Peltier Cooling

[obeseotron]

To someone that knows?

1. Is it worth it.
2. What's the most reasonably priced cooler that would be worthwhile (for fcpga)?
3. Is a 300W PS enough to supply it in addition to the rest of the system?

 

[Tates]

Peltiers are tricky. A well built unit will chill your P3 down nicely, but transfers alot of heat to your case. Make sure you have an extremely well ventilated case, and buy a good peltier. A 300 watt PS is considered the minimum required for this type of application and should do the job.

You might consider units built by:

Lufkins (try http://www.2cooltek.com/)

Swiftech (try http://www.swiftnets.com/)

Good sites for reference:

http://www.overclockers.com/

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/

http://www.hardocp.com/

Good luck!!!

 

[BuddyHolly]

1. Yes, they are worth it, but you have to be respectful of them.
2. Lufkins makes great beginners kits.
3. The watage of the PS is not as important as the output of the 12v line. My 300w works great with my 78w pelt 24/7, but it puts out 12a on the +12v line. Many 300w's have only 9a on that line, which would be tough.

 

[Ulysses]

1. Probably not. You can run many P3 700 - 750 CPU's at close to or more than 1000 MHz with just a Golden Orb, if you're lucky, so why futz with a Pelt. I think they made more sense a year ago or so, before Intel went to the Coppermine with on-die memory cache. Maybe just for fun.

2. I don't know about prices, but don't get less than 72 watts.

3. Generally you want a PS that does 12 amps @ 12 volts, maybe 14 amps. You've got to check the PS specs for this. Most PS's, even 300's, won't do that, but some will. People use 2 PS's to be sure or 'cause they don't know how much power is required.

See:
http:// [url]http://www.swiftnets.com/ [/url]