Water Cooling PC with Peltier ( TEC )
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ค. 2012
- If you like this, Please subscribe to my channel, many thanks.
I'm thinking of total liquid submersion cooling..sometime in the future.
Answers to some questions:
1) Yes I did use too much heatsink compound initially, but what isn't shown in the video is
me scrapping off all the excess.
2) The Peltier (TEC) is a TEC1-12710 from Ebay rated at 154Watts, Vmax 15.4Volts Imax
10Amps.
3) I did not completely overcome the condensation problem - this was just an experiment.
What's not shown on the video is that I filled the gap around the CPU/Cooling Block with
lots of Dow Corning DC4 silicone compound, this stopped condensation on the top but
the underside of the MoBo (where the CPU is) got wet.
Initial CPU temperature, as measured in BIOS, was -16°C but after running for a while it settled at -10°C.
The power supply was home-made from a 240v-12v toroidal transformer (two 12v outputs each capable of providing 9Amps, only one 12v output used) a 10amp bridge rectifier (KBU10M) and a 68000µF16volt electrolytic capacitor.
For this test power for the pump and ancillary fans was provide by a bench PSU, set to 12volts and capable of providing 2Amps, although 1.1Amps was max current required.
Cooling had to be supplied for the pump, which heated up noticeable at the base, and the bridge rectifier which still got very hot even with a heat sink and fan.
The transformer also got quite warm.
Some measured parameters:
Initial Peltier starting current 8.4Amps, settled to 7.8Amps when playing a movie on PC.
Peltier (PSU) voltage 13.5olts - Steady throughout test.
Water temperature : Start 20°C, After 3 hours 27°C. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
After reading about 100 or so comments, and the updates he made, only a handful of them understood the Video. This was not a tutorial, it was not a guide, it was an experiment. His video is a demonstration that showed both Pros and Cons to the actual product. For those of you that commented about Thermal Paste need to go back to school and learn Thermal Dynamics and Conductivity. Spraying Silicon directly onto the socket is not harmful. Again Conductivity. How do you think the board was made. (Silicone Wafer). This was an excellent video and demonstration of a Peltier application.
Thank you :)
You are one of the few people who understood what I was doing.
You have to love stupid people. Yes, the computer chips are made of silicon ...Duh!... And this (your argument) is completely irrelevant because he used Silicone (dumbass) not "silicon" spray. Both of which are poor conductors no mater how you look at it. And this is in fact one of the worst ideas (regardless of the intent of this video) because it can clog the socket with not only the non-conductive spray, but also dust and dirt the will most likely stick to it as it is applied.
Who the fuck does this guy think he is? Pretending like he knows jack shit about conductivity.. And I don't care if you have a masters degree in thermal engineering and dynamics, you clearly have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to computer components.
Good day to you sir.
As a side note.... Computer electronics are made with silicon because it is not conductive and has a high tolerance to heat.
The original commenter is still an idiot lol.
Lastly.... Fire hazard much??
GalileanMoons Use Mineral Oil instead of spray, its non conductive and helps separate moisture from the board.
I think that it is a great idea, but instead I would add a temperature sensor adn arduino which will controll the peltier in that waz so it would only cool it to 20 degrees celsius. That way you could cool it efficiently with less current and there would be no problem with condensation . If you would want more temperature difference you could also measure humidity in room and with temperature you could calculate the Dew point , which will tell you how much you can cool it and it would be still without condensation. It will be all controlled by arduino, so it will be automatic system.
T1iCanon This is absolutly genius, but very little amount of people are able to write program and stuff for arduino :)
Some ppl which can, don't know how to dimensionate the mosfet's and solder everything togeter...
Genius spoken
Brilliant idea! Why dont people do this? Only problem might be when the peltier switches off, temp rises too much? Turn it on and off every 3 seconds or something maybe. Can also add a waterblock for the peltier, use it as a radiator outside of the system.
