[Drshew]

Is using a 240 rad defeating the point of using a TEC chiller in my water cooling loop? My main goal is to keep the temps at or alittle below my room temp. I was kind of planning something like 3 TECs that turn on and off in stages based on the water temp.

 

[billbartuska]

If the water is below ambient temp then the rad will be adding heat to the cooling system. Since heat flows from warmer objects to cooler objects, heat will flow from the warmer air into the cooler water.

 

[Drshew]

Hmmm I think I will have to do lots of trials to see what works for me. But what you say makes sense. I was kinda thinking that the rad would be a safety net in case a tec dies. Maybe go down to a 120 rad for a safety net

 

[Puck]

I don't really see the point of a rad for a safety net...just set temp thresholds in both BIOS and Software and you have two levels of safety against overheating. Use the software shutdown as the first lower temp since will take a few seconds to shutdown rig since its a "clean" shutdown, then set the BIOS a few degrees after that so if things really go bad and its still heating up while shutdown is running it hits a danger zone and instantly shuts down. That way you are still protected, but won't be sacrificing cooling performance 100% of the time for something that should rarely if ever occur. In years of TEC use I've only had it trigger once due to a dead pump.

Instead of a rad, use a decent insulated res. As long as you don't turn your computer off constantly it works great as a buffer. Down side being that after a cold boot, you will have a few minutes of warmer temps until the rad buffer is cooled to target temp.

 

[billbartuska]

It's extremely difficult to overheat a CPU to the point of harm. They all either throttle or just shutdown long before any damage occurs.