On 02/21/2011 09:07 PM, Wild_Bill wrote:
A practical approach might involve placing the PCs in a closed cabinet
(insulated if it's metal) with the PC PSUs and the peltier power supply
on the outside of the cabinet.

The peltier(s) mounted to thermally-isolated heatsink(s) (isolated from
the cabinet walls, if metal) on/thru an external surface of the cabinet
would need to be able to exceed/extract the heating capacity of the CPUs
and memory sticks, mainly, without the added heat load of the PSUs.

The PC case fans would likely provide adequate internal air circulation
if the cabinet's internal dimensions are reasonable (not excessively
oversized).

Got a small/medium sized refrigerator?

Liquid cooled CPU heatsinks have been around for quite a few years. One
problem might be condensation of humidity if the heatsink is cool.

I don't know that separating the PSU from the computer is going to help
all that much -- even a crappy switching supply (which is what PC PSUs
are) is better than 80% efficient -- which means that for every watt
you're burning up in the power supply, you're burning up more than four
watts in the computer.

Yes, it'll help -- but those CPUs and graphics cards have
tons-o-heatsink on them for a _reason_, and it ain't just to look good.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html