Programming an arduino to turn on and off a relay based on temp is very easy, its a cheap project. Why dont people do this seriously
Very Good idea, I saw another video about peltier cpu cooling and a guy in the comments had this idea of putting the motherboard upside down so the condensation would drip down.
@@casemodder89 maybe if you put one of those manual twist knobs to control the voltage it may work. I use a 12v light dimmer for many of my diys, and works great. Very simple and straightforward
Now run it with some CPU intensive tasks and watch the temperature shoot from -16c to 60c in 5 minute slol
Pentium 4 fk yea
+deWaardt
It is an AMD. You can see the logo on the CPU.
CoolIt was ahead of you years before. In fact, I use a modified CoolIt Freezone that beats modern rads.
great vid, ive been watching a couple of these cpu cooling vids and there is always a problem with condensation at such low temps, i have not read through all the comments so i apologise if someone has mentioned it but there is a vid of a pc build submerged in oil. if you could submerge your build in oil you could cool it down to insane temps without the issue of moisture
You should just apply 1 drop of thermal paste in the middle, don't touch it, and place the components on top of it, it will spread out by itself under pressure. Less is better, but it has to be enough to cover a considerable surface of the
Lay your case on its side so that the motherboard is facing towards the ground, so that its ground->heatsink->motherboard. That will help keep some condensation off the motherboard, since when it melts, it'll drip away from the motherboard. You should put a drip pan under it to catch the water.
Would love to have seen some real load on this setup.
Also I think some form of temperature sensor/controller would help minimise the condensation issue and reduce power consumption.
Give me MORE! LOL.
Remove radiator, remove fan, remove peltier from the processor. Connect the pump system directly to the processor and then put the peltiers (3 of them on the radiator) That way you will cool the water and avoid condensation. Also you can power it from below of your case.
hey man, how did u power ur peltier? when i use a power supply/charging unit thats 10 or 12 volts output my power charger block gets pretty warm, thanks for ur video also
Yes, that is perfectly possible to do. Getting feedback (temperature senzor) and regulating based on that.
Problem is you have only a restricted difference area between the two temperatures. (20 degree in your case.) Now it depends on the quantitiy of energy to be removed. Maybe this temperature difference is enough to remove the heat faster than it builds up in the processor. If it is not enough you need to increase the temperature difference (its thermodynamics) and run into condensation.
Can less & less voltage be applied to the Perrier to keep it from bot cooling so much? What? I mean, can you control how cold it gets things? Like, a system running hard, would only be allowed to get a system to say 40f. Stay away from freezing and prevent condensation or would you still get condensation?
Just OC the CPU to run hotter so it can't get too cold, job done.
holly molly awesome temps achieved
If you dial down the amperage via some sort of control circuit you can avoid the frost build up and still have good cooling. Nice demo, though.
very cool, pun intended. did you test the system under load? was the peltier able to "keep up" as the cpu drew more power.
im thinking of doing something like this for my rig, but use a peltier to air cooling, or water cooling with peltier mounted between an air cooler and then the water loop. if i ever get the balls to do it :p
Hi,
I tested it by playing a movie (not the most stressfull of tests) and the temperature rose to about -9C; at least nothing blew-up during the test - it was a bit of fun.
Crazy system admin! :))
Of interest for condensation is the difference between the surrounding air an the cold side of the peltier. (Ofcourse the CPU is hotter than the air.) If your air is 35 degree (in Summer) and you say you can go down 20 degree before condensation occurs (although I doubt it, I would say it's more around 10 degree) than you can cool down your CPU to 15°. Ofcourse you can cool it down more, but than condensation appears and that is what we are talking here.
