need suggestions - peltiers for rack

[cakin]

Please tell me if I am getting into something I should stay away from,
or am I proceeding in the right direction (whatever that is?).

I am going to have to move some of these computers to my garage.
First I will move 3 xp1800's on 8kha+, and 1 xp1800 on k7s5a out there.
I am going to try the K12LTSP discless boot thing on the k7s5a.

BTW...wireless back into the house.

I am going to take them out of their cases and set them up
crack-rack style with a box fan blowing on them.

Since it gets well over 100 F here in the summer, what size/type/brand of
peltier should I put on these things? I have never done anything with a pelt before.

BGMicro has a pelt that provides a 74 C difference.
I have several of the GC68's with thermaltakes variable speed fans on them will they do?

What do I need to watch out for with a peltier?

Do I need to insulate or foam anything, since I will have a Patton 18 inch fan blowing on them from the side?

I will of course setup the motherboards to shutdown if they get over 135F or should I set them higher?

Any suggestions or improvements will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Migroo]

The first question that comes to mind is do you really need peltiers? Peltiers generate heat of their own you know, more than would be produced without the pelt - therefore the garage would heat up more I should think.

A normal HSF + that 18incher should be fine...

 

[lane42]

cakin, Here's a link for some peltiers tips.

 

[Fingers]

considering the garage gets so hot anyway I don't think overclocking will be too successfull even with peltiers. Most people I know with peltiers use water cooling sinply because the generate so much heat on their own that heatsinks just can't disipate all the heat. plus all the condensation that will occur you run the risk of shorting soomething out. I recomend just using what heatsinks you already have.

 

[panhead49]

as said above..........almost everyone using tec's ...use water cooling to disapate the heat......your other problems will be condensation...you will have to insulate....and use dielectric grease ..just to name a few things to start......you really have to keep on top of things ..till you get everything set up right...or meltdown......

 

[networkman]

What panhead49 said about the condensation.. that was the first thing I was thinking of too.

 

[Adul]

perltiers will fail and when that happens expect the CPU to fry shortly after. I would suggest a water cooling setup instead. My opinon. off course.

 

[Migroo]

Of course if you are in the garage, you could use a large bucket (or similar) as a water resevoir! No way in hell would the CPUs manage to heat that all up

 

[cakin]

I don't have the time to get into water cooling at this point, but it is something I am interested in..

Everyone has a lot of valid points. I just have a few questions:

#1 if the pelt doesn't go below freezing or is it the dew point, you shouldn't have condensation, would you?

#2 if I have the pelt sandwiched between the cpu and the gc68 with the fan blowing down shouldn't that stop condensation?
plus I have that big Patton blowing from the side. I could also buy a few of those squirrel cage fans from bgmicro and point them

#3 the motherboards have the ability to shut down if a temp is exceeded, will that be watchdog enough?

#4 if I go with just air cooling and no pelt, at what temp should I set the motherboards to shut down
in my office running seti my cpu temps avg 111 to 115 F, how high can I prudently go?

I also figure that once they are in the garage, I should not OC at all, or at least wait until winter gets here