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I don't need to try to do that, because that's the job of the
engineers at Asetek, CoolIT and their OEM partners. I've looked at
their solutions every year they've been as SC, and the packaging is
quite neat, and included heat exchangers for the RAM to keep it
cool, too. I sure as hell wouldn't want to engineer and build the
system myself, but I'm sure glad there are others doing it, and I
have a lot of confidence in their work. <br>
<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Spoken like someone who doesn't have to take responsibility or pay for their solution. I work in the private sector and have to satisfy customers. If a solution doesn't work, or has continual problems or is delivered late, I have to answer for that and our company suffers.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Now my criticisms, which apply to mineral oil immersive cooling
only: <br>
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* The stuff is messy. I can't imagine removing components from a
server without them slipping out of my hands. I can't even imagine
getting one from the tank to a workbench without getting oil
everywhere. I'm sure you can clean it off with a lot of electronic
parts cleaner, but how good for the environment is that? I see this
stuff gaining more market share when we get to 'disposable' servers
with ARM-based SoCs, so cleanup isn't even an issue. <br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>I work with the stuff as do our local SGI engineers and it isn't that big a deal.</div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
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* Liquids are dense! Immersive cooling in mineral oil adds a lot to
the load of the data centers raised floor. Yes the tanks are about
the size of a rack flipped on it's side, but even the densest
servers are still mostly air by volume. I imagine many data centers
would need to upgrade their floors before going to this type of
cooling. <br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Wrong. Prior to immersive cooling, we were running SGI chilled water racks. A 40RU tank with nodes comes in at about 1600kg's... an SGI chilled water rack with nodes comes in at about 1400kg's. The SGI rack has 1400kg's in less than 1msq whereas a tank is 1600kg's in just over msq... it is actually better for your floor.</div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
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* Since the "racks" are on their sides an only go up about 3 - 3.5
feet, it's not a very efficient use of space. We often talk about
data center space in square footage, but it's *volume* that really
matters, and I don't think mineral oil cooling is very space
efficient. <br>
<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Wrong. If you take a rack and the clearances of the back and front required to service nodes (400mm at the back 900mm at the front), you take about 2sqm per rack... which is less than our tanks currently take. We can get MORE density with an immersive solution than with racks.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
* What if one of those tanks leaks or a pipe bursts? I'd rather
clean up water or Novec. Yes, there are electrical dangers when that
happens with water, but that's what circuit breakers and such (GFCI,
AFCI, etc.) are for. <br>
<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Water is actually worse than these fluids. If you get a leak, you use a wet-vacuum and suck it up and put it back into a tank. You don't have to worry about any electrical components or other mechanical stuff. The fluids are easy to clean up, wipe down and get on with life.</div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
* What happens when you decommission hardware that's covered in
mineral oil? How do you clean it up? Will a recycling center take
electronics covered in mineral oil.<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div> </div><div>When you decommission nodes, you throw them out like you do with all old hardware. The fluids are non-toxic, biodegradable, have a clean MSDS and nodes/components can be disposed of clean or oily.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Dr Stuart Midgley<br><a href="mailto:sdm900@sdm900.com" target="_blank">sdm900@sdm900.com</a></div>
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