about current draw. to any of our local electronics buffs

[[GU]Elmur_fud]

The amps it takes to kill someone depends on a few things: Conductivity of the material were the arch passes threw the body, were the arch occurs itself, etc.

It is .005 across the heart (I.E. it must pass right through the heart). A shock of .1 amps anywhere would most likely kill you.

The type of current makes a difference also. AC, DC, and static. Somewhere between 1,000,000 and 1.5 mil, static ceases to go through you (unless in a plasmatic discharge like lightening) and will travel harmlessly over the outside of your body.

...what problems can i expect if i accidentally attach x number of devices that draw more than the PSU's rating?

Modern PSU's will run lesser devices at reduced power when overloaded. But this can cause excess resistance and makes things heat up in turn. Good ones will out and out shut off ideally b4 a catastrophic failure.

[Quester115]

to arch:
i'm going to be running a few peltier TEC modules and a fan controller
TEC's are electric heat pumps
see the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling

got a few coming and they have a max draw of about 9 amps each running full out
using 2 or 4 to build an active liquid to air heat exchange to quickly dissipate heat, and keep temps below ambient if needed.
with another riding between the CPU and a waterblock which will give temps comparable to a phase change cooler without the extra bulkyness

[Archangel]

You can run all that on just a nice PSU.........1000w or better. The only thing about using pelters for cooling is to watch for condensation buildup.

[Quester115]

would have same condensation problems with a phase change system. i've been thinking about putting in a small case conditioner/dehumidifier with the same tech. but thats getting a bit ahead of myself right now.
using a separate supply for scalability reasons, if i want to add more power it would be cheaper to upgrade the small psu for the cooling than the computers, also it would allow me to place pump, reservoir, radiators, psu, and anything else in one external enclosure.
using peltiers instead of phase change also allows the cooler water temps to be used to cool the gpu, northbridge, etc. where finding a scalable refrigeration system is close to impossible and even worse to try to engineer yourself.

condensation will prove to be tricky at first (they ice up the test heatsinks pretty quickly), but i'm thinking a good amount of foam and silicon should seal it up well

a bit of luck, and a slightly insane mindset, i'll get it down one way or another :partyman:

[Archangel]

I found some interesting articles for connecting 2 PSUs for use with peltier setups.

http://www.overclock.net/faqs/15751-inf ... power.html

http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod2100.htm

http://stimpy.netroedge.com/~phil/peltier-howto.html

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/peltier.htm

http://www.coolitsystems.com/