The 100 Degree Data Center

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Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 19, 2009 @02:18AM from the so-take-off-all-your-clothes dept.

miller60 writes "Are you ready for the 100-degree data center? Rackable Systems has introduced a new enclosure that it says can run high-density racks safely in environments as hot as 104 degrees (40 degrees C), offering customers the option of saving energy in their data center. Most data centers operate in a range between 68 and 74 degrees. Raising the thermostat can lower the power bill, allowing data centers to use less power for cooling. But higher temperatures can be less forgiving in the event of a cooling failure, and not likely to be welcomed by employees working in the data center."

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Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by Anonymous Coward · 2009-03-19 02:19 · Score: 4, Insightful

Its better
1. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by sakdoctor · 2009-03-19 02:22 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Agreed. Stupid sumary.
  I had this image of shimmering heat, rising steam, and burning barrels inside a post apocalyptic data center.
  It wasn't until line 2 that my image was ruined.
2. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by Shakrai · 2009-03-19 02:31 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Actually, this is an American site, so use something that most Americans can intuitively relate to. I have no problem working with most metric measurements (indeed, I did so for a number of years working in machining) but temperature just doesn't compute for me unless I do the calculations in my head.
  Fahrenheit just makes more sense to most of us. 30s = cold, 40s = chilly, 50s = cool, 60s = decent/might need a windbreaker, 70s = nice, 80s = warm, 90s = hot, etc, etc. Celsius is no where near that intuitive and was as arbitrarily defined as Fahrenheit was.
  
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3. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by psergiu · 2009-03-19 02:39 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Fahrenheit is stupid.
  Celsius on the other hand is much easier to remember:
  0 - Water freezes
  10 - Cool
  20 - Nice
  30 - Hot
  40 - Scorching hot
  50 - Burn sensation
  100 - Water boils
  
  And slashdot.org is not an american-only site as it's domain name ends in .org and not in .us
  
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4. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by Chrisq · 2009-03-19 02:41 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Fahrenheit just makes more sense to most of us. 30s = cold, 40s = chilly, 50s = cool, 60s = decent/might need a windbreaker, 70s = nice, 80s = warm, 90s = hot, etc, etc. Celsius is no where near that intuitive and was as arbitrarily defined as Fahrenheit was.
  Its not intuitive, its just what you're used to
5. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by Owlyn · 2009-03-19 02:48 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  "My belief, as an American, is that if I have to start understanding the metric system, then the terrorists have won." -- Dave Barry
6. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by Mr2cents · 2009-03-19 02:53 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  When is this Fahrenheit unit going to die? Last time I checked, only a couple of developing countries were using it (Birma, USA).
  
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7. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by Quothz · 2009-03-19 02:55 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  You care about the metric system, but can't even be bothered to punctuate correctly. Fixed that for you.
  You care about punctuation but can't even be bothered to punctuate correctly.
  You've helped maintain the old Internet tradition: All grammar flames contain at least one grammatical error. You should never separate a compound predicate from its subject with a comma.
8. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by LighterShadeOfBlack · 2009-03-19 02:58 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The zero of Fahrenheit -- the freezing point of saturated brine -- is no less sensible than the Celcius zero of the freezing point of water. Fahrenheit is also more precise with fewer digits in the ranges most people deal with day to day.
  Yeah, because I'm always having to deal with saturated brine. I can't tell you how many times I've gone out driving in sub-zero temperatures and nearly skidded on all that saturated brine ice.
  
  Fahrenheit is also more precise with fewer digits in the ranges most people deal with day to day
  What? Nobody needs to be more accurate than 1C for day-to-day casual usage. For anything else there's this neat thing called a fraction that people can use.
  
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9. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by trold · 2009-03-19 03:03 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  What kind of backup do you need?
  0 K = DAMN COLD!
  10 K = DAMN COLD!
  20 K = DAMN COLD!
  30 K = DAMN COLD!
  40 K = DAMN COLD!
  50 K = DAMN COLD! ...
  200K = Pee freezes before hitting the ground
  400K = Pee evaporates before hitting the ground
  "Twice as hot" only makes sense in a scientific context. It is akin to saying that one computer is twice as blue as another.
10. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by markov_chain · 2009-03-19 03:11 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Neither Celsius nor Fahrenheit are intuitive to me.
  373.15 - Water boils at 1 atmosphere
  310 - Very hot
  300 - Hot
  290 - Nice
  280 - Chilly
  273.15 - Water freezes at 1 atmosphere
  0 - absolute zero! how easy is that.
  Kelvin ftw chumps!
  
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11. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by FooAtWFU · 2009-03-19 03:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I like Farenheit. It maps very well to the range of habitable temperatures that a human is likely to experience. I realize Freezing Water isn't in the best place, sure, and will willingly concede it would be better if it were tweaked down to something rounder (30 or so, perhaps) but aside from that: 100 is (about) as hot as it gets normally, 0 is about as cold as it gets normally, and anything outside that range is sure to be obnoxious and waxing uninhabitable.
  I don't care about how hot it needs to be to boil water, or how many gram-degrees-Celcius are in your calorie, or anything like that. And furthermore, if you're going to be Mr. Science, why not just break out the Kelvin and be done with it?
  
