It's being quite a while since our last sightings of thermal electric coolers. Based on a phenomenon known as the Peltier effect where electricity was used to transfer heat between two dissimilar metals or semi-conductors, thermal electric cooling (TEC) probably had its heyday during the period of the early Pentium processors. Its biggest advantage was that given sufficient current, a thermal electric cooler could actually cool the CPU below room temperature, which naturally drew the interest of overclockers.



Link: HardwareZone