HI, I'm not sure if this came into the right topic, but anyways. What are peltiers used for? Thanks for all the answers!
they are used for sub ambeint cooling, ie below room temparture. they are made of lots of two types of semi conductors blocks sandwiched together. they are basicly a heat pump, when current passes through them heat is trasnfered from one side of the the peltier to the other, this makes one side hot and one side cold. the hot side must be cooled, other wise the peltier will burn out. also the colder the hot side the colder the cold side. i could go into alot more detail if you require, but i wont bother unless you ask so to summerise they can be used to very effectivly cool CPU's inconjuction with watercooling to cool the hot side of the petier
Peltiers are blocks that people use for semi-extreme cooling, usually in conjunction with watercooling. Basically, a peltier is a plate that pumps heat to one side, leaving the otherside really cold. A peltier has a maximum temp difference, which is just the max difrerence in temps between the hot and cold side. For example, Many people use WCing with peltiers, but some use Air-cooling. You need to cool the hot side, so the other side will be cooler. THe cooler the hot side, the cooler the cold side. Lots of people dislike peltiers because they use massive amounts of energy and aren't really that effective. Maybe with a 226w peltier could result in a -5C CPU, just depending on the thing that you are cooling. Make sure if you do venture into peltiers you insulate properly. Although the temps won't drop very low, you should always be safe.
Thanks! If you could just explain me the word 'conjuction' cause, my english isn't really that brilliant. After that I might have more questions. hehe
sorry bout that isou, i have dyslexia (think thats how u spell it - dunno why they made a word that means u cant spell hard to spell). you really know your crappy at spelling when someone who is from a differnt country points out ur spelling mistakes way to steal all my info and re word it dubya01
You even spelled my nick wrong! Well that's normal, most of the ppl I know over the net spell it that way. But still, what does 'conjunction' mean?
lol sorry bout the name conjunction - its used to discribe two or more objects interacting, i could have just used with, would have saved all this confusion.
It just means "with" using a peltier in conjunction with watercooling means using the peltier with watercooling; cooling the peltier with a waterblock.
Ok. SO let's say I'd like to cool my CPU down with a peltier, what should I be aware of and what would I need to buy?
Ok well you would need a peltier, depending on the heat out put of your cpu and how cool you will want your cpu will determin the power of peltier used. you will need a waterblock that is compatiable with the peltier. this is for the hot side of the pelt you will need a cold plate, this goes on the cold side of the pelt. and onto the cpu you will need either a second or a high grade power supply. peltiers range in power consumtion but iv seen as high as 300watt's befor, which there is no way you would be able to run that along side your system. you will need insulation/dieelectric grease for the cpu and surrounding motherboard. since you will be cooling to sub ambient temperatures condensation could form on the motherboard/cpu socket causeing corrosion or electrical faults. finaly you will need thermal compound/ thermal epoxy to give good thermal conduction between all the componets now all of the above is if you want direct pelteir cooling, however there is another method that has not been metioned in this thread, that is using the peltier as a chiller, this would be done by having a pelt with the cold sidde attached to a water block and to a large heat sink on the hot side. this would then be attached to a current water cooling system, cooling the water in the system below ambeint.
First thing you need to know is that peltiers are "pumps" and not coolers in the usual sense. While one side of the peltier gets cooler under current, the other side gets significantly hotter. So while a peltier takes heat away from the CPU, it adds heat to the rest of your system.
And how would that be done? As a side quaestion: How strong/big(I mean the watt thingys) peltier would I need for a P4 3.4?
Google for peltier cpu cooling or something... there will be dozens of pages with step by step information. As far as I've been able to tell, they're quite expensive for the actual amount of cooling power you get. By the time you've added the cost of a water cooling setup, power supply, peltier and insulation you're not all that far off the cost of an entry level phase change box. I could be wrong though...
like ralph.pickering said there are lots of step by step guides out there for exact instructions. as for power i would say 150+ watts i dont agree with this at all, you can pick up high power pelt's on ebay for about £20 - £30 the insulation and dielectric grease would be about £10, the only major differnce in cost compared with standard water cooling is the second/uprated PSU. as for the amount of cooling power it will be a fairly good increase on that of a watercooling set up. without all the hassel of phase change- such as a very large noisy compressor. also most people who are thinking of using peltier cooling already have water cooling and so are likly to just need a new block and a cold plate to replace there old cpu block
Hey this guide may help - helped me a lot when i was starting out (before i ditched peltiers for plain old watercooling again ): http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=36894
