Triple TECs - Double chiller + Direct Die Cascade? Sure, why not!?

[Puck]

Res is finished! Two layers of armaflex, overlapping each seam by 50% so no gaps. Going to let it cure for a few hours then run a test...will fill it with ice water and plug the barbs, then monitor the temp after an hour to see how well it holds temp. Won't be perfect since I'm just gonna loop a piece of hose to the barbs that wont be insulated, but it will give me a rough idea to make sure the chiller wont be working as hard to keep the res cold at idle.

 

 

[Boinker]

hey puck, what do you plan to use as the liquid or heat carrier in this system. Automotive coolant and water, Methanol or otherwise????

[Puck]

hey puck, what do you plan to use as the liquid or heat carrier in this system. Automotive coolant and water, Methanol or otherwise????

As of now I'm planning 50/50 mix of Distilled + Ethanol. Was originally going to use Propylene Glycol since it will not react with common components in a loop, but I found someone who used 50/50 mix of Ethanol/Distilled with a D-Tek block and it did not effect the Delrin or o-rings in the block.

 

It is easy to source as well - Everclear from your local liquor store is 95% Ethanol with no additives like gasoline that ends up in denatured non-consumable Ethanol.

[Black64]

interesting

Edited March 16, 2014 by Black64

[Puck]

Chillers and third pump are here, just waiting on a few little bits to get here that should arrive tomorrow.

Did notice a small problem...I'm out of PCIE connectors . I have 2x 7970s which each take a 6pin and 8pin(that's 4), then the block takes a 6pin as well...thats 5. I need two more 6-pins for the two chillers though, and only have one free (I think)...I may have to get those 2x Molex->6pin adapters, hopefully they are carried in stock at the local Tigerdirect store.



They will be mounted vertically, up above my horizontal mobo on the far side of the case wall using that plastic outdoor industrial velcro so you can see them from the side window - should look pretty trick with the "a" logo lit up. This whole cold side loop will be on the top floor, the hot side loop is ran through the mid plate into the bottom with the GPU loop.

[Puck]

Found some usable parts in one of my junk boxes.

In case anyone was wondering, 8-pin PCIE + Dremel = 6-pin PCIE .

[Puck]

Finished the override/temp panel. Chiller override, hot side temp, block override, cold side temp.

 

 

...and used some SLI/Xfire tube links to chain the chillers. Getting closer to testing!

Edited March 18, 2014 by Puck

[BluePanda]

If nothing else...it looks cool. haha

[RHKCommander959]

I like where this is going. I still use an older swiftech TEC setup on older stuff. I saw these units for sale over on the other place too.

 

It's too bad he doesn't make these units anymore, keep hoping he will come back. What voltage are you going to run these at or is the controller choosing that to keep it all at ambient? TECs are more energy efficient with less voltage if you didn't know.

[Puck]

Was waiting on some more parts so got delayed a bit. Installed the override panel and controllers, everything works perfectly. Ignore the gaps and crookedness, they are only mocked up and not screwed in yet since I still have to wire in the cold side probe and chiller wiring.

Also replaced the Ceramique2 under the IHS with Coolabratory Liquid Pro - it's freezing point is 8c, and forms a nearly perfect bond when frozen so it works great in this application. Not sure how it would do under extreme temps like Phase and LN2 since it may get brittle and shrink too much, but for TECs its awesome. Wish I could run it on top of the IHS as well, but my blocks coldplate is aluminum. I am going to mill a copper cold plate so I can run CLP on both sides of the IHS eventually.

I like where this is going. I still use an older swiftech TEC setup on older stuff. I saw these units for sale over on the other place too.

 

It's too bad he doesn't make these units anymore, keep hoping he will come back. What voltage are you going to run these at or is the controller choosing that to keep it all at ambient? TECs are more energy efficient with less voltage if you didn't know.

All three TECs will be ran at 14v, 14-16 being the sweet spot for them. They are rated 400w @ 24v, but that puts out TONS of heat and is horribly inefficient. If I had a proper adjustable PSU I would run 16v since I have plenty of rad to control the waste heat.

 

The controllers don't mess with the voltage, just the duty cycle. They eat too much power for resistive control so use PWM. With the wired in ambient temp sensors I can have them set for dew point control (currently 10c), ambient to match standard watercooling temps and save power, or flick the switch and set both chillers, the block, or all three to target 0c ignoring both dew point and my power bill - ~500w of cooling loop power draw LOL .

[RHKCommander959]

Sounds pretty efficient, didn't know the controllers used PWM but I am glad that they do

 

Makes me want to play with subambient again, been thinking about starting up the swiftech 5000 on 939 but might go bigger with a water chiller or phase on something a bit newer.

 

Control panel looks nice!

[Puck]

Sounds pretty efficient, didn't know the controllers used PWM but I am glad that they do

 

Makes me want to play with subambient again, been thinking about starting up the swiftech 5000 on 939 but might go bigger with a water chiller or phase on something a bit newer.

 

Control panel looks nice!

Thanks!

 

These newer faster response thermistors and cheap programmable chips have made high tech but affordable controllers a reality. Now we can have .5 second polling and auto calculation of dew point and a adjust everything quickly and automatically. Add in the newer more efficient TECs and it's great stuff for peltiers. Not like even just 5+ years ago when TECs were horribly inefficient, ran hot as heck, and were difficult to control.