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New cooling by submergence strategy

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 12:13 pm
by Reachable
Intel and SGI trial submerging servers in liquid to cool them
Intel and SGI have been trialing a new method of cooling servers and supercomputers that involves submerging them completely in liquid. This cooling solution doesn't rely on water though, as its properties would damage components, instead opting for a dielectric liquid from 3M called 'Novec'.

Fire suppression systems already harness Novec, but this is the first time it has been used as a cooling solution in data centers.
Certainly looks like it beats mineral oil for the purpose (although there are a lot of fluorines present -- I'm not a chemist but I'd be cautious about doing any obsessive experimenting with it.) :lol:

Re: New cooling by submergence strategy

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 1:19 am
by edh
Not the first time this has been done. Tom's did an experiment with cooking oil about a decade ago. Distilled water is too conductive to work fully but I do wonder if demineralised water might actually work.

You can also buy a mineral oil cooled computer:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/nav/aquariu ... tomize.php

Re: New cooling by submergence strategy

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:06 am
by Cistron
edh wrote:Distilled water is too conductive to work fully but I do wonder if demineralised water might actually work.
The problem would actually be that as soon as it dissolves any salt-residues of the materials it is in contact with it becomes conductive.

Re: New cooling by submergence strategy

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 11:45 am
by Reachable
Now that I've done just a little research it is easy to learn that cooling computers with liquid dielectrics is nothing new. What's new with this is perhaps the use of this particular agent (Novec 1230) which is said to be astonishingly environmentally friendly.

Novec 1230 is dispensed as a liquid but quickly turns into a gas, so it might not be the substance of choice for the hobbyist. Unlike what I ignorantly said in the OP, I guess it can't hurt you.

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebse ... 6E666666--

Re: New cooling by submergence strategy

Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:55 am
by mercyfull_fate
I looked into a similar fluid from 3m about 1 year ago and saw a youtube video with a test with consumer board and it worked very well.
They used ducttape to get it airtight so it probably leaked a bit but not noticably.

The liquid turned to gas at a bit above 40 degrees celcius so the contactsurface of the the electronics never got above that temperature.
This meant that they had to remove all heatsinks for good performance but no matter idle or maximum load the hardware stayed at about the same temperature.