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12. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by Fross · 2009-03-19 03:21 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I completely fail to see how a range of 40-80 (after all, you did say "habitable temperatures" for humans), is better than a range of 5-30.
  Farenheight has no basis in anything practical at *any* range. At least Celsius is based around water, which is useful for a number of reasons.
13. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by Ioldanach · 2009-03-19 03:22 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Is 20 Celsius twice as hot as 10 Celsius? No. Twenty Kelvin, though, is twice as hot as ten.
  This is just flat out false. The scale was purposefully defined so that a 1 degree change in Kelvin is the same magnitude as 1 degree change in Celcius. That is why there is still a 100 degree difference between the freezing point of water (273K) and it's boiling point (373K). All in all, this is some mega fail.
  A mass at 20K has twice as much thermal energy as 10K. A mass at 20C has about 3.5% more thermal energy as 10C. Therefore, 20K is twice as hot as 10K, 20C is not twice as hot as 10C, if you define 'hot' as the thermal energy embodied in the mass.
14. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by Tikkun · 2009-03-19 03:49 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Clicking the Start Button to shutdown is what you're used to. Clicking the Shutdown button is intuitive.
15. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by qc_dk · 2009-03-19 05:01 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Ahh yes, the sea, filled with saturated brine.
  Sea water is ~26% salt. Which is why it is impossible to put any more salt in there, it'll just gently float to the bottom.
  What's that?? It's only actually ~50 ppt salt? And saturated brine freezes at around -7F/-23C? And harbour sea water normaly freezes at around -2C?
  Poppycock.
16. Re:Were nerds here... use the f'ing metric system by osu-neko · 2009-03-19 05:30 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Well, yeah, except for that 98.6 thing.
  You're referring to the common misconception that that's the normal body temperature, or even that body temperatures are so regular that you'd need a decimal point to express it? (The figure 98.6F is an example of false precision, being a translation of 37C, which wasn't meant to be more accurate than a degree celsius to begin with, and was a rough figure at that.)
  
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Drives by maz2331 · 2009-03-19 02:22 · Score: 5, Interesting

I'd be mostly concerned about the lifespan of hard drives at these temperatures. The electronics can be easily made to tolerate heat, but drives are a weak link. The bearings and lubricants are especially vulnerable.
1. Re:Drives by Alphager · 2009-03-19 02:42 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I think the google hard-drive whitepaper (~2004? 2005?) said that hard-drives running in an environment around 38C were less prone to failures than cool hard-drives.
Not just no, but hell no by Em+Emalb · 2009-03-19 02:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

I realize it's the trendy thing these days to target the data center as an area of concern monetarily, but this is a little ridiculous.
All it will take is one poor geek spending a 12 hour day in the data center for this to be deemed a horrible idea. (Like that never happens)
Seriously, this is retarded. If you do your cooling and power CORRECTLY, you won't have a ridiculous bill and your data center will be at a more reasonable temperature.
I hate really hot weather...you can always put on more clothes, but you reach a limit on what you can take off.

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Use that waste heat! by turgid · 2009-03-19 02:30 · Score: 5, Insightful

Buildings provide hot water for washing hands etc. Cold water comes in from outside and is heated using electricity or gas to make hot water which costs money and energy.
Pipe the cold water (which is usually somewhere between 0 and 20 degrees C) through heat exchangers in the hot data centre before heating it up to working temperature with gas or electricity.
That way, you reduce the data centre's temperature to more like 20-25C, and you heat the water up by 10C (say) saving on gas or electricity bills since there is less of a temperature difference to get it up to the required temperature.
I eagerly await my Nobel Prize for Common Sense.

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I for one... by JFlex · 2009-03-19 02:36 · Score: 5, Funny

welcome our new sweaty sysadmins.
1. Re:I for one... by hansamurai · 2009-03-19 03:33 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Sweatier sysadmins.
  
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the larger degrees are nicer by Trepidity · 2009-03-19 03:37 · Score: 4, Insightful

A single degree Celsius is qualitatively a bit too big, to the point where most European climate-control systems with digital displays have to resort to using half-degrees as the base control unit.

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1. Re:the larger degrees are nicer by frieko · 2009-03-19 04:51 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I'm an American, and I disagree completely.
  
  On my metric wrench set, the 8 is one next to the 7. On my American wrench set, the 5/32 is next to the.. I have no idea, I would have to go look. It's even worse if I have to add 3/32" to 5 7/8".
  
  If you really need fractions, then 7.9 cm is 7 9/10 cm and 22.5 C is 22 1/2 C.
2. Re:the larger degrees are nicer by Andy+Dodd · 2009-03-19 05:09 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  That's because for wrench/socket sets, the situation is just the opposite. Metric's unit (mm) is "just right" and doesn't need fractions or decimals, imperial's unit (inch) is way too big and nearly everything is less than one unit.
  It goes the other way for Celsius vs Fahrenheit. Celsius units are "too big" and require dealing with fractional units, while most Fahrenheit-based systems can use single-full-unit increments.
  
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Sweaty sysadmins by clarkn0va · 2009-03-19 03:38 · Score: 4, Funny

I for one welcome our new sweaty sysadmins.
What are you going to do with the old ones?

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