This rather a serious question here. Is it remotely practical to water cool business servers? I have one right behind me that we are burning in and that blasted wind tunnel of a fan is beginning to drive me nuts. Not to mention that some server rooms get -hot- and we are rather forced to deal with it.
Intel chips are designed to tolerate high temps for years under heavy use, they're built to take it. If they're not throttling you don't have anything to worry about. Cooler is better, but I don't think watercooling a server is really practical. If a leak happens, the server goes down and it'll be more costly and time-consuming to repair.
I'd say find a better way to air cool them. Invest in a bigger air conditioning unit for the server room instead of going to water.
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The rooms will still be hot. Any heat created, must be released somewhere. Watercooling could cut down on the noise, if the parts that are watercooled are the major heat sources. If there's a fileserver with an array of drives, they could produce a decent amount of heat. Your best bet is to get a cheap room AC unit and just leave the door cracked with the AC going.
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Not worth the cost per unit. A better solution is to design the data center, MDF or IDF with adequate cooling and a redundant unit for failover. Also, the WC will only perform as well as the ambient temp, the higher the ambient, the higher your temps are going to be.
I'm an IT chucklehead, that deals with infrastructure...its just not worth it.
Plus, servers are to be locked away...not out where people can hear them. Only data center monkeys get to hear them whine...its part of their job description though.
Yeah, it's in the job description all right.. Should issue ear protection with your security badge.
Self proclaimed server monkey here too..
Hehe...I moved out of the DC long ago. I don't even have to rack the gear anymore. The DC monkeys come pick it up or I just wheel it down to shipping and wave it goodbye.Originally Posted by Big_Daddy
As some have said, the smart way is in the initial design.
A small room with overkill for AC in it.
Now if this is one stand-alone server outside a data-server closet then maybe the smart answer is in moving it to an Air conditioned closet.
Safer than water and cheaper, at least initially.
The long term elec cost will be more but hey, thats why they have deductions on business taxes..
Convert a coat closet to a server room and a 10,000BTU AC that will cost $300.00 and some ducting will solve your problem.
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Well, same thing here.. I just moved to my house.Hehe...I moved out of the DC long ago. I don't even have to rack the gear anymore. The DC monkeys come pick it up or I just wheel it down to shipping and wave it goodbye.I'll go in when there is a problem, and I can't fix it remotely. Heck, I even have site support rack mount the servers for me.. But there are still times when I bring up new sites. Practicing my "cable-gami"
Thats the best description/term for it! I just have to deal with the half-height rack at my desk for test/staging gear.
I built my own:
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtop...=clinic+server
If I have a hardware failure I just pop the raided drives to the other side and fire up . . .little down time . . .good for a small business since I did not want to buy a flippen expensive redundant cluster server. I had a flippen server go belly up on my bday one night (actually they had a surprise bday party for me) . . .we ended up spending all night building a temp server from spare parts . . .my friends loved it . . .not. I think I got it running around 5 am the next day so the clinic could run.
Fricking dangerous to water cool any mission critical computer.
And DB, you absolutely had to bling the clinic computer as well lol
Last edited by IanY; 07-29-2008 at 11:03 AM.
Don't watercool your only Mission Critical computer?
I run my main server bank on water cooling, every thing improved from there! Lower heat levels, less noise, less maintanance concerns due to less moving parts.
Only thing is have a redundant pump system to cover for a failed pump and ensure things can be swapped out with out shutting down the whole cooling system.
Bring back natural selection! No more warning lables!
The one and Only MG Pony
Please tell me your joking? Water cooling is far more reliable then air cooling when don correctly, not only is it more reliable but fal better on a maintanance point of view as dust wont be an issue where it hurts the most!
Bring back natural selection! No more warning lables!
The one and Only MG Pony
your forgeting you can plumb the water out sideNot worth the cost per unit. A better solution is to design the data center, MDF or IDF with adequate cooling and a redundant unit for failover. Also, the WC will only perform as well as the ambient temp, the higher the ambient, the higher your temps are going to be.
I'm an IT chucklehead, that deals with infrastructure...its just not worth it.