Interesting video, thanks or sharing
seeing as how it just builds too much condensation to viably use under cpu heatsink. what if u attached the electromagnetic cooler to the radiator safely away from all the components that could be harmed by condensation? basically would it be effective enough in cooling the radiator to be viable, because i'm thinking about doing this. XD m y thoughts right now on radiator application is attach the cold side to the intake side of the cooling fins and have fans on the exit side pulling air through, or making the emc, electromagnetic cooler, make contact with either side liquid intake/ exit side of the radiator. very little contact point if done on the solid metal parts where the liquid enters and exits though. I just want to squeeze a few more Mhz. XD
I planned such a project once, but not to attach the peltier direct on the CPU. Just to attach the water cooling head on the CPU, take the peltier between two other heads so it can operate outside the computer, attach a temperature sensor near the water input of the watercooling-head of the CPU, connect it with a microcontroller such is gonna regulate the power input for the peltier, so you can fix a variable temperature the CPU will operate. For example 16-18 degrees Celsius so it will not have any condensation.
+Marlon D
I was thinking about attaching a peltier to a CPU. The peltier would get power from the computer power supply but it would be controlled by a MOSFET connected to a fan header. The peltier would ramp up with the fans and could be controlled with fan controller software.
if you use a thermostat you can prevent the condensation by preventing the cooler getting to cold, you would use the thermostat to throttle the power that going to the cooler. I also think a simple sink and drain might also work
Wow, that comment section is a war zone down below. Thank you for your experiment.
I wonder what TDP the CPU had and whether you tried full load scenario. I wonder whether TEC that you received mastered the full load, what kind of temperature you got there.
Nice experiment. I've seen a guy from Romania using a fridge's freon cooler on a CPU. He used something like a wax on the CPU socket (it was a permanent solution). Search for "freon CPU cooling" by the user "dumyyyyy". That could help with the condensation.
Nice video
Bernard I have a PMW controller like you are describing...does it work well with your peltier experience?
when u apply positive of power source to the red cable of peltier, and the black ocable of peltier to negative source, labelled side of peltier is always colding side, other side is heating one.
Why not set it up as an in-line liquid chiller for a liquid setup?
1:52, who else got irritated.
P.S. use a pea size drop in the center of the cpu.
+Thomas Duke (Creeper1372677) not with p4, you need more (but not this much LOL)
+Thomas Duke (Creeper1372677) Yeah bothered me to.
+Thomas Duke (ThomasDuke2003) Or a line down the center, or an X across the CPU from corner to corner... anything is better than a pre-spread.
DumbDuck44 Right. In reality it doesn't make to much of a difference with anything that has a heat spreader on it as heat will find the path of least resistance. My understanding of thermodynamics is what bothers me when people spread the paste though. No matter how good you think you spread it there are billions of mini air pockets formed from an uneven surface where as the drop in the center floods out and ensures better heat conductivity. Not perfect but definitely better then what is humanly possible by spreading it.
It self regulates what it needs, it doesn't actually matter practically. It'll just squeeze out what isn't used
Will be great if there is a complete peltier system with water cooling, barometric pressure & dew point meter, all in automated dynamic cooling system.
lucky bastard - nice expensive toys for a big boy to play
seems you need a airtight silicone insulation for your Peltier unit to avoid air condensation - search for thermoresistent - gasket paste - used to isolate engine pipes
and a variable power-source module like a DC power converter on ebay like a dimmer after the transformer or 220v-AC dimer before your transformer to adjust the Peltier temperature .
Not expensive though. New gaming pcs today, now thats expensive
use fan to blow air through cpu socket, minimise condensation.
also use temperature controller (,you can buy on ebay) with thermistor probe
to limit peltier current at low load.
mount the board upside down..or put plastic wrap between the copper and cpu to catch all the drips :)
wow this cat is awesome
why did you put all that stuff on the psu fan?
to prevent condensation, just put the whole motherborand down into an aquarium filled with baby oil
how about just cooling the reservoir and pump at the same time by moving the Peltier cooler to the water sources.
Isn't there some clay like stuff you can buy that does the same thing as well?
1:40 THAT IS WAY TOO MUCH THERMAL PASTE HOLY FUCKING MOSES
1:50 Well, at least he did a good job of paving it.
i saw the same
Believe older CPUs used more thermal compound then you would today.
Hi ! I saw your video and it help me for my next projet ,I will do the same as you but , to avoid frostin here my solution :
A temporised relay that will function the peltier module for a while an shut it , when the frosting begun the water will evaporate with cpu heat , doing that with optimized time laps
Rustoleum has a new product called Neverwet, that might help with the condensation
How do you know which side is the hot one and the cold one?
Can't you just limit the current on the peltier? Add a resistor or something so that it will not work in full power. Doesn't really need to be -C, right? 10 C will be fine or something higher to avoid condensation.
ey dass ich mich gerade eben gefragt ob das geht und dann das video top gibs nen daumen
Peltiers need at least a cheap ebay thermostat to turn it down to prevent condensation You also need to conformal coat the entire motherboard., the entire socket has to surrounded with black insulating foam or weather seal or Keadable eraser to isolate the cold plate from the ambient air or else no 24/7 use.
Eugen Mezei vor 1 Sekunde
It is distilled water (where you see an ion separator?) and you are right this is a pretty good isolator. But you always have some dirt on the motherboard surface that dissolves in the water and makes it a conducting dielectric.
1:05 you spraying silicon on CPU contacts? Silicon is good electrical isolator.
How do you solve the problem when the ice melt when the PC is turn off?
Short answer is - I didn't . There is no long answer.
This was only a test, the computer was never assembled into a case and shortly after this test it was dismantled and all the parts sold.
It was all just a bit of fun, my hobby.
GalileanMoons
i read that in your accent :P
GalileanMoons I would like to ask you would it be possible to make a custom water block made out of a composite plastic material that can handle high temperature as well as say up to -20 then put the peltier TEC cooling unit inside this plastic block with the wires sticking out of it. Then applying thermal paste on top of the CPU to draw out the heat while eliminating condensation since the frost would be contained inside the block and the hot part would be cooled by water through a pump like you did? As well as adding a temperature probe and temperature digital controller in order to adjust how cool you want the temperature. Example If you were to keep the CPU at 20 C under load would be great no need to go below 0C even if it is an Overclocked CPU. I find your video very informative and brilliant.
By being able to control the temperature maybe is possible to find a balance and not getting the peltier to completely freeze and develop frost but keep it at an idle temp any condensation if it could be controlled into the block without the block condensing itself by perhaps putting some sort of solution inside. Then adjusting the temperature to optimize performance.
I would like to come up with a solution to condensation. If you or anyone has any possible solution to condensation send me a reply would be greatly interested.
HI, +Dragunov121 Endri .
Thanks for your comments.
The temperature controller is a good idea (in a previous build I did have a thermocouple attached to the cooling block, but this was just to measure the temperature) and would help stop frost building up; it would not stop condensation completely if the temperature was below the Dew Point, but keeping the temperature at about 20C should be OK.
I'm not aware of any composite that could be used, but there probably is one out there.
Thank you kindly GalileanMoons
Just overclock the CPU enough to stop idle temps going too far below ambient temps or use a weaker peltier that can't. That's what I do.
Turning the peltier on and off isn't an option really as once their is no power it acts as an insulator causing a very quick rise in temps. Just matching the right parts and setting them correctly is a much cheaper, quicker and easier option in my experience.
For a 65w processor a 9amp TEC direct to the CPU with a decent air cooler is fine as long as you overclock it a decent amount. Idle temps won't be a lot better than at stock speed with a normal cooler but temps under load will be much better and your computer will be faster. Power draw on such a TEC is only about 120w so you can plug into a decent PSU using a spare CPU lead.
