Ultra ChillTec Thermal Electric Cooler

The reviews I've seen for it are not promising.

1) The unit only turns on the peltier cooler when the CPU temp gets to a certain point, so you never know if its going to be giving its full cooling capability at any given time.

2) It doesn't cool any better than your average high-end aircooler, and costs twice as much.

All in all I'd say its a product to avoid. You'd be better off with a Tuniq Tower, or a Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120. Even the expensive Thermalright IFX-14 is half the price of the Chilltec.
 
all of the above +

Total Power Dissipation:
- 0% Load = 5 W
- 50% Load = 28 W
- 100% Load = 50 W <----------- not enough to be effective on a really good OC.

read the last review

weights 200 grams more than the already alarming heavy tower coolers

Does not mention that it probally pulls 5A of +12 when the TEC is active.
 
For $20 more you can get a factory refurb CoolIT Freezone TEC directly from CoolIT. I'd guess that the water cooled TEC would probably cool a little bettter. My Freezone Elite is still AFU but it still keeps my 4.2 GHz E8400 at 38 idle, 52 Orthos load, which isn't too bad. All this is assuming, though, that the sensors on my E8400 are running properly.
 
Overclock1.jpg


Unlike the other responses, I'll speak from experience.

(Need to update my sig)

My current system is an E8400 with the Chilltec unit cooling it.

Yup, I'm at 4 ghz at the moment. Been there for a few days now. The noise the some people complained about, well, I'm not sure if Ultra changed the fan, updated the software, or what, but I'm not having a noise issue.

Quite the opposite. I'm using a cooler master Evo case and there's a ton of space inside, especially without the 4 side fans and that mounting bracket. Also, without those fans, my system is extremely quiet.

As you can see in the above picture, I'm running Ortho and I was also playing Counter Strike for almost an hour when I took that screenshot.

Things to keep in mind:

Make sure you have a large case. A tall narrow case will NOT do the job.

Read the scant directions. Especially the part on tightening down the cooler.

Powersupply. I noticed someone with a 600w powersupply complaining. WHAT WAS HE EXPECTING? I'd say that if you have a high end processor, high end GPU, have a high end PSU and high end case. My 700w OCZ GamerXstream is sufficient for my single GPU. If I tried to use this with 2 8800 GTXs, I'd probably be complaining too.

Core Temp is more accurate at reporting the core temps than the panel that comes with it. CPU Z isn't entirely accurate either, but I think that has to do with my 680i motherboard and the bios update (p32, which you WILL NEED if you're running the Wolfdale processor.)
 
Those temps are actually higher than my cpu at the same speed with a thermalright ultra extreme.
 
K1tty said:
Those temps are actually higher than my cpu at the same speed with a thermalright ultra extreme.
Click to expand...

Core temp screen shots after 1 hour Ortho and gaming then please.

Adding screenshot of non-ortho activity:

overclock3.jpg


Taken right after the last post.
 
Here are my recorded temps after a several hour run (5:43 & 9:24) of two instances of prime and temps via real temp. I'm sorry but I don't use core temp. I can and see if it reports differently. This is with the fan on my true at 50% (silent) :p You can see the max temps hit were 59 & 58, granted this was in my 10' x 10' office with the door closed and around 75f ambient.

PrimeStable.jpg



* Looking at CoreTemp it appears that it is exactly 10c higher temps than RealTemp at idle... after a short run of two instances of prime my cores were pegged at 60c - 58c
 
So 59 is lower than 55?

Can we agree you were exaggerating a few degrees then :D

I could mention that the heating pipes for my loft are 2 feet from my computer and that the moon is in the seventh house, but all that would just be extra details right?

The OP asked about this cooler and that he was getting the same proc as you and I. I have actual experience with it rather than relying on reviews or forum anecdotes.

While my OCing may need some tuning, the Cooler is far from horrible.

Edit: WOW you're right. Real temp reports exactly a ten degree difference.

I'm going to try some of your settings for my OC later. Changing the multiplier to 8 etc.
 
Yeah, I was surprised by the difference. I think that real temp is correct for the e8400. Core temp is too high... for some of the tests i've done the chip would be fried at those temps...
I have tested 4Ghz at 500x8 and 450x9. Didn't seem to be any difference at all. Nice thing though was at 4ghz I could do around 1.3vcore (was able to lower a bit from the ss above). The ambient in the small room I was testing in was actually quite higher than I thought haha (serves me right for running prime all day with the door closed).
Now, I am running 470x9 (4.23) at 1.44vcore. It is prime stable but the temps have gone up a bit... It seems that there is a major jump in the required vcore after 4ghz. I am still just unsure of which I should run, the 4.23 at 1.44 or the 4.05 at 1.3 with much cooler temps...
 
Apallohadas said:
So 59 is lower than 55?

Can we agree you were exaggerating a few degrees then :D

I could mention that the heating pipes for my loft are 2 feet from my computer and that the moon is in the seventh house, but all that would just be extra details right?

The OP asked about this cooler and that he was getting the same proc as you and I. I have actual experience with it rather than relying on reviews or forum anecdotes.
Click to expand...

The details that K1tty mentioned are actually relevent to observed temperatures, though. What are your ambient temps?

IMO, when people are hitting 4Ghz on a good air cooling solution with perfectly acceptable temps, I see no reason to go the route of TEC. 59 vs 55 is not a huge difference and that's not even accounting for all the unknown variables here (case, ambient temp, fans, etc.). With TEC, you're drawing some pretty significant power off the 12V rail, and actually introducing more heat that needs to be dissapated when the TEC is running. When you put in more energy and more heat (not to mention more money) to end up at the same place as a good air cooling solution, I have to ask, what's the point?
 
That's why I got rid of my watercooling setup... It just wasn't worth the little difference in temps (and no difference in performance... as I was unable to get any higher clocks off this chip with h20).
Perhaps phase :)
 
Wulf, that's complete nonsense.

Unless Kitty and I are building the exact same room with our computers exactly located in the same place in these same rooms at the exact same altitudes in the same regions of the same countries, then going into those details do indeed become irrelevant.

I'm not sure about you, but I don't have thermal probes located all over my 2k sq ft loft. I understand that many H members do. I just forgot to place one between my computer and the radiator.

So shot in the dark? I'd say in the 70s. Temp between the computer and the pipes? 70s. Altitude? Sea level +6 stories. Atmospheric disturbance? I'll have to check my horoscope. Kitty, please post your horoscope so that we can get accurate data.

If we want to get back to real experience with this cooler, let me know. If we want to quibble on 1-4 degree differences and how that's 'the point', then I can see what other excus... err... data, I can come up with.

Just to clarify for you, since my humor does distract people, the OP was about the cooler. In my experience with it, it's done a fine job with reasonable results and noise levels. You're focused on details that are irrelevant (unless one of us lives in the Sahara or Alaska, then I can see that being VERY IMPORTANT.)
 
My friend has been messing with one of these units recently... albeit he has completly modified it... so may not be a great comparison. He basically ditched the included pump and cpu block for the apogee drive and removed the sensor mechanism that tells the tec to shut off (so its on 100% all the time). I will try to get him to post his results... he has an e8400 system as well.

It seems that now days the air cooling has gotten to be so much better that there is rarely a sizable increase in performance when doing watercooling... especially considering that the $300+ you spend on h20 could be used to get a better cpu or vga. I was quite dissappointed that with a very high quality water setup I was not able to crank out any more from this cpu (24/7 usage wise ... not suicide run benchmarks :) ). Hence the reason I went back to air ... for now :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top