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
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54 Comments on EK Water Blocks May Be Preparing a Thermoelectric CPU Cooler

#51
MpG
Wow, this takes me back. Giant Mountain Mods case with 4 triple rads on a Stinger waterblock, with an auxilliary 24V PSU powering a TEC, all to cool my Q6600 a couple degrees cooler. My wallet never did forgive me.

This should be amusing if it gets released. As stated already, the failure of peltier cooling was never a question of immature technology, but in how unsuitable they are for high output/small area applications like CPU cooling.
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#53
silentbogo
maxflyTheres a dude at ocforums thats been running tecs on his rigs for years. If memory serves he uses a combination of wcing and heatsinks to run his rig with them 24/7. If i remember ill link his latest system.
Well, that looks more like a realistic TEC setup. Thermalright Ultra 120 can easily dissipate >200W, that's exactly what I used with my X5650 with all of my overclocks, and I always hit the power barrier or instability before reaching anywhere near critical temps. It's perfect for cooling something like a 200W TEC. Add 3 of those, and you'll get around ~600W cooling capacity for hot side, which will give you a decent headroom on the cold side w/ reasonably overclocked 8700K at 1.35V. Plus, he went with the safest variant - chilling water instead of chilling CPU directly, which in case it fails, still runs as a decent (but slightly gimped) LC loop.

It was probably easier, cheaper, less space-consuming, and more aesthetically pleasing just to buy an aftermarket chiller. Someone here on TPU also ran a chiller.
@Knoxx29 , paging Knoxx29... :D :D :D What's your take on this?
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#54
Zach_01
Chrispy_Curious what EK are doing about condensation. Regardless of what tech they're using, Linus posted temperatures at or just above freezing, so condensate is by far the biggest concern I have (and my concerns over the ridiculous energy cost of TEC or the complixity/environmental concerns of pressurised refrigerant loops aren't exactly minor concerns in the first place).
We really don’t know what they’ve done with that block, I suspect that TEC plate is in the center of that block plate surrounded by water (hot side). Any exposed TEC cold plate/side would only be the area touching the CPU IHS ( only center of the entire block plate) and may not be from side to side.
Did you notice the thickness of it?

I’m not sure I explained it right...
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