[Beowulf] Interesting google server design

[Robert G. Brown]

On Fri, 3 Apr 2009, Greg Lindahl wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 03, 2009 at 09:14:37AM -0400, Robert G. Brown wrote:
>
>>   b) The idea is to get the heat production OFF the motherboard.  One
>> really interesting thing about the google design is that they hang the
>> stock OTC power supply off the back, altogether outside of the case
>
> It looks to me like 100% of the airflow through the case goes through
> the PS, and in fact the PS fan is the only one driving front-to-back
> flow.

As it is in a lot of PC cases, but I can't help but think that having
the PS in the case itself does raise the temperature in there because it
itself gets warm and is in contact with the air in the dead air pocket
underneath the PS bracket.

I was trying to figure out if I "liked" having the battery up front so
that air flowed over it before reaching the motherboard, as batteries
heat too when they're being charged, but then I remembered that battery
lifetime is pretty strongly tied to temperature, so perhaps it makes
sense to keep it as cool as anything in the system.

The disk stack did look like it might get a bit hot; I'm guessing that
Google disks are pretty hammered.

    rgb

>
> -- greg
>
>

Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu