dual pelts on one cpu?

[Xenogias]

Hi, I'm new to the forums and to water/peltier cooling in general. I'm in the process of setting up my first peltier cooled rig and was curious about a few things. First off: the setup is a P4 2.26 northwood and I'm wanting to go well into the 3ghz range with this. I'm ordering most of the parts i need from dangerden and have decided on a Black ice Extreme radiator and a Eheim 1250 pump.

When choosing waterblocks though i noticed that the MAZE2-1/2 supports dual peltiers. I immediately took that to the logical extreme thinking about 2x226watt pelts. my questions are about the feasablility of such a setup. Would this be too much for the water to cool? would I be able to add a gpu pelt (probably 80w or so) at a later time (i'm stuck with integrated graphics for a while:( at least until the R300...who knows) with this and if so what the heck would i need to power this and would i need another BIX to add to the chain?

lastly, i want to say that i'm trying to get something now that is expandable so If dual pelts seem to require a shit load of $$$ to run effectively, then i might just get a maze 2, one 226w pelt, and a power supply that could handle it with the expectation of getting another cpu pelt, another power supply and another rad. down the line.

Please let me know what you think i should get, and unfortunately i wont be in town for the next 10 days so I send my thanks in advance on any help you might offer.

[DaGoochMeister]

What I think you need to find out is how effectively and efficiently the Maze 2 can handle the dual 226W on the hot side and what method you are going to use to cool the hot side as well. The heat generated by dual 226W Peltiers and using a closed loop system is tremendously high. Possibly the most cost effective might be using running tap water and the warm/hot water used for watering your lawn so that you are not wasting the tap water. ;)

[Player0]

One single black ice extreme would be barely enough for the cpu and one 226w peltier. You might want to get two for this route.

Two 226w peltiers won't fit in the maze2-2. They are 50mm wide, too wide to fit. Youre option would be to use a Maze3-1 and a single 226w peltier.

Some have used two 172w peltiers on the maze2-2, but with limited results. The Maze2 isn't able to cope with that much heat though. Not very well anyway.

Another solution is a dual loop peltier system. Instead of mounting the multiple peltiers right on the CPU block, you mount them on a seperate and much larger heat exchanger block. This is what I use, powering three 156w peltiers (and soon to be three 226w peltiers), which functions as a water chiller. The only downside is two pumps, two resevoirs, and 4 black ice extreme radiators :)

[mdzcpa]

Interesting thread indeed:) Some pretty extreme pelt usage here.

Actually I just popped in to welcome Xenogias and DaGoochMeister to the LN forums:) Nice to have you aboard M8s!

[Xenogias]

Player0, You truly have an amazing system. I hope you dont mind if i borrow some ideas :). What do you use to power those three peltiers? what will you use when you upgrade to 226w?

Could you clarify a couple things for me. like I said i'm new to the world of peltier cooling and want to make sure I get you right. You suggest building a separate pump/rad/waterblock/pelt loop if i want to use two pelts?

I dont have a thousand dollars to make a badass setup like yours but out of curiosity... could you explain this chiller that you have (what exaclty is it made of and where are the peltier's mounted?)

Thanks for the advice, I think I'm going to start with a single loop then add more as i see fit.

[Player0]

I currently have a Bulldog 14v 30a dedicated switching PSU which powers two of the 156w peltiers and a couple fans. The third peltier is powered off the main ATX PSU, which has enough amps on the 12v line to do this. Steal any ideas you'd like :) More people should use this type of cooling. It can cost a pretty penny, but can still be done on a budget if youre careful.

Yep, I definately recommend a dual loop system if you want to use more than one peltier. This is less efficient than direct mounting the pelt right on the CPU. But theres no better way to mount multiple high power pelts. The benefits outweigh the inefficiencies.

The chiller you can see in my picture gallery. It was custom made, and is basically two huge aluminum water blocks which sandwhich the 3 156w peltiers. So one block gets really hot, the other block gets ice cold. Its just a large heat exchanger. The hotside is cooled by the radiators. The cold side is connected to the CPU waterblock with a small isolated water loop (thus the dualloop name). Cold water can get down to about 4-8c under CPU load. Without the CPU on, temperatures can get down under -10c degrees.

[DaGoochMeister]

Thanks for the welcome. :D