Peltier Thermoelectric Build

[gaminator]

I am in the process of installing a thermoelectric block in my personal rig! I am currently doing testing with it on a smaller computer that I have, but will install it in my main rig when I get time. I managed to get the small computer down to -16 C. though, so thats pretty cool! I will post some pictures soon! (sorry for the blurrycam. it will be better next time!)

[Bluejay0]

How does the Thermo Electric process come out then other cooling methods? I SUMMON LINUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[David89]

That is uber cool! i always wondered if someone would be doing this :D

What Peletier Element are you using? And how did you manage to put it on the CPU?

[alpenwasser]

Hehe, I considered going Peltier for my build once, but since it will be on 24/7 and

the Peltiers would have consumed an absolutely insane amount of wattage I eventually

decided against it.

But I shall look forward to more of this :)

[prodigydoo]

Is this cooling method hard to maintain?

 

Sorry i know nothing about it :)

[alpenwasser]

Is this cooling method hard to maintain?

 

Sorry i know nothing about it :)

It does take quite a bit of work, as with any other sub-zero (or, more specifically:

sub-ambient) temperature cooling method.

Basically, when you have an object whose temperature is below the ambient air temperature,

the moisture in that air (and there's practically always some moisture in air) will

condense on that object. I'm sure you have seen this on a cold window at some point.

When you cool down your CPU to below your ambient temp, you also cool down its surrounding

components significantly (the M/B backside under the CPU socket, the CPU socket itself, the

surrounding power delivery components etc.), which means the moisture in the air will

condense on those components and short them out (contrary to popular belief, water is

always conductive to some degree due to there being always some OH- and H+ ions in

the water, but that's chemistry, so I won't further go into that unless desired).

To avoid that, you need to properly insulate those components against moisture (often done

with insulating mats, putty, vaseline), which can be quite a lot of work.

Aside from that, the Peltier element itself is not that complicated to use, you simply

apply a given voltage over it (often something between 12 V DC and 24 V DC) and one of

its sides becomes hot while the other cools down. If you want to actually get a usable

result, you then need to cool the Peltier's hot side (often with a water cooling block),

and its cold side you apply to the CPU.

The one major downside is that a Peltier element consumes a lot of power (so, for

cooling a 130 W CPU you might use a Peltier that consume another 150 W, maybe less, maybe

more, depending on how well you want it to cool). So if you go to the absolute extreme,

your Peltier element will consume more power than the CPU itself.

Maybe the OP can give us some power consumption numbers, I've never tested this myself on

an actual CPU, I only once got to play around with a Peltier in a laboratory setting.

EDIT: Here's a YT vid I've found:

And good ol' Wikipedia's article on TEC elements in general, if you're interested in further

background reading.