Plus, servers are to be locked away...not out where people can hear them. Only data center monkeys get to hear them whine...its part of their job description though.and using a larg scale rad system with huge fans gurentees very nice temps and consolidates the failur points to an easy access area where it can be rapidly repaired, Nicest thing I ever saw was a 54U rack fully loaded and fully water cooled, the NAS arrays still had fans but with out the over head heat load of the procs and such ran a hell of allot cooler!
On 2cpu.com a guy did a rack there as well if I recall correctly. My xeon server runs 24/7 with the fire wall system both water cooled, up time has been a year now with no shut downs and zerro issues. The server has been water cooled for over 4 years now and nothing has needed to be don with it, no leaks, and verry small performance drop over the years, usung arctic silvers Ceramique' thermal compound, only recently did I add a Nb block and further improved the cooling systems performance.
Every thing stays comfy at below 50c with very modest noise. All swiftec gear and an MCP 655, all built in an external tower easy to access the insides of!
Last edited by Xeon th MG Pony; 07-29-2008 at 11:21 AM.
Bring back natural selection! No more warning lables!
The one and Only MG Pony
Unless my sarcasm-meter is broken, it seems to read high around him...
I take things seriously so it could be miss-interperated sarcasm, if so sorry to the guy.
My entire network cors up time has sky rocketed since going water cooled, maintanace levels plummeted, dificulty in repairs when't way down, since my system isn't mission critticle I skipped on redundant pumps and thats all I'd have to do to go M.C.
For a full rack 2 Iwakies, and a good header manifold, with 1/4 to 3/8 feeders to each rack should ensure even distrobution and such. Goat what I wouldn't give for a rack atm, clean my core systems up nicely!
Bring back natural selection! No more warning lables!
The one and Only MG Pony
I'm Sorry Too
Reliability of aircooling vs watercooling can be considered the same. Fans also fail and if it happen at a bad time, it can kill hardware due to hot spots as well. Proper planning is key when setting up a server room with racks.
I don't agree. Alot more things can go wrong in a WC setup, even a well made one.
Feel free, but so far the track record tells and proves to me other wise.
Worst that I have ever had happen is dead fans, to swap them out I don't even have to shut the system down!, I simply swap them out, sure temp spikes a bit but well under 60c, I'd love to see some one pull that off with an air cooled heat sink assembly!
IMO if it goes wrong it wasn't well made, my first install was my last install for over 5 years now actualy nothing has ever gon wrong with it other then theifs stealing the old cooling tower during a move. Same with the fire wall, 2 years now and nothing has had to be don. Proper design prior to even buying parts, and a therough care full install and your good to go for a loooong time.
When I rework my core system I'm even going to try and water cool the 3com 3900 series switch and the Sx 1Gb fibre card, doesn't get that hot but be neat to do. I want a near fanles net work core! And with only 3 majour failure points that can be easily monitored and fixed I'll breath a hell of a lot easier!
So I pimp liquid cooling with full force as in my mind it is the only logical way to go for heavy heat generating systems! Like any thing use good quality solid parts, buy cheap you get cheap!
Bring back natural selection! No more warning lables!
The one and Only MG Pony
Wow, who would have thought such a heated debate..
Anyway, it was more or less a small musing than it was a serious question. In my eyes, water cooling seems more reliable if properly maintained. The real kicker would be making the right formula of biocide to keep the growth from inside the loop, but not enough to muck up the pump over time. The room I had in mind does have a portable AC unit in it, not sure what the BTU rating is but it don't feel adequate to me. The room is old though and not well insulated.
This thread makes my brain hurt.
Xeon the MG Pony, glad to see you got it to work...won't ever happen in my company, I can't imagine seeing a trouble ticket roll through about a leaking fitting on a CPU block. There is no way I could communicate that overseas.
There's this issue of warranty.
If some hardware fails and you call to get it replaced, they're not going to help you once they see you water cool your server so you should think about that point
I know Dan from Boston here in the UK has been working on a watercooled server for nearly a year now which i saw first hand at CeBit earlier this year which looked quite impressive - more from Boston here
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