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I used peltier coolers on K6 processors 1M computer years ago. They worked great and lasted about as long as the PCs did. Not long after I bought mine, they di

I used peltier coolers on K6 processors 1M computer years ago. They worked great and lasted about as long as the PCs did. Not long after I bought mine, they disappeared from cooler offerings. I've wondered what became of the tech.

PaulHoule 1y ago
I remember one objection to Peltier coolers in that application is that could possibly cool the CPU below the dew point and cause water condensation, something a fan can't do.
- rurban 1y ago
  For this we calculate the dew point with 2 sensors and react accordingly in my temperature controller. I'd really like to try out these better peltiers, our current ones suck. And the fans to remove the heat are huge and loud.
  - PaulHoule 1y ago
    There are other ways of building refrigerant-free refrigerators too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetocaloric_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetocaloric_effect and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elastocaloric_materials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elastocaloric_materials of course they also have the dew point problem, but so do ordinary refrigerators and freezers.
    - rurban 1y ago
      I need active CPU and light cooling. Fridges are easy.
- marcusb 1y ago
  A friend had a Peltier cooler on a late 90s/early 2000s CPU and had the condensation problem. The cooler (or maybe CPU, or both; I can't remember which) had an algae-like growth all over it.
- gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
  Anybody who points to dew point issues would be fascinated by https://youtu.be/qAZ-q3KmDHM https://youtu.be/qAZ-q3KmDHM
s0rce 1y ago
They are inefficient and dump a bunch of additional heat into the heatsink that you need to get rid of.
duskwuff 1y ago
> I've wondered what became of the tech. Remember that Peltier coolers don't make heat disappear - they just move it from one side of the cooler to the other, and produce a lot of additional waste heat in the process. There are better ways of transferring heat from a hot IC to a heat sink nowadays - like liquid cooling for really high-performance systems, or capillary-action heat pipes for more typical needs.
- delusional 1y ago
  > There are better ways of transferring heat from a hot IC to a heat sink nowadays Peltiers were always a bad way to move the heat. What they offered was the ability to go below ambient, which at the time could improve overclocking. Peltiers of course lacked the capacity to actually take you there with any decent load, but in theory it could. It never really made much sense for consumers, and once consumers realized that, the market went away.
  - electroglyph 1y ago
    peltier on the liquid reservoir might be worth trying...
Aurornis 1y ago
Your K6 processor has a TDP somewhere around 20-30W depending on the model. Modern performance CPUs have TDPs in the 100-200W range. Peltier cooling generates a lot of additional heat. It doesn’t scale well to the higher loads. That’s why you don’t see them any more.
- hypercube33 1y ago
  I'd consider performance processors something like a threadripper - 300W unlockable to 1000W. I haven't kept up with intel but I think they were indeed riding 200 to 300w.
rcxdude 1y ago
TDP went up. TECs are extremely inefficient, and have limits on how much heat they can pump in a given area anyway. a 10W chip, you can maybe get away with, and it might be a meaningful improvement compared to the other cooling tech available at the time, if you don't mind the power usage. with a 100W chip, you have no chance. (You can see a demo here where LTT try it, and they, after dumping 500W into the cooler, can get the CPU to a vaguely reasonable temperature, until they actually load it up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWrqyQWfhrs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWrqyQWfhrs)
burnt-resistor 1y ago
They made both the problem of power consumption and removing waste heat infinitely worse. Instead, I used liquid cooling with a copper block on one side and a heater core from an RV on the other. It was so efficient, it didn't even need a fan so long as the radiator fins remained somewhat vertical. I recall it used a pink additive to distilled water. That was bank in the day when you had to make double sure the very large PVC tubing was kink free, clamped properly, and oh the joys of removing air from the system.
mousethatroared 1y ago
They weren't worth it. Their only advantage is they can cool below room T, but then you have condensation problems.

PaulHoule 1y ago

I remember one objection to Peltier coolers in that application is that could possibly cool the CPU below the dew point and cause water condensation, something a fan can't do.

rurban 1y ago
For this we calculate the dew point with 2 sensors and react accordingly in my temperature controller. I'd really like to try out these better peltiers, our current ones suck. And the fans to remove the heat are huge and loud.
- PaulHoule 1y ago
  There are other ways of building refrigerant-free refrigerators too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetocaloric_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetocaloric_effect and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elastocaloric_materials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elastocaloric_materials of course they also have the dew point problem, but so do ordinary refrigerators and freezers.
  - rurban 1y ago
    I need active CPU and light cooling. Fridges are easy.
marcusb 1y ago
A friend had a Peltier cooler on a late 90s/early 2000s CPU and had the condensation problem. The cooler (or maybe CPU, or both; I can't remember which) had an algae-like growth all over it.
gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
Anybody who points to dew point issues would be fascinated by https://youtu.be/qAZ-q3KmDHM https://youtu.be/qAZ-q3KmDHM

s0rce 1y ago

They are inefficient and dump a bunch of additional heat into the heatsink that you need to get rid of.

duskwuff 1y ago

> I've wondered what became of the tech. Remember that Peltier coolers don't make heat disappear - they just move it from one side of the cooler to the other, and produce a lot of additional waste heat in the process. There are better ways of transferring heat from a hot IC to a heat sink nowadays - like liquid cooling for really high-performance systems, or capillary-action heat pipes for more typical needs.

delusional 1y ago
> There are better ways of transferring heat from a hot IC to a heat sink nowadays Peltiers were always a bad way to move the heat. What they offered was the ability to go below ambient, which at the time could improve overclocking. Peltiers of course lacked the capacity to actually take you there with any decent load, but in theory it could. It never really made much sense for consumers, and once consumers realized that, the market went away.
- electroglyph 1y ago
  peltier on the liquid reservoir might be worth trying...

Aurornis 1y ago

Your K6 processor has a TDP somewhere around 20-30W depending on the model. Modern performance CPUs have TDPs in the 100-200W range. Peltier cooling generates a lot of additional heat. It doesn’t scale well to the higher loads. That’s why you don’t see them any more.

hypercube33 1y ago
I'd consider performance processors something like a threadripper - 300W unlockable to 1000W. I haven't kept up with intel but I think they were indeed riding 200 to 300w.

rcxdude 1y ago

TDP went up. TECs are extremely inefficient, and have limits on how much heat they can pump in a given area anyway. a 10W chip, you can maybe get away with, and it might be a meaningful improvement compared to the other cooling tech available at the time, if you don't mind the power usage. with a 100W chip, you have no chance. (You can see a demo here where LTT try it, and they, after dumping 500W into the cooler, can get the CPU to a vaguely reasonable temperature, until they actually load it up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWrqyQWfhrs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWrqyQWfhrs)

burnt-resistor 1y ago

They made both the problem of power consumption and removing waste heat infinitely worse. Instead, I used liquid cooling with a copper block on one side and a heater core from an RV on the other. It was so efficient, it didn't even need a fan so long as the radiator fins remained somewhat vertical. I recall it used a pink additive to distilled water. That was bank in the day when you had to make double sure the very large PVC tubing was kink free, clamped properly, and oh the joys of removing air from the system.

mousethatroared 1y ago

They weren't worth it. Their only advantage is they can cool below room T, but then you have condensation problems.