anyone play with peltiers anymore?

[trance565]

So i was thinking of getting a peltier for my i5, or rather i did.
i work at an electronics store so i was able to get a couple 140watt peltiers for like 10 bucks each. of course it couldnt handle the OC 3570k (idle was fine, but load was lulz) so i put it back to stock and it was pretty cool, got me -5 to -10 C at idle, and load it got up to about 35-40C (i was using my true120 to cool it)

unfortunately i was playing with it late at night when i was tired, and was just planning to test it then shut it off before going to sleep (hadn't insulated anything yet) well i left it on over night, without keeping it under load (DOH!) and went to work the next morning without checking on it. get home and it wont come out of sleep..... oh . i remembered then that i had the peltier on it. so i shut everything down and take it apart to find a few drops of water in and around the socket (SONOFABISCUIT!) well, i replaced the motherboard (my z77 sabertooth, RIP, served me well) with an asrock xtreme 4. pretty nice board, once i updated the bios, the boot time which was bothering me shortened significantly.

anyways, the cpu is no longer prime stable at any clock, minimum 1, most often 2 cores fail while the other 2 or 3 keep on trucking. I'm fine with that though as it still runs my games and whatnot.

I had a h100i ready for the peltier, which im now using alone to cool the cpu. and my boss just ordered a couple 12v 29A power supplies im guessing i need around a 250-300watt unit (3570k @ 4.8-5ghz). (i plan to get a new cpu sooner or later)

so my questions are as follows:
does anyone know where to get a peltier of this wattage that is an appropriate size? i've found some that i think are like 55-65mm, im not sure if that's too big or not. but even if that would be a good physical size, the places i found them aren't for retail, and i dont need 100+ of them.
and will the h100i cool it and the cpu?
i've got liquid electrical tape that i plan to coat all around, inside (not the pins but the little pcb section) and behind the socket with, and i've got a mousepad i can cut up for neoprene, is there anything else i need for insulation?

[Calathea]

I think you should stop what you're doing and read more of how sub zero insulation works and especially the pros and cons with TEC. It's very very inefficient unless you buy lots of 'em and under volt to make water chiller. And that tends to be expensive, if not in amount of TECs, then in water blocks etc.

My opinion, not worth it. Go with high end water cooling instead, maybe delid your 3570k too. And take more care of the stuff next time.

[bds71]

and will the h100i cool it and the cpu?

i'm sure others will chime in (we got some really smart guys around here that know a BUNCH about this stuff), but in short: no. a 100i will not cool a single large peltier and the CPU (not even close) Calathea is absolutely correct in that TEC's are terribly inefficient. personally, i would not let that stop me if you simply want to experiment with TECs or subambient cooling. one very important thing to remember is that a TEC will produce its own heat, which will add to the heat being produced by the original source (CPU, GPU, whatever). and, because of the inefficiencies or TECs you could end up needing to dissipate 3-4 times that of your source. typical OCed 125W TDP part can consume 250W at the wall, and put out even more heat due to inefficiencies - maybe even 300-400W that needs to be dissipated. this would mean that you now have to dissipate over 1200W of heat!! yes, you can find 300+W TECs at 60mm, but you still have to cool the TEC as well, and that's where the extra wattage comes from. buying multiple TECs and placing them in series (ie: down-volting) will increase your efficiencies (to a point), but many nay-sayers will say that other avenues are still better/cheaper/more efficient. and they wouldn't necessarily be wrong (depending on how far you are willing to take it, and how much you are willing to spend). what i've typically seen around these forums is suggested 3-4 high wattage TECs connected in series running at about 25% of their rated voltage/amerage. each TEC will dissipate less heat, but the effect is addative, so all of them combined would dissipate more collectively than a single because they would be more efficient. and, depending on how you set it up, you could still run each TEC up to 100% if you have a large enough power supply. this would, again, make them less efficient, but would give you greater capacity.

anyway, i hope that helped you out a little, or that you get the answers you're looking for!!

[trance565]

thanks for the info. I'm just doing this for experimentation as i haven't done much with cooling since my failed attempt to build a phase change unit due to lack of an evap. i've read a few of the insulation guides and noticed the eraser method, which seems pretty easy/clean to do.
also, it would seem my cpu has made a recovery since getting a new case.(dunno whats up, but it's stable at 4ghz now)
it's been delidded and lapped, fun stuff to do, tedious, but fun.