Peltier on a Athlon XP? and other Cooling ?'s

[Clinth]

I'm getting ready to setup a new Computer with a spare motherboard. I have an Abit KT7A M/b I was think of setting it up with an Athlon 1800 XP. So I came up with a couple of questions. I currently water cool, is there any realistic advantage to adding a peltier to my setup? If so what size? I have an ICE-74 from my Celron days. Also is the Northbridge cooling currently on the KT7A good enough for higher FSB speeds or should I get a better HSF? If so any recommendations?

Thanks,
Clinth

 

[MrThompson]

The KT7A is FSB challanged. A better HS on the Northbridge will help. My favorites are small Celeron or Socket A heatsinks. A small HS on the clock generator is usually worth 1 MHz of FSB.

As for the pelt questions, time for some reading.

Tellurex

Applying Pelts

Pelts in Practice

Picking a Pelt

Kryotherm Pelt Software

Overclockers Pelt Section

 

[socketman]

Umm, yeah there is a HUGE advantage to pelt cooling. Most people use 220 watt pelt for athlons. It sucks a LOT of juice, so they get an extra PSU just for the pelt. If your really serious about it, you can get a switchable PSU capable of going up to 18 volts. Most pelts reach peak efficiency around 14 volts, something a standard computer PSU cant do.

ANyway. Pelts can reach sub-ambient temps. The most you can hope for with water cooling is ambient temps. Seen plenty of overclocked CPUs on a pelt setups between 5-25 celcius- Well below what water coolers can do.
The downside is you have to insulate your socket. condensation is a problem since your below ambient temps.

Conclusion: IF you want a hardcore overclock, they are worth it. If your water cooler is handling your overclock just fine... then probably not worth it.

 

[MassiveUnit]

First of all, socketman, you can cool below ambient with straight water cooling by using a device called a bong cooler (you need lower humidity and you need to refill the water quite often, but it's quite a bit below ambient if you have both of those). And having a 226W pelt does absolutely nothing for you over say a 150W pelt with the same delta T. It's all about finding a pelt that's right for what you need. If you have a processor that puts out 200W of heat when it's overclocked, then yes, you would need a 226W pelt, but if not, you are simply waving your cock around saying you have a big pelt. You can go quite a bit below ambient (up to 60C below what your water cooling can get you) with one pelt and if you cascaded your ICE-74 with a 226W on top (if you wanted insanely cold temps) then you would have an even lower absolute temp. You must simply make sure that both your topmost pelt can handle the heat produced by both the proc and the other pelt and you also have to make sure your water cooling can handle the heat your pelts and processor put into it. You do have to get a dedicated power supply and if you wanted the 220W pelt, go to www.sidewindercomputers.com and they have a recommendation as to power supplies.

P.S. - socketman - you used the your instead of you're