While Peltier coolers have been used in computers, their numerous drawbacks have kept them out of the mainstream.

What Is The Peltier Effect?

It is named after French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier, who discovered it in 1834.

A gaming PC with Kingston memory, RGB fans, lights, MSI CPU cooler, and GeForce RTX GPU.

Justin Duino / How-To Geek

This makes it a more efficient and eco-friendly alternative to traditional refrigeration methods.

This is often used in heating pads, hand warmers, and other similar devices.

Incidentally, the inverse is also true.

Schematic of the Seebeck effect compared to the Peltier effect.

Fouad A. Saad/Shutterstock.com

If you subject the two sides of the junction to a temperature difference, you’ll generate electricity instead.

This is known as the Seebeck Effect.

A fan is also used to help dissipate the heat released from the cooler’s hot side.

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Combining the power of water cooling with solid state refrigeration, the ML360 promises a literally chill experience when overclocking or simply maxing the boost clocks of your CPU.

You still need traditional air orwater coolingto get rid of the heat.

Are Peltier Coolers Better?

Pros and Cons

Peltier coolers can provide very high cooling performance, especially when compared to traditional air coolers.

They can effectively lower thetemperature of a CPU, even under heavy loads.

That includes cooling processors to below the ambient temperature.

Related:What’s a Good Internal PC Temperature?

They can be used to move heat out of those tight spaces to where it can be dissipated easily.

Why Aren’t Peltier PC Coolers Common?

Related:Do You Need Liquid Cooling for Your PC?

First of all, achieving sub-ambient temperatures isn’t really a goal anyone’s looking to achieve.

So it’s not that surprising that these coolers aren’t mainstream.

Related:What Is Vapor Chamber Cooling, and Does Your PC Need It?