Cooling capacity in Watts?
 

Okay, n00b question.

If something were to have a listed "cooling capacity" of "500 Watts @ 20°C" what would that mean exactly? Laymens terms.

If you gave us a litte more info the question would be easier to answer so ill just guess you have a heatsink that says it has a certain C/W (Celcius per Watt) listed as "cooling capacity" of "500 watts @ 20°C".
If the C/W would be something like 0.2 and ambient temp is 20°C and the amount of energy added to the heatsink is 500W. Then the heatsink would have a temperature of 0.2*500=100°C degrees above ambient =120°C.

okay... here is what prompted the question.

Link

Cooling capacity is a measure of how good something is at refrigeration. 500W @ 20°C means that the cooler is capable of removing 500W of heat at 20°C.

didn't see any prices on those things, how much do they run?

Not a clue yet...

First thing I wanted to do was find out if those cooling specs were "good". I never had a head for measurements or math. :)

Then I'd look into prices, as well as what sort of noise the things make when on. And then maybe how feasible it might be to work one into a system. :drool:

those are interesting. Chances are though that they are in excess of 500.00 . Find out, we'd love to hear!

Yup, those are typical specs for a compressor based refrigeration system. The lower the temp is set on the evaporator, the less heat can be handled by them. Look at a low-temp compressor spec for an example ;)

So.... do you think that one of these might provide any sort of significant difference in a water cooled box?

I've seen failed attempts to build pelt based chillers, but when I stumbled into that site I just had to look into it...

It's the same concept used for custom chilled water systems, with liquid temps in the sub-zero range. If you got a system that could handle your heat flux input and hold the temps to 0C or below, yes, it would make a significant difference - the difference being that between a few degrees above ambient and what that chiller could hold the liquid temps to.

The question is really - is it worth the expense of those chillers for the difference? I would tend to think a pre-built like those would run in the 750 to 2000 range based upon similiar systems (for example, chillers used in the aquarium arena). And for how much gain? 200Mhz on the processor?

In my view it simply isn't worth it unless you are trying to run in the "top of the world" benchmark arena - and even then, there are much less expensive solutions. Heck, a Vapochill is less than that. Unless you are going to roll-your-own water chiller using a low-temp compressor and you are going for the "top dog" OC'ing race, save your money and your time ;) Spend an extra hundred or 2 to get the top speed processor and a m/b that OC's well and save yourself a lot of $$$, time, and grief.

You are right... I found a site with some prices, and they came in at around $1000. It was a nice thought, and I bet it woulda been cool (pun intended), but I should probably stick to something a little less costly for my first "extreme cooled" PC. :)

if you have a 500w heatload, it will keep it at 20C. Most of those will assume an ambient in the 20C - 25C range