Thermoelectric (TEC) Water-Cooling System
To help facilitate our review, the good folks at Cooler Master sent over a HAF 935 Mod-Tower enclosure along with an extra HAF 915F module, which can be stacked on top of or underneath the HAF 935. Combining the modular case pieces together results in a stack of three cases over three feet high.
When I first looked at this huge case I wondered why anyone would need or want a case this big (or bigger). But then my imagination kicked in and the creative juices started flowing… what if? I was instantly taken back about 10~12 years to a time when I was obsessed with water-cooling. Back then I was designing, testing, and reviewing all sorts of water-cooling components; primarily waterblocks and pumps. One of my projects from that era was building a Thermoelectric (TEC) water chiller. I used two 156W Peltier chips sandwiched between custom copper waterblocks, two Mean Well S-320-24 power supplies, dual pumps, radiators and four very loud Delta fans. The end result was cold-side water temperatures down to -28° F (yes, 28 degrees below zero) with no load. This made for some interesting overclocking runs but also required a LOT of careful insulation to eliminate condensation.
Cold-side on the left, Hot-side on the right
(2) 156W Peltier Water Chiller (-28° F)
At the time I considered trying to stuff all the components into a PC enclosure so we could take the rig on the road but I didn’t have one or even know of a case that was large enough to accommodate all the hardware.
Fast-forward 12 years. I no longer have all the components I used to build the Pelt chiller but now I have a case that could easily house everything. Let’s take a creative look at how we might install a Thermoelectric Water Chiller into the HAF Stacker cases. The following diagram shows one way a TEC water chiller could be installed in the Stacker Series cases. And yes, there are many options and different ways to accomplish this; so be creative!
(Click to enlarge)
Note 1: The Stacker 915R case is designed to mount up to three 120mm fans or two 140mm fans on each side panel. This means you can use two 360mm radiators with six 120mm fans or two 280mm radiators with four 140mm fans – your choice.
Note 2: When using two radiators, they can either be plumbed in series (as shown) or connected in parallel. Connecting them in parallel will decrease the water velocity flowing through each radiator and theoretically will reduce the overall pressure drop (flow resistance) through the pair of radiators. Different people have their preferred method but if you are really concerned about this you should try both and see if one configuration produces better results than the other.
Note 3: Again, when using multiple water blocks you have the option of connecting them in series or parallel (or a combination of the two as I show above). Whichever water block has the greatest flow resistance will have the greatest impact on overall loop flow. And again, the best approach to maximum system performance is to try various combinations and see which one yields the best results.
Note 4: In my original build I used two 156W Peltier chips sandwiched between two DangerDen cold plates; one on the hot side to dissipate heat and one on the cold side to create the chill water. The two TECs work together to actively pump heat from the cold side over to the hot side. There doesn’t seem to be as much interest in TEC coolers today as there was ten years ago and parts appear harder to find. Two 172W Peltier chips could alternately be used if you can find them.
Note 5: I’m a big fan of reservoirs and I always incorporate one into any water-cooling system I build. A reservoir provides an expansion volume for the water, gives air bubbles a place to exit the loop, insures the inlet to the pump is always flooded, and provides an easy fill point.
I basically configured the plumbing in this section to simplify the drawing. You can rearrange the order of components to suit your own preference but in reality it usually doesn’t make much of a measurable difference. Try different configurations and see which works best for you!
Note 6: For optimum performance, the TEC power supply(s) should be closely matched to the Peltier chips you are using. The two critical parameters are voltage and current. If a TEC is rated for 15 VDC and 10A, it will not operate as effectively on 12 VDC and therefore its rated wattage will be reduced. Ideally you want to come as close as you can to the Peltier’s design operating voltage. The two 156W chips I used in my original water chiller were designed to operate at 25 VDC so I used two dedicated PSUs rated at 24 VDC and tweaked the outputs to 25V. You can find Peltier devices that will work well at 12V and the new breed of PC power supplies should have no problem powering them (think Swiftech… 🙂
We hope this has given you an entertaining look at one possible use for a large stackable case system.
Peltier!? Gosh thats
Peltier!? Gosh thats insane….
Well it would be awesome if
Well it would be awesome if you had a PWM controled Peltier, which keeps the water temperature around 1°C so nothing freezes in or outside. Well I still dought its worth it, but it would be “cool”
You could use a heat
You could use a heat exchanger water plate between the cold peltier side and the water loop (with antifreeze) and solve the condensation problem. Also, this would allow sub zero water to be used from the peltier without introducing into your actual cpu cooling loop. I think the frozen website has one for sale.
Nice detailed info. I didn’t
Nice detailed info. I didn’t realise that the cutout behind the motherboard was to help with CPU/APU cooler setups. I guess I’m old fashion.
I am a little confused about “The HAF 935 enclosure provides plenty of room around the motherboard area for installing one or more VGA cards.” Do you mean room for large GPU cards? I don’t remember seeing a VGA port on those GPU cards (GTX TITAN).
Sorry – wasn’t trying to
Sorry – wasn't trying to confuse anyone. Old habit of using VGA as a generic term for Video Graphics Adapters (technically VGA stands for Video Graphics Array) – my bad. And you are correct, those Titan graphics adapters don't sport any VGA ports!
Who cares? Why do I need
Who cares? Why do I need this? I’m not running a 2-p or 4-p server at home. What audience is this big case targeted at?
In this regressing economy, it’s dangerous to recommend people to waste money on crap they don’t need. Whether it’s buying expensive graphics cards or cases, or CPUs, it’s all a waste of money. We in the Western world are losing our industrial base, and our jobs, both technical and non-technical, are flying away to those developing countries. This is not the time to think about ways to waste money…
I do see this case in my near
I do see this case in my near future 😉
Good review of a definitely
Good review of a definitely intriguing product. If you’re going to go monster with a full-size, I like this outside-the-box case design. The possibilities ….
Definitely not for people without imagination.
This case opened my mind to
This case opened my mind to the possibility of setting up a water cooled gaming rig and then a smaller one for a virtual box server with a asrock avaton MB, that hosts a test lab environment and then even another for a plex media server with all my movies and music, and even another for a backup server. This would “de-clutter” various servers/towers laying around into one corner of your man/woman cave. It might even have the power to save a marriage too!
It’d be cool if someone could
It’d be cool if someone could come up with a peltier cooling system that could measure dew point. That way you could run the system as cool as the current dew point would allow. I remember coming across a website a while ago where they were programming a microcontroller to do just that but it never came together.
Does anyone know if there’s
Does anyone know if there’s any restrictions on stacking two 925’s on top of each other? I want one for a media centre with 9 hdd’s and another as a gaming rig with with 2x 970 in sli.