I don't like to unduly advertise, but i've switched to ic diamond it requires allot of pressure but it's made of diamond so the thermal conductivity is largely unaffected by age you might want to look into it if you install many thermal interfaces.
you can put plumber putty around the cup socket
cpu sorry
So the question is; How do you manage or eliminate the condensation?
I didn't - it all got very damp.
One thing I forgot about was that the underside of the MoBo (where CPU is) also got damp.
This was just an experiment and it was dismantled & parts sold soon after this video was made.
That's sad, I have seen one type of mass produced CPU peltier cooler before, they limit the cooling effect with resistors depending on ambient temperature, to control condensation if gets too cool the resistance increases, but they lose the deep cooling effect you got in this example.
Peltiers need at least a cheap ebay thermostat to turn it down to prevent condensation You also need to conformal coat the entire motherboard., the entire socket has to surrounded with black insulating foam or weather seal or Keadable eraser to isolate the cold plate from the ambient air or else no 24/7 use
gmax876 if u want it to be hardcore cold as can be, & little to no condensation ur best bet is use some kind of combination with a liquid nitrogen heat sink, with insulation. which will still get u condensation. so i was thinking of maybe cooling the liquid with the ecm that goes back to the cpu instead of the cpu directly. with long tubes going through ur system and high airflow will also drop ambient temp in ur whole pc, just a theory though.
Aren't you supposed to cover the CPU slot whilst you spray the stuff? Surely that would fuck with the connections??
puedes usar la caliente, la usada para manualidades
Water will mess with connections, the grease won't and repels the water.
Chris Lemery I understand that the grease will repel the water, but the CPU connectors are gold-plated for a reason, they need a really good contact with the socket. Anything in the way would increase the resistance and in turn the heat and current, which is not really what you want with this project :)
I got a great idea why not cover the whole mother if your scared of condensation might aswel grab a ball of play dough and cover the motherboard with it
jonathan oxlade Dismiss my comment with belittlement. Good job.
what if you submerge the entire pc in mineral oil? displacing air to prevent condensation. Mineral/Peltier/Water-cooled pc :)
lol that's my idea aswel shove the whole fucking thing Pelter and electronics in the mineral oil and use the rads to cool it further
Waaaaaaaay to much thermal interface material O.O Less is more, dude :D
its not way too much when he is making a triple layer birthday cake. It's obvious nothing he is doing is right.
You put the "Peltier" backwards?
For anyone wondering. The text is always on the cool side.
Why does nobody use thermo insulating foam or wool to prevent frost, ice and condensation? Simple shower sponge tightly wrapped around peltier module and CPU would prevent hot air to touch cold peltier in your case copper plate and so on stop condensation and ice.
nice try
i think there is something messing on your try
what about >>>>>>>>>>>>> sensor temperature with the power controller auto switch
what i am try to say.
make auto of the cooling system and auto on like the bios do with the fan
to make sure no more ice or water
or try to use speed controller or voltage controller
to controll the plate cooling and make sure no more ice
or try other way like a slaughter sheep and leave it in the open air to cool
make mix between the water cooler system and the plate color
setup the plate on your radiator and keep the water cold
but make sure reduce the voltage with the voltage controller to make sure the water not get ice
or use sensor temperature with the auto power switch
like the water refrigerator cooler system there is small board to do that you can take them and try :)
good luck
Lol at the people complaining about the TIM, like it really matters when it comes to subzero cooling.
You still need to cool the other side of the peltier, and you can't cool it with the system or it will cancel itself out. One peltier is complex enough.
Did he just spray silicon in the socket?!
Also 1 more thing Peltiers are considered a fire hazard. You could start a fire and burn your house down.
+Yor Highness Its being watercooled, no it could not. The only chance it could get hot enough to make a fire is if the watercooling was turned off whilst the peltier was still on, even then the heat would transfer to the water block and melt the tubing and water would put the fire out.
+Ame Nightcore Pumps dont last forever and do fail. Think about that. Trust me Is it worth a fire for a chinese made item. Least it will brick your pc.
