Thermoelectric cooling

dsoileaudsoileau
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I saw for sale last night at a local drug store a small personal cooler/heater with a clearly visible thermoelectric device adhered to the interior enamalized metal enclosure. I nearly bought one ($40) for a Science 101 -- Break Things and Reassemble Pieces as Something Else experiment: cooling my G4. I'm cheap, and I already have a dorm fridge, so I thought that before buying the device I should seek sage advice from the appleinsider stream of thought. Has anyone done such an experiment or know the physics involved (beyond rudimentary)? Would sticking the self-powered thermoelectric device to the heatsink fins make much difference in core temperature? Or does such a device have to be placed between the cpu and heatsink to be effective?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    gargoylegargoyle Posts: 660member
    Sounds like a peltier type thing to me. As with anything you still need a heatsink and fan, and it might draw too much current.



    More Info Here.



    This site actually has a lot of good info ( Homepage ), and if you are looking for quiet cooling, then maybe you would consider water cooling.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    dsoileaudsoileau Posts: 12member
    Thanks for the useful information. However, having searched for several weeks I have found several PC CPU/case cooling solutions but not anything for Mac. The companies that I contacted said nothing is available nor planned for the Mac.



    Ironic as it may seem, I have a Mac but not much money for expensive custom-fab solutions. (Or is the irony in my having a Mac?) At any rate, powering an internal peltier device with the Mac power supply is beyond me. That's why the concept of forcing cold air from an external, powered box into my frustratingly noisy Mac appealed to me. I've a project in mind (cheap, of course) involving a peltier cooled box, tubing, foam baffling, and a fan. More to come.... (insert wobbly eye, smiley icon here)



    If anyone knows how to regulate/control voltage to the internal fans in the G4, please contribute.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    gargoylegargoyle Posts: 660member
    that site I linked you to had an article on building your own temp sensor fan speed controllers.



    Heres the direct link (http://www.heatsink-guide.com/tempcontrol.htm) but you will lose the framset.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    thttht Posts: 5,450member
    Thermal grease or thermal paste is just as important to heat transfer as the heat sink or TEC is.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    And remember the TEC still needs to be cooled via heatsink and a fan to dissapate the heat from the HS fins.
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