Liquid Blade Brings Immersion Cooling To Blade Servers

1sockchuck writes "In the past year we've seen several new cooling systems that submerge rack-mount servers. Now liquid immersion cooling is coming to blade servers. Liquid-cooled PC specialist Hardcore Computer has entered the data center market with Liquid Blade, which features two Intel 5600 Xeon processors with an S5500HV server board in a chassis filled with dielectric fluid. Hardcore, which is marketing the product for render farms, says it eliminates the need for rack-level fans and room-level air conditioning. In recent months Iceotope and Green Revolution Cooling have each introduced liquid cooling for rack-mount servers."

Comments

I want these at my data center...

[tnok85]

Although it's good we don't have them. I'd probably get fired when they find a rack of production servers running at 4.6GHz.

my server is leaking

[vacarul]

finally some good news for Joe the Plumber.

Upholding Moore

[MacGyver2210]

Do we really NEED liquid cooled servers in datacenters? Is this just our feeble attempt to validate Moore's Law despite diminishing returns on smaller process size and core multiplication...?

What the hell am I talking about? Of COURSE we need them!

serviceability

[arabagast]

How hard is it to say; change a disk in one of the submerged nodes ? or fix a loose ethernet cable ? If the nodes are separated in compartments, and you could isolate and drain one while servicing it, this would be really nice indeed.

Re:serviceability

[Kratisto]

The IT department is required to have SCUBA certification for regular maintenance.

Re:serviceability

[BiggerIsBetter]

How hard is it to say; change a disk in one of the submerged nodes ? or fix a loose ethernet cable ? If the nodes are separated in compartments, and you could isolate and drain one while servicing it, this would be really nice indeed.

Did you see the movie Sunshine? You'll have to immerse yourself in the coolant, possibly freezing and/or bleeding to death after getting your leg stuck in the rack. It had better be an important upgrade.

Re:serviceability

[GreatBunzinni]

That's exactly what got my attention. In the article, the CTO of hardcore computer is quoted as saying that "Our Core Coolant is 1,350 times better than air, by volume.". I don't know how that works out in energy spending when compared with air but if it has a linear relationship with the energy cost of cooling, I really doubt if the hypothetical energy savings can bring a net positive when considering the additional cost associated with meddling with the hardware, whether by maintenance or by hardware upgrades. After all, this slashvertisement is oh so keen in lauding the qualitative and subjective advantages of this toy but it doesn't even come near presenting the costs associated with forcing your company to be profoundly dependent (if not held hostage) of hardcore computer for support, maintenance of both hardware and cooling rig and upgrades.

Re:serviceability

[drinkypoo]

We're talking about blade servers. they're not submerged nodes. they're submerged blades. storage happens on a SAN. What fucking year is it, anyway? In this design (big fat picture in the TFA, you lazy, reactionary fuck) each blade is sealed into its own unit which can be pulled separately. So it's even more of a non-issue. You just want something to complain about, when there is nothing to complain about. Thanks for helping make slashdot grate.