Yor Highness Yeah but you could easily setup a thermal sensor and make it turn the computer off if the temp gets too high. Its called a failsafe.
There is only little catch... CPUs are unstable and power hungry when they are below 5-0°C. If you have this big radiatror you can just limit the fans on it to 700-1000 rpm and forget it. ;)
***** CPU's only become unstable at close to absolute zero. Like about -270º C. That's because electrons stop moving or get sluggish at about that temperature.
nexus1g Don't forget that there is limit temperature for transistor junctions too.
You really can "stop" older AMD CPU's by just freezing them under -75°C
***** True enough. I had not heard of a cold bug hit at that high of a temp. Thanks for teaching me something.
nexus1g you are welcome ...almost every semiconductor/junction containing deviece will fail at low temperatures and even it can be damaged if it's not switched off ;)
I got an idea but its a bit expanisive material, is a silver plate :D
Why not use waterblock on the cpu and use another waterblock with cold sided peltier with insulator and use watercooler on the hot side,you will have no short circuit...
Couldn't you just apply a Conformal coating on your board?
He sounds like Allistair Begg.
Holy shit, that was WAYYY to much TIM.
chil on the thermal grease man
That is cool.But...Fire hazard :P
You dont need to smear the termal paste.
Don't use this as an example of what it takes to water cool, this was much more complicated than it needs to be, especially with the peltier, mounting a water block right to the cpu works fine. You can even go with a pre-sealed system, like one of the Corsair water coolers.
Are you killing your CPU ?
What i want to know is if this is a fire hazard or not?......my home insurance company may not like or cover this.
IDE!
why not?
What cpu do you have?
***** i think you'll find that is an amd cpu.
Mikko Heikkilä It's an AMD, hard to tell which one, maybe an Athlon.
My bad I'm not very good with the old AMD CPU's.
Guinojona
U can add Intel to that statement to!
Mikko Heikkilä
Go to school and learn pls, ty!
The amount of thermal paste is too damn high!
I knew someone would post something about this
they automaticly shut off
Great way to fuck up your computer. garanteed.
omg he is cooling the cooler and for secound cooler he needs another cooler!! hahhahaha
5 volt on peltier
morons in the comments think they know everything about everything because they can build a pc. on a side note, why not run the TEC from the pc power supply it self. they have a 12 V rail; is the wattage too high? in fact, in most videos, the TEC is always on a separate circuit. any particular reason for this? great vid
supplied wattage is never really "too high" components use what they can because of internal resistance limits the amps that it can draw.
voltage however can always be oversupplied damage resistors and raise amps further damaging the component. but in this case a 12v device using 12v it should work so I don't see why not.
lets just drown it in thermal compound, the expression less is more comes to mind.
why would you even care about the thermal interface application as thermal conductivity when the heat transfer is just that ridiculous? Lol nonsense, its not like he is aiming to get even lower temperatures than -16°C, god.
just have standards
There are too many things wrong with this video to fit in 500 characters. I hope this was a troll attempt, or a joke, or just someone with more money than brains. Never let this guy come near your equipment.
Esse sistema consume muita energia, esse não é o melhor método de utilizar as partilhas, eu tenho o melhor método, mas não tenho tempo de fazer tutorial.
Aaand the video just stops.
I feel it's necessary to point out to anyone that cares to listen, the reservoir is absolutely necessary and must be directly above the pump.
Pumps for PC's will die if they run dry, that is to say if they're not constantly in liquid, so you need gravity to draw the coolant from the reservoir down to the pump to stop the pump from running dry and dying.
Good Job mate. I love to see people playing with TECs. I went a bit further than you and made my own customer built TEC 62mm TEC water block.
