Wednesday, November 4th 2020
EK Water Blocks May Be Preparing a Thermoelectric CPU Cooler
In a recent YouTube video from Linus Tech Tips titled "The Fastest Gaming PC in the World!...For Now!" a new cooler from EK Water Blocks is shown. The cooler is paired with a binned Intel Core-i9 10900K running 5.4 GHz and 360 mm front radiator. The cooler was largely censored but we can see a number of cables coming off the block including a PCI-E power cable which helps the suggestion that the cooler is a thermoelectric cooling device (TEC) utilizing the Peltier effect to transfer heat from the CPU. Thermoelectric coolers require significant power to run with the EK cooler in question being used in a 1600w power supply system. Thermoelectric coolers aren't a new invention but haven't taken off in the PC realm due to power and cost concerns so it will be interesting to see if EK is able to buck the trend.
Source:
Linus Tech Tips YouTube
54 Comments on EK Water Blocks May Be Preparing a Thermoelectric CPU Cooler
If you need more power to cool your CPU, than the CPU needs for itself, then there is something really wrong.
TEC's are only useful for some rare cases, but for the most users, even for Enthusiasts, it is dumb.
using the TEC at full power trying to get it's full temperature differential is BAD.
They're much better at 10-15C differential and use much less energy. with less voltage and wattage
Unfortunately, we only have these conditions when CPU is idling and produces less than 10W of heat...
Having high ΔT like on overclocked 10900K, this hybrid cooling setup definitely has a potential of becoming a new Cooler Master V10 with dead peltier elements, shorted PSUs and RMA nightmare. TEC and TEG are inherently inefficient. You can't change physics.
Maybe a century later, when we get some new super-duper-magnets and cheap room-temperature superconductors, we'll be able to achieve something more adequate, like being half as efficient as phase-change... For now, let's leave it where it belongs. Nope. It's still as inefficient as its components separately. The only thing that'll maybe improve is heat transfer, because the hot side of TEC is gonna be hotter than CPU, hence warmer water, and faster dissipation on the rad side (assuming it's not gonna get saturated)
This is probably the dumbest 'invention' of this year and it appears someone skipped the whole Peltier-Seebeck theory. Reinventing hot water so to say.
A ~ 180W TEC (50x50mm unit, which is probably what they are using, given the size of the whole contraption) has a cooling/pumping capacity of ~ 100W in best case scenario. It's not a magical device - you can only pump as much as the TEC allows you to. Once you go past this the thermals go to sh%& and the temperatures will creep up until thermal throttling kicks in as two basic metals used in TEC are not good thermal conductors.
According to the photographs and video the TEC is in direct contact/sandwich between coldplate and hotplate. Unlike Cooler Master TEC cooler this cooler has TEC as a sole thermal joint so once it gets overwhelmed it will just cook. This is a recipe for disaster. Even if you turn of TEC the bad thermal construction of TEC makes for a huge dT.
Now, imagine pairing this with a 10900K in a modern multi-threaded game like Flight Simulator 2020 (or god forbid actual production software like Blender or Premiere). I am surprised this actually went past basic sanity check, let alone internal QC.
Edit: looking at the video and that secondary box that they aren't showing makes me wonder if that's some kind of management system for the TEC to make it run better - keeping everything above freezing, avoiding condensation, scaling the cooling in line with the thermal load, etc. Still doubt that can overcome the limitations of the TEC itself though.
Der8auer even setup a peltier chiller that got to subzero temps.
I still see peltiers on second hand sites by random people. Mostly cheap ones with stupid things written in the ad about how it would improve your cooling. Such a hot wash.
You're dumping A LOT of heat into your ambient and while doing so, you're doing it over a plate. As such, things can go wrong. EK and Linus are the geniuses that would do this as I have seen a lot of QC issues from EK watercooling products. My thick 280 EK rad smelled like galvanize for days, and the AIOs were much worse with bubbles stuck in the rads.
That said, "intelligent" Peltiers that simply regulate to sub-ambient (just before reaching the condensation point), would be a workable (if not-exactly-efficient), but niche cooling option. Still going to dump a lot of heat into the room regardless, but the same can be said of water chillers and those phase-change cooling systems that were also popular around the same time.
It's fine to go for doing niche things, but when you aren't really improving the products most people go for (EK-AIO with loud fans and parts going back and forth between Slovenia and China), and spending your R&D into pointless investments, you're bound to get negative comments.
But then again, using a Peltier device just to, as they say, "take the edge off" might be feasible. TECs by themselves are kind of a thermal insulator, but if you build the heat exchanger in a way that uses the TEC just to aid in the heat transfer and not be the main transfer path, it might be useful. I can only guess that EKWB doesn't hire ignorants and they found a way to make it at least useful.
I think there is a small market for a peltier today, even given the drawbacks. I don’t see the issue (assuming a well-engineered product is made) so long as buyers are aware of the added cost up front and to the electric bill AND everyone understands the intent is likely a 5-10+* drop (not subzero temps or other ridiculous claims). Yep, fond memories of socket A and the “Wild West” overclocking days
Though yes, keeping the differential down help with the other TEC problem: condensation.
You will just be dumping excessive heat in your room for no sensible reason. We want efficiency in our computers, not inefficiency. Due to the nature of peltiers, they ARE inefficient. It will only make your room get hotter and need more air conditioning. Definitely pointless.