Before we jump into the review, I’ll briefly walk through what a Peltier is and how it
works. Just so you know, you’ll often hear both the word Peltier and TEC (Thermoelectric) used interchangeably to define these coolers. Worry not, as they are one in the same. In simplest terms, a Peltier is a simple solid-state device that, when a large amount of voltage is applied, moves heat from one side of itself to the other. The advantage to this is that the side that it pulls from gets very cold, enough so that you will actually get condensation buildup, in the form of ice crystals, on the Peltier element. A surface which can be “chilled” to this level of temperature can dramatically reduce the heat produced by the CPU once the two surfaces are mounted flush with each other, meaning once can crank the speed up that much more and still be far below the normal operating temperature. The downside is that the opposite side of the Peltier element gets VERY hot and needs to be cooled else it will burn out, so you will normally find a heatsink attached to help dissipate off the heat produced. In this case, we are using the air cooled model, which recommends a fan capable of moving 60cfm or greater. Just to put things into perspective on how much heat the Peltier “moves, on average the temperature difference between the hot and cold side can reach upwards of 70 degrees.