Intel 62x62mm TEC / Peltier water block
Nice experimental work. We can over clock the cpu for game purpose... No need to worry about thermal rebooting
This is extremely Ghetto
+GalileanMoons
PROBLEM SOLVED:
Attach the TEC module to a temperature regulator, possibly using the on-board CPU thermometer and some custom drivers perhaps. This would have to adjust the power output amperage to the peltier, (maybe use a modified CPU fan power as a controller signal?) so that the TEC & CPU are always just under room temperature (Say 68F) even under intense processing loads. The idea is to 'overclock' - to get the most out of your processor... but this really doesn't require zeb-zero temperatures at all! Just make sure the processor doesn't 'cook' (only removing excess heat) under heavy loads and you'll be just fine :) Then you don't have to worry about condensation what-so-ever... because the peltier never actually gets cold enough to cause water condensation...
And with a high-wattage power supply, I can likely use or adapt to that to power the TEC module*
Power supply > Control Unit > TEC module
Bam!
I had this idea a long time ago... and my processor is kinda outdated... but I don't really have the money for all this* unfortunately.
Couldn't this be used to maintain around 30-40 full load instead of negative temps??
To put it simply: warmer air can absorb more water vapor. When this air comes in contact with a chilly surface it will release water.
What you say is correct but of no practical use as you need to continuosly regulate and reregulate. Tehnical processes are preferably set one and have not to deal with it. Regulating can be done but complicates things.
If you look exactly about the Dew point you will see that condensation happens at around 10 degree temp. difference (dep. on atm. pressure too).
Been playing with my own TEC some more, you can control the rate of cooling with the fan on your heatsink or rad. If you cool the hot side more than is needed the cold side won't cool down as much so a faster fan speed is better for idle temps to keep above dew point. When you need max cooling drop the fan speeds down, you will need to run some benches to work out optimum settings, I studied temps while running Cinebench myself.
Also turn off things like speedstep in the bios to keep idle temp a little higher.
Coming back to this video, i have a question: isn't there a way to toggle the wattage so that it doesn't get below dew temparatures? this is just so that if i am on idle i can turn it down with a software or something. maybe a knob or a button. but preferweably a program.
The problem is the cold side is oriented towards the CPU. It is the cold side where you have condensation. The outward oriented hot side presents no problem, there you will have no condensation, no matter if upside of downside.
A simple current limiter circuit will solve your problem with the condensation. Attach the thermocouple to the copper plate and use it's output to vary the current going to the peltier so it won't get too cool, 30C should be good enough. Then as CPU wattage rises, the thermocouple circuit will allow full amperage to the peltier.
I've just started with the 9amp version of that peltier playing with a E2160, I didn't bother with the silicone spray or the copper plate so my Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 just bolted straight on.
My peltier only draws about 110w on a 12v rail so I just plugged straight into my PSU on a spare CPU cable.
I didn't allow the temps to drop too low so as not to form frost, once I overclocked a decent amount it wouldn't go much below 20 degrees C.
Only drawback is that if I punch in the settings for my max OC on air cooling the peltier cannot overcome the heat and acts like an insulator causing a massive rise in temps and a shut down.
On the plus side I was at 2.9ghz and 1.5v on air, so far I've managed 3.2ghz at 1.25v with the TEC.
Idle temps are BS and mean nothing, under load I was over 70 degrees C on air now with the higher OC I'm in the mid 40's.
The motherboard is the limiting factor as I'm at max volts on the south bridge now, I've got an Asus Rampage with the X48 chipset on the way from ebay and a 15amp version of this TEC so should be able to push further.
Some say water cooling the TEC is a bad move but potentially as the air going through the rad could help keep temps high enough at idle to avoid freezing it would be a better idea than an air cooler for normal use.
The trick here would definitely be to jack the clocks or voltage high enough to avoid temps to far below ambient at idle and the TEC 100% helps with performance if done right. I think the motherboard will always be the limiting factor.
Nice but we do not need a negative temperature on the cpu, can you choose a link so that its power allows to get a temperature of eg 10-30C which would eliminate the condensation and fully enough?