I'm trying to safely use a Peltier as a cooler

[KindaKnowWhatImDoing]

So here's the idea, We take a high power peltier this is important so as to not have this device become an insulator, i want to take a voltage regulator and control it through pwm such as (these are example variables
) if the pwm signal says "run at 30%" and the device is 12v i want it to get 4v of power now if i did my research correctly it should work similarly to that. now if i can plug a pwm extension cable from my motherboard into this voltage regulator and then obviously do rigorous testing for temps to not get condensation then the idea is to have the mbd to treat it like a fan then use the peltier cooler like a thermal pad right between the heatsink and the liquid cooler this idea at its current state is proof of concept and not something i envision to be practical anytime soon

also for power input i was looking to grab like a laptop brick that meets the specifications of both the Peltier ands whatever voltage regulator I can find and if ic an find a jack for it cool if not ill just strip the wires and work from there also the idea is to drill a hole into a pcie bracket and run the cable through there 

again this is merely proof of concept and i need some help with doing more research and what parts i should be looking into 

[Electronics Wizardy]

How much wattage are you cooling?

 

Using a peltier between a CPU and waterblock/heatsink likely isn't gonna work well. The Pelters aren't made for the amount of heat a CPU gives off, esp since a CPU makes much of its heat over the die which is much smaller than the heatspreader.

 

For the power control a cheap buck converter modded to have that control should work, but I'd really reconsider a peltier here.

[Beerzerker]

You'll quickly discover the limitations of a pelter.
It's not efficient and uses alot of power for the cooling it will give.

A pelter of sufficient size CAN run a CPU but it's not going to be as you're expecting.

There have been too many that's already tried it before and given up on them for good reason.
Pelters are not what you want to use for such cooling.

You really need to research it before commiting to doing it, I believe once you dig deep into pelters you'll see what I'm talking about here when I say "Not worth it".

[DoctorNick]

44 minutes ago, KindaKnowWhatImDoing said:

So here's the idea, We take a high power peltier this is important so as to not have this device become an insulator, i want to take a voltage regulator and control it through pwm such as (these are example variables
) if the pwm signal says "run at 30%" and the device is 12v i want it to get 4v of power now if i did my research correctly it should work similarly to that. now if i can plug a pwm extension cable from my motherboard into this voltage regulator and then obviously do rigorous testing for temps to not get condensation then the idea is to have the mbd to treat it like a fan then use the peltier cooler like a thermal pad right between the heatsink and the liquid cooler this idea at its current state is proof of concept and not something i envision to be practical anytime soon

also for power input i was looking to grab like a laptop brick that meets the specifications of both the Peltier ands whatever voltage regulator I can find and if ic an find a jack for it cool if not ill just strip the wires and work from there also the idea is to drill a hole into a pcie bracket and run the cable through there 

again this is merely proof of concept and i need some help with doing more research and what parts i should be looking into 

It has been done many times. Even by popular vendors like Cooler Master. Did it work well, not really. Also TEC modules are very power hungry and will need cooling to work well.

https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/coolers/cpu-liquid-coolers/masterliquid-ml360-sub-zero/

[Kilrah]

1) Peltiers don't run well on PWM, you'll need an adjustable power supply instead.

2) Knowing your Peltier will put out about 6-10 times the heat the CPU did you now need a monstrous cooler to cool the peltier, which you could use on the CPU itself and not bother with the whole thing instead.

[NorKris]

51 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

1) Peltiers don't run well on PWM, you'll need an adjustable power supply instead.

2) Knowing your Peltier will put out about 6-10 times the heat the CPU did you now need a monstrous cooler to cool the peltier, which you could use on the CPU itself and not bother with the whole thing instead.

isnt it like almost as much as the cpu? 

[Kilrah]

1 hour ago, NorKris said:

isnt it like almost as much as the cpu? 

Well it depends a whole lot on what you aim for, the capacity of the cooling, if you can oversize the peltier to never run it at max current etc... but if the goal is to run sub-ambient you'll quickly reach high dT where the efficiency is really poor.

 

For example per the graph linked there if you run a Peltier at 70% of its max current at 30° difference between cold and hot side the COP is 0.5, which means you absorb half the energy you put in, and thus have to expel 3x the CPU power already. 40° and full current you're at 5x.

 

https://www.meerstetter.ch/customer-center/compendium/70-peltier-elements#COP

[NorKris]

3 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Well it depends a whole lot on what you aim for, the capacity of the cooling, if you can oversize the peltier to never run it at max current etc... but if the goal is to run sub-ambient you'll quickly reach high dT where the efficiency is really poor.

 

For example per the graph linked there if you run a Peltier at 70% of its max current at 30° difference between cold and hot side the COP is 0.5, which means you absorb half the energy you put in, and thus have to expel 3x the CPU power already. 40° and full current you're at 5x.

 

https://www.meerstetter.ch/customer-center/compendium/70-peltier-elements#COP

Ty for info, but it takes a 6pin PCIe power cable, and dictates how much heat that component can push. and a 6pin pcie is even enough for a cpu  

[Kilrah]

50 minutes ago, NorKris said:

Ty for info, but it takes a 6pin PCIe power cable

What are you referring to?

 

If you're talking of the Cooler Master thing it's an 8-pin, and spec is 180W power draw for the TEC.

 

Also the vid shows how entirely useless it is unless you have a really low power CPU, he's showing how he gets 47°C CPU temp with it on at 125W CPU power... but that's basically what a normal 360 AIO will do on its own. The TEC literally does nothing but waste 180W.

[NorKris]

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

What are you referring to?

 

If you're talking of the Cooler Master thing it's an 8-pin, and spec is 180W power draw for the TEC.

 

Also the vid shows how entirely useless it is unless you have a really low power CPU, he's showing how he gets 47°C CPU temp with it on at 125W CPU power... but that's basically what a normal 360 AIO will do on its own. The TEC literally does nothing but waste 180W.

maybe it was 8pin  but ye the TEC can waste up to 180  

[KindaKnowWhatImDoing]

On 2/28/2024 at 3:20 AM, Kilrah said:

1) Peltiers don't run well on PWM, you'll need an adjustable power supply instead.

2) Knowing your Peltier will put out about 6-10 times the heat the CPU did you now need a monstrous cooler to cool the peltier, which you could use on the CPU itself and not bother with the whole thing instead.

I'm not trying to run the Peltier's power itself off pwm merely use pwm as a voltage controller and have external psu also the cooler for the Peltier itself doesn't need to be as efficient as a cpu cooler that touches the ihs from what i understand i'm reading these comments and i'm doing a lot more research and i really think that maybe somehow i can figure out a way to make this work even slightly better than other people's attempts i like learning and if it fails so be it again proof of concept and learning

[Blue4130]

On 3/4/2024 at 1:26 AM, KindaKnowWhatImDoing said:

 i really think that maybe somehow i can figure out a way to make this work even slightly better than other people's attempts i like learning and if it fails so be it again proof of concept and learning

If you can, I am sure that intel or some other company will hire you. After all, their team of engineers couldn't pull it off in a useful way...