weak :S
Too bad this evil thing isn't very mobile so taking that to my room isn't an idea, I'm hoping to get sorta normal heatsink from an icecream fridge, that should perform not worse on air (that tank is for streaming water)

[Delfistyaosani]

Guess what - NEW PICZ and MORE EVIL!

So, my liquid cooling failed (heatsink started to leak) I quickly installed sorta crap on CPU not to be without comp (for now it looks like this)



I took pump-waterblock down and made sandwich like [FRANKENCOOLER WATERBLOCK][H-TEC-C][MAGICOOL WATERBLOCK] and of course turned both on.. the result is closed-loop
got about 12-13*C (ambient 23), TEC HOTSIDE 40*C, guess that's not bad for ~60W (got no 15V PSU to try full power)

[NaeKuh]

i'll give ya props for Frankensteining it.

lol..