Small Startup Prevails In Server Cooling 'Chill Off'

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 17, 2010 @09:00AM from the cool-as-ice dept.

miller60 writes "A small startup has shown exceptional energy efficiency in a data center 'chill off' comparing server cooling technologies. Clustered Systems posted the best numbers in the 18-month vendor evaluation sponsored by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. The Menlo Park, Calif. company built a prototype server that uses no fans and cools processors with a cold plate with tubing filled with liquid coolant. The testing accidentally highlighted the opportunity for additional energy savings, when the Clustered Systems unit continued to operate during a cooling failure that raised the chiller plant water temperature from 44 to 78 degrees F."

1 of 45 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:That's still a lot of conduction and not that h by chromatix · 2010-10-17 19:03 · Score: 2, Insightful

I wouldn't call it "potential for extra efficiency" so much as "robustness in the face of hardware failures". If the cooling remains adequate when a pump or a fan fails or a blockage occurs in an air path, then the increased coolant temperature provides a signal for admins to react to, and the servers don't suffer any downtime.
Which is a very good thing for a cooling system. How many stories are there about overheated and dead servers due to an aircon unit failure?

--
--- The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach you it ---