Peltier cooling

[Brett]

hey guys.. I'm wondering.. is an intel P4 stock heatsink enough to cool a 130W peltier? The peltier isnt going to be cooling a CPU.. its gonna be used to cool something that doesnt actually produce heat... it just is normally at ambient temp and i want it to run cooler... Will the stock p4 heatsink be enough?

 

[Match]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that peltiers output the same amount of heat regardless of what they're cooling. If the object you're cooling doesn't produce heat, then it's going to get pretty cold, but the peltier is going to do just as much work as if it were cooling a PIV 3.0. I haven't worked with peltiers myself, but I get the impression that a standard heatsink would be inadequate for a 130 Watt peltier. Again, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

edit: spelling

 

[ethebubbeth]

yeah, i don't think a retail P4 heatsink would be enough to dissipate the heat generated by a 130watt peltier. Keep in mind that a p4 3.0ghz puts out about 80w of heat (sorry, i don't exactly, more an AMD man myself). That's an increase of 50w, and whatever wattage the heatsink/fan doesn't dissapate will just go right back through the peltier to whatever you're cooling.

Sorry if i'm wrong, feel free to correct me i have very little real world experience with thermoelectric cooling solutions.

 

[Brett]

thanks for the info.. would something larger.. like a thermalright SLK900 or Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu be able to disipate most/all of the heat?

 

[ethebubbeth]

Yeah, most likely. You'd still need a pretty powerful fan though. If i recall the thermoelectric version of the Swiftech MCX4000-T requires about 70cfm. You wouldn't need that much with a 130watt peltier though.

 

[ethebubbeth]

btw, i'm curious as to what you're going to be cooling with this peltier.

Originally posted by: Brett
hey guys.. I'm wondering.. is an intel P4 stock heatsink enough to cool a 130W peltier? The peltier isnt going to be cooling a CPU.. its gonna be used to cool something that doesnt actually produce heat... it just is normally at ambient temp and i want it to run cooler... Will the stock p4 heatsink be enough?

Also, be careful if it's something that doesn't generate heat it will become VERY cold. You would probably want to insulate with foam rubber or something similar to keep condensation from forming.

 

[Brett]

im gonna be cooling... beer/pop as im tired of these half filled cans of pop i can never finish due to them being warm and disgusting

 

[Match]

Originally posted by: Brett
im gonna be cooling... beer/pop as im tired of these half filled cans of pop i can never finish due to them being warm and disgusting

Well that's one of the more creative ways I've heard of doing it. Why not just use a refrigerator though? Do you want a cold plate (similar to a hot plate, but it keeps things cold)? Like ethebubbeth said, whatever you're cooling will become very cold. In the case of soda or beer you'd probably freeze it.

 

[Brett]

thats the idea.. cold plate.. and why no fridge.. no room in my dorm.. and uh.. opening and closing a fridge after every sip woudl be annoying... and i dont think it will freeze the drink.. mostly because heatsink --> peltier --> copper plate --> pop/beer can .. and if you look at a beer or popcan... the surface area it can contact the copper plate is very minimal.. the size of the ring of water left behind when a cold can sweats more or less