Copper Resivoir TEC

[mateo]

So I'm doing a case mod project with a new Lian Li Cube case. To avoid condensation on the cpu I've decided to make a resivoir out of copper. Placing pelters on the bottom of it to cool the copper res.

Left side view from front

My plans, noob drawing, but you can get the point

does copper transfer heat better if its thicker?

if I placed maybe 4-5 fins from the bottom halfway up the res would that help cool the overall temp of the liquid passing through the res.


The res will contain about 2000ml of liquid in it as the dimensions are 5x"5"x5"

 

[Zero82z]

What you're doing will not actually solve the problem of condensation, since if the temperature of the water is cooler than the ambient temperature, there will still be condensation on the outside of the tubing and possibly the waterblocks as well. You will need to control the TEC so that the temperature of the water is always higher than the ambient temperature in order to prevent condensation. See this thread where a very similar idea is being discussed: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1381561

does copper transfer heat better if its thicker?

No. Thinner layers transfer heat more easily. The difference is not significant though.

if I placed maybe 4-5 fins from the bottom halfway up the res would that help cool the overall temp of the liquid passing through the res.

Yes. More surface area will help greatly in cooling the water.

 

[flak-spammer]

Ok, some ground rules, TEC's are heatpumps so they need to be cooled actively, look at using water or you'll rob yourself of any advantage. Second by using a large exposed peice of copper you'll spend more time cooling the surrounding air than the res contents. Also TEC's only work as well as the active cooling on the hotside, they arn't magic so all the heat that you pump from the res must go somewhere. TEC's also have a max qmax at their normal operating voltage (never run them at their stated voltage as they produce tons of heat with very little efficiency). Also one must note that as the voltage decreases so does the qmax so at 15v it may be 67C (theoretical) but at 12v it may on be 40c so if you're hotside is 35C then your cold side will be -5C. The lower the input voltage (to an extent) the higher the efficiency and less electricity used per watt of heat moved. The other thing is that TEC's should not be powered by a computer PSU, they should have dedicated PSU's and you may want to look into getting thicker tails typically they are 18-20AWG and get fairly warm. Also computer PSU molex connectors are rated to a max of 10 amps so it's not suggested to do so. Your "chiller" concept will work but it needs a lot more work than just putting TEC's on the bottom and calling it done. Once you buy your TEC's or if you already have them you should spend some time messing about with them, they are quite different than people think. Hope this is somewhat helpful and if you are looking for more info on people who have made TEC chillers or are using TEC's to cool CPU's go to http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=94 and http://www.overclock.net/peltiers-tec/.