Single TEC water chiller build

Single 190w TEC chiller system to install inline before the GPU block. Lets see if it works...

Just unboxed the stuff and trying to figure out how to not use the thermo-glue:







Using an Enermax 420w 18a PSU to power the TEC.




Update
The budget heatsink doesn't have good wicking in its pipes; because the copper block doesn't burn my fingers when I hold it upright. So now, I got to fab some sort of mount for it.

I just ordered a "400w" TEC 50mmx50mm, because it sounds like more fun.

So laying under my desk holding it upright, it was pumping out a little heat and the copper block on the hot side was pretty warm. The cold side block felt cool to the touch and even colder during an idle test. I may need to play BF3 for 2 hours straight without it on and repeat the test with the TEC powered up.

The only results I have so far is 1C drop in 5 minutes at idle.




Update
I stepped it up and got a water-cooler for this bigger TEC. I also went to Home Depot and bought a strip of 2"x1/8" aluminum and used some 800 grit to wet sand any high spots to fab the heat-spreader (water-block on hot-side is circular). The hot-side is cooled by an Antec 625 water-cooler. Had to get a new PSU, 18amp not enough juice.

Here is the prototype water-cooled 50mm x 50mm 400W TEC chiller installed all powered by a high-amp 750w Kingwin.


Data so far: GPU normalized at idle, 71F and the hoses are very cool to the touch. Of course, the CPU is slightly higher since it gets the warmer coolant from the GPU.

For a short-duration gaming test results (Before minus After):
GPU = -18F difference with TEC running test after 20 min
CPU = -16F difference with TEC running test after 20 min

As is, I am confident it would work alone to chill a single processor water-cooling system (either 1 CPU block or 1 GPU block or <200w); I will prove this with a Prime95 test, so it pretty much only sucks heat from the CPU alone. For now, I still need to see if this single one can really chill both GPU+CPU "perpetually".

Cold Block + Fittings $25
400w TEC $35
1/8" Aluminum $2
Antec 625 $75
750w PSU $70
Total Investment: $207

More to come...I am getting a IR temp gauge to do some more testing, maybe a video if I clean my office

5/3/12 Update

Tested it again playing BF3 for a few hours...half way through I flipped the switch on... 47C to 40C and held for ~1.5 hours
Edited by BlazeR - 5/3/12 at 8:04pm

Yeah, I used a spare water block mount I had for an intel and it worked perfect using the heatsink's own hardware (I just clocked it over to expose the mounting holes, since this water block has built in arms). Used the spring loaded setup and thermal grease.

Problem:
The budget heatsink doesn't have good wicking in its pipes; because the copper block doesn't burn my fingers when I hold it upright. So now, I got to fab some sort of mount for it.

I just ordered a "400w" TEC 50mmx50mm, because it sounds like more fun.

So laying under my desk holding it upright, it was pumping out a little heat and the copper block on the hot side was pretty warm. The cold side block felt cool to the touch and even colder during an idle test. I may need to play BF3 for 2 hours straight without it on and repeat the test with the TEC powered up.

The only results I have so far is 1C drop in 5 minutes at idle.


Its all a prototype:

Updates coming!!

Had to buy a 40 amp power supply and I did something I probably shouldn't have I bought a little Antec 620 water cooler.

Initial test:

I turned off the PC and let the TEC module cool down the chiller block. At idle, it held the CPU and GPU at 75F for about 30-40 minutes and it began to creep up after that.

40mm TEC installed. That water cooler barely gets warm, so hopefully the 50mm TEC will like it.



The 50mm hangs over this water block so that is the current hold up here, I need to find a 50mm x 50mm copper plate heat spreader to fully cover that TEC.

Added updates to original post. TTT