Peltier cooling cpu

[Niccolo]

Hi,

Today i came across this video: 

It's rather interesting how cool the cpu gets. Would this be possible with newer cpu's or is their tdp to high? I think that i would be possible if you have a high end high wattage peltier element. Whats you thought on this?

[Bananasplit_00]

you CAN do it, its just inefficient and quite a bit of work and money. you need a really beefy heatsink on the hot side of the peltier element and every watt you put into removing heat from the CPU you also put into that heatsink

[panther420]

7 minutes ago, Niccolo said:

Hi,

Today i came across this video: 

It's rather interesting how cool the cpu gets. Would this be possible with newer cpu's or is their tdp to high? I think that i would be possible if you have a high end high wattage peltier element. Whats you thought on this?

Yeah,  peltier cooling still exists and as far as I know it works fine. Not sure if this is the same thing, but you can even buy thermolectric cooler kits all in one: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835670001&cm_re=thermoelectric_cooler-_-35-670-001-_-Product.

[SansVarnic]

It is an interesting and workable solution but your still going to have to remove waste heat.

As mentioned above it is very in-efficient way of cooling a CPU at this time.

 

Just so you are aware there a multitude of discussions in the forum on this topic, some very interesting stuff indeed.

 

**let me point out that the individual in that video used way to much thermal paste... 

[manikyath]

the issue with peltiers is their mindblowing lack of efficiency. the "more sensible" alternative is using airconditioning compressors to make a "chiller" (as seen on LTT )

 

to give an idea of how inefficient peltiers are, what they do is use power to make one side of a -very thermally conductive plate- cold, and the other side hot, also dumping the consumed power as heat on the output side. the issue is that they are naturally rather thermally conductive, so the hot side also heats up the cold side, and you have to put in excessive amounts of power to get the cold side to actually displace heat, rather than to just "keep cold".

 

there's some peltier-based cooler boxes, but they are just that: cooler boxes. they intend to keep a thermally insulated box at a number of degrees below ambient, consuming a less than sensible amount of power in the meantime.

[manikyath]

3 minutes ago, panther420 said:

Yeah,  peltier cooling still exists and as far as I know it works fine. Not sure if this is the same thing, but you can even buy thermolectric cooler kits all in one: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835670001&cm_re=thermoelectric_cooler-_-35-670-001-_-Product.

"beyond 140W" => cooler uses 35 watts, to kinda match a 240mm aio..

[SpaceGhostC2C]

33 minutes ago, Niccolo said:

 

It's rather interesting how cool the cpu gets. Would this be possible with newer cpu's or is their tdp to high?

Yes, CPUs haven't got any warmer.

 

33 minutes ago, Niccolo said:

I think that i would be possible if you have a high end high wattage peltier element. Whats you thought on this?

Getting a good enough peltier isn't a problem, the actual drawbacks are (a) cooling the hot side of the peltier itself and (b) potential condensation, as the cold side will go sub-ambient pretty quickly.

Whenever you consider alternative cooling methods, there's always more than how cool the CPU gets. For example, high-end air coolers and AIO water coolers may often be similar in cost and performance, but they are very different in terms of space requirements in the socket area, space requirements in the case, where they dump the hot air, how they influence air flow inside the case... It's the same with TECs: they offer something different, but it won't mean an advantage for every use case. What they offer is an element that can quickly go below ambient temps, which isn't all that great to make a cooler exclusively out of a peltier, but can be used as a complement to another method - which is in fact how manufacturers have used them: the TEC-based coolers you may find in the market are actually air coolers that have a peltier attached to the heatpipes, and an extra tower to cool the peltier itself. Most of the time there is no current going through the peltier, and you cool the CPU with the heatpipes and fins alone, but under heavy load or in the presence of spikes the peltier kicks to revert the trend. These coolers typically include a controller that monitors both the base plate and the ambient temp, to not only respond to CPU temps but also to the risk of condensation. A similar principle could be used to expand a custom water loop with a peltier.

All this makes these coolers more expensive, while not providing a benefit to most users.