New to Peltiers and overclocking in general

[TShaggs]

Hi everyone...

I need a little help. I have a PIII 866 that I'm running a little over spec. I want to go higher, and I want to get into more of the cooling aspect of overclocking, but I'm a little under-informed.

I want to knock off a few degrees (C) to pump out a few more MHz, without having to resort to watercooling at this point. Maybe later?

Anyway, I was envisioning the following (let me know if I'm missing anything here...:

CPUCore
---------------
Arctic Silver paste
Coldplate
Peltier (72W?)
Heatsink (Alpha most likely?)
Cooling fan (I've been told to stay away from Delta since they make a LOT of racket. I'm assuming I would need a push a fair amount of air through the heatsink in order to not make the Pelier, and consequently the chip, overheat... any ideas on a minimum volume rating for a fan?)

But here's the main problem, my case has one psu, 300W. I'm not sure of the Amps or anything. Would my system be severly underpowered after installing the mentioned peltier chip?

Or would I HAVE to bump up to a 400W?

Thanks a lot,

Todd

"When in doubt, start cutting wires...."

[resago]

look on your power supply, they usually list how many amps / per voltage line.

then look at how many amps that peltier pulls. and figure out whats left on your 12V line. If you have less than 7 or 8 amps left, you might need a larger power supply.

If you are close, hook it up, and test the voltage on the 12V line. If its too far from 12v, you need a new PS.

[YoV6Cam]

I don't recommend air cooling for TEC. My alpha P3125 couldn't dissipate the heat put out by my 72 watt peltier. I will soon try getting lower wttage TEC to see if the HSF can handle the heat output.