What if I left out the running water?
 

While I was planning my new water-cooling setup an idea came to me. It was one of those ideas that many people would tend to dismiss as a waste of time or just a case of too much free time. What is it that I did? I decided to test my T.E.C block setup to see what would be the lowest temperature reached by the T.E.C plate before the temperature would start to rise again (measured by a compunurse dual) . Using a 50 Watt T.E.C powered at 16 volts 10 amps the lowest temperature reached was 47.9 F on the cold side while the hot side was at 178.1 F. That’s a temperature difference of 130.2 F! I did this several time using the same set up and came up similar results. On one occasion I let the hot side reach (according to compunurse dual) 205.3 F while the cold side was at 71.2 F a difference of 134.1 F. I was going to let it go till the T.E.C fried but the lady of the house freaked. I took one picture (that came out cleared) to show here and wondered has any one done this before? If so what were the results and test condition?

Do not fully understood the ultimate purpose for fying a pelt, and probably damaging the seals in the water block. I know I can be a quite obtuse some times ;)

However I like the little thermal sensers you inserted on the plates. Question: what model are they, and where can I get them (if possible)

You can get them here and the trick to convert them from a Celsius display to a Fahrenheit is here.
My block and T.E.C has an insert for the compunurse. I was not trying to fry the pelt at first (never got that far) my goal in this was to see what the maximum temperature differences would be with on my block. I was hoping to find someone else that had done this but I have not found anyone yet. I did test the block later to make sure the seal was still good - It was :D

I think the benifit to testing like this would be to bring the heat side to 100 degrees... or 130. Then turning on your pump rad combo and seeing how fast the heat was lowered to X or an acceptable level. The speed would be a testing variable with how low the temp could be taken to. Once this was established, you find the efficency of the system, you could start putting different blocks on. Then find out which blocks are the best TEC coolers in your system. So 2 different tests.

I don't quite see the purpose either, but throw in a cooling loop in there, that starts to become interesting. The objective then gives you a useful (and "functional"!) delta T, as you frost up the cold plate.

I really don't think the full impact of what this could mean for normal everyday testers. Joemac knows the heatload and the watts hes putting into it. He also knows how much heat he can dissipate by running a rad and pump. He can easily measure it. Basically, you change any one component in that and you can tweak for the better component. Put the same tec, power and clamping pressure on another block and you have a GOOD block test.
If you guys insist on a heat source how bout one you can clamp directly to the block. Frankly the TEC reminds me more of the new procs coming out with integrated heat spreaders. How much longer can the forum state.. get a hot knife and pry off the heat spreader to place a block on the core for testing?? are all the users going to be taking off the spreaders to run their computers?? no. How will a core cooling only block compare to real life? Thats not what we are going to be seeing. Its it really honest to say, this block performs like this or this on the new cores with the heat spreaders that users in the majority will never take off?
I like the idea of having the heat source on the base. I have never liked the heat sources were the heat has to travel over an inch to reach the block.. hows that accurate? your going to have heat dissapation, it doesnt all enter the core area.

Re: What if I left out the running water?
 

um.. i dont get it. wasnt joemac asking if anyone tested their blocks using heat dissipation through it via DeltaT of hot cold side of tec?

Not that I can see.

My impression was that he was asking about dT's with no heatload at high hotside temps.

well.. apparently Joemac isnt going to tell us.. :confused:

What do you guys think of using the tec and the blocks ability to cool it as a measurement of performance?

Has anyone else done this or can do it and post some numbers?

I was asking if any one had done this type of testing before on any water block. I could see why this could be confusing since I my self had no one particular goal in doing this. I was more interested in getting a temperature reading from within the TEC plate and the base of the block and decided to do it with out the running water.