Peltier coolers? Can i make my computer quieter for cheap?

[lyra]

right guys, my computer is loud as hell and i wanna quiet it down but im broke as hell.

Peltier coolers.

yeah I know, sub ambient cooling means ill have condensation problems but im pretty sure I can eliminate that with enough care and time.
but what im thinking and id like some confirmations on what i think i know and some other things too.
what I know so far is that peltier coolers have a hot side and a cold side. the hot side can get hotter than what you would like a cpu to be at as the cold side is cooling the cpu

so.

at the moment i have 4 noisy old fans in my computer and what i want to do is use a peltier cooler to keep the cpu cool and use my air cooler passively to keep the peltier cooler cool.
i imagine that the hot side will get hotter than you would expect a cpu to get but that shouldnt matter as the cold side will stay cold as long as i keep the hot side's temperatures under control
like this i can get rid of 2 or 3 fans from my system and bring down noise a lot

or should i just not go down this rabbit hole until i have a system that i dont mind killing?

 

[niko084]

No, because you'll spend it on electricity.
You're far better off going to a large water system, if you go large enough you can probably even go passive, or use a large box fan to cool the radiator for a civic.

 

[lyra]

i dont pay for electricity so im good on that, but yeah i have heard they are thirsty on the juice

 

[niko084]

If you are talking about your Xeon, you'll be looking for at least 95w plate, you'll need a lot of fan to keep the hot side cool as well...

It was a very cool way of cooling back in the 478/775 days but I don't know anyone that uses it on modern equipment...
My H100i keeps my hex core cool enough with the fans barely moving, it's whisper quiet even under load and my chip is a 140w.

You could duct A/C into the intake fans and turn the speeds down.

 

[lyra]

i see, so its really not that feasable then :/ shame

I guess they where always used for their thermals rather than their convenience in making things quiet

 

[BiggieShady]

Peltier coolers kinda require ambient temperature below 25 C and relative humidity below 50% to be absolutely free of any possible condensation around plates ... sometimes those requirements aren't met so they are not so popular

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Not to mention, you'd easily double or even triple your power consumption. You have the processor power + peltier power = total cooling requirement + fans/massive radiator to cool that total cooling requirement. e.g. 140w processor + 100w peltier = 240w of cooling capacity required to cool them both. Additionally, CPUs can draw very little when idle but the peltier is going to keep on drawing 100w. This is where things get dangerous as @BiggieShady pointed out.

It's an all around terrible idea unless you're talking a quantum computer.

 

[Vya Domus]

I think I have seen some tower like coolers with PCIe power plugs somewhere although I can't find them anymore. Were they functioning in a similar kind of way ?

 

[Vellinious]

The biggest problem with peltier coolers is the danger of condensation. Anytime you cool below ambient, that's something you need to take into consideration.

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

Water Cool. TEC's aren't any cheaper and cost more in the long run...also you have to protect your board from condensation.

 

[niko084]

It's an all around terrible idea unless you're talking a quantum computer.

Even then, because you move to nitrogen or a really awesome freezer

I think I have seen some tower like coolers with PCIe power plugs somewhere although I can't find them anymore. Were they functioning in a similar kind of way ?

There was a few peltier 'ready' coolers available for some time with plates pre-installed, I don't think I've seen one since 2005'ish.

 

[Aquinus]

The only realistic way to go sub-ambient for an extended duration is with phase-change but even that has its own problems and isn't exactly cheap or easy.

The biggest problem with peltier coolers is the danger of condensation. Anytime you cool below ambient, that's something you need to take into consideration.

This, for anything that is below the dew point of the air in the room.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

OP, your case has an air flow problem and you're dumping a lot of heat into it. You only have a 120 mm fan for an exhaust. IMHO, get a better case with better airflow - and the fans won't have to spin as fast, thereby lowering the noise.

 

[fullinfusion]

Water Cool. TEC's aren't any cheaper and cost more in the long run...also you have to protect your board from condensation.

No kidding hey... look at this cooler lol

 

[Durvelle27]

Get a 360mm Radiator and do passive watercooling

I did it with my i7-4770 @4.2GHz and it ran pretty cool even without fans

 

[fullinfusion]

Get a 360mm Radiator and do passive watercooling

I did it with my i7-4770 @4.2GHz and it ran pretty cool even without fans

Yeah that's true, till the rad gets so saturated with heat and it's only up up n away for temps.. But yes I agree, as long as there's some type of air moving around the case it'll definitely help and be silent

 

[Durvelle27]

Yeah that's true, till the rad gets so saturated with heat and it's only up up n away for temps.. But yes I agree, as long as there's some type of air moving around the case it'll definitely help and be silent

Ehhhh mine was mounted on the outside on the rear or the case so my case fans wouldn't help

 

[Aquinus]

Yeah that's true, till the rad gets so saturated with heat and it's only up up n away for temps.. But yes I agree, as long as there's some type of air moving around the case it'll definitely help and be silent

Temps would be a little higher but, it would be one quiet rig. You can also mount it to take advantage of convection or the airflow from other fans if it's not a fanless setup. a 360 is a lot of surface area and convection alone might be enough to keep temperatures reasonable. Maybe not as low as they could be but, if you're goal is to make the machine quiet, that's a good way to go. Even more so if you're not talking about high ambient temperatures like inside a house with central AC.

 

[speedpc]

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/coolit-freezone-jpg.85266/

Hello, Never ran into Condensation with mine

 

[Durvelle27]

And not to mention don't go crazy on clocks

I only ran 1.3V which helped keep temps down as well

 

[phanbuey]

just buy really nice quiet fans, use better thermal paste. pelts would be a cool experiment but only if you were chasing some crazy clocks.

definitely post pics if you go that route.

 

[fullinfusion]

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/coolit-freezone-jpg.85266/

Hello, Never ran into Condensation with mine

And what was the relative humidity in the room?

I had the bugger full steam ahead and mind ya it was in the middle of the hot summer months.

I ended up plumbing it into the water loop as an experiment, but the performance vs $$$ didn't make sense so in the trash it went.

 

[speedpc]

And what was the relative humidity in the room?

I had the bugger full steam ahead and mind ya it was in the middle of the hot summer months.

I ended up plumbing it into the water loop as an experiment, but the performance vs $$$ didn't make sense so in the trash it went.[/QUOTE

what was the relative humidity in the room? No Idea lol the AC is always set at 70F here in WI
under load I never go over 53C though, I have used this on all my cpu's since socket 775, I just keep making new brackets lol
I would like to put new coolant in it but I'm not sure what to use If I mess with it I will probably screw it up to lol

 

[newtekie1]

I don't get why you'd want to use peltier cooling just because the fans in your PC are noisy. That heat that the peltier generates has to go somewhere, and if you just have it dumping into a passively cooled tower heatsink, the heat will be dumped in your case. So you are going to need a pretty beefy, and noisy, fan to get that heat out of your case.

Seems to me like the simple solution is to just get some quieter fans. It isn't like quiet fans are that expensive...

 

[Durvelle27]

I don't get why you'd want to use peltier cooling just because the fans in your PC are noisy. That heat that the peltier generates has to go somewhere, and if you just have it dumping into a passively cooled tower heatsink, the heat will be dumped in your case. So you are going to need a pretty beefy, and noisy, fan to get that heat out of your case.

Seems to me like the simple solution is to just get some quieter fans. It isn't like quiet fans are that expensive...

Or just use pwm fans and turn them down