Further down in that article, we discussed how the best way to get heat off the hot side of a TEC is probably through a water cooling setup, rather than a normal convection heatsink, even though the thermal resistivity of convection heatsinks is typically much less than that of a water cooling system. Well...that statement is only partially true. If the TEC in question is a beastly powerful one that transfers tons of heat and runs at full power for long periods of time, then yes, a water cooling setup is the only good way to go. However, more and more cooling systems are utilizing lower-powered TECs like the ones found on the CoolIT Freezone that can be cooled by less powerful water cooling setups and even some high-end air cooling solutions. Well, the TEC on Vigor’s Monsoon II is not only a somewhat low power plate, it is also what they called “managed”, meaning it turns on and off based on need. This keeps the overall heat output of the TEC significantly lower, allowing it to be cooled by a reasonable air cooler.


Taking a closer look at the Monsoon II, we see how the heatpipes come together at the base of the cooler. Two heatpipes are attached to the bottom plate of the cooler that directly contacts the CPU, while the other two heatpipes are attached to the top plate of the cooler that directly contacts the hot side of the TEC. The reason the design is like this is to provide a method of heat transfer should the TEC not be operating at the time. When there is no current running through a peltier device, it actually acts as something of an insulator, prohibiting the flow of heat from one side to the other. Therefore, the heatpipes that are connected to the CPU plate can get the heat off the CPU and up into the convection fins. When the TEC is switched on, more heat will be transferred, because more heat is being produced by the TEC itself and more heat is flowing from the cold plate to the hot plate. Examining the convection system reveals that the fins on the Monsoon II are actually split in the middle, with a set of fins containing each set of heatpipes. This seems to be an efficient design to the extent that there are dedicated heatsinks for different scenarios, but makes us wonder why the entire cooling power of the fins is not utilized 